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April 9 -- John 17:1-19

“[Jesus] looked toward heaven and prayed: ‘Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.’” –John 17:1 (NIV)

Today's reading is a portion of what is known as Jesus’ “High Priestly Prayer.” Israel’s high priest would intercede for himself and for God’s people, and on the night before His death, Jesus interceded for Himself, His disciples, and all believers.

After talking to His disciples to prepare them for His death (John 13-16), Jesus turned His attention to His Father in prayer. A key theme of His prayer is glorification. Jesus asked to be glorified by the Father so that He, in turn, could glorify the Father. Jesus had already brought the Father glory by doing His will, revealing the beauty and majesty of the Father in every word He had spoken and every miracle He had done while on earth (v. 4). Likewise, the Father had given the Son glory by granting Him “authority over all people” (v. 2). In this prayer, Jesus asked to be glorified in His death and Resurrection. This act would display the beauty and majesty of Jesus, which He would, in turn, offer up to show the beauty and majesty of His Father (v. 1). This mutual glorification reveals the intimate, loving relationship of the Trinity.

It is difficult to speak of the nature of our Triune God because we have no adequate words for this mystery. We say, “one God in three Persons,” but it’s difficult to explain what exactly we mean by that. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are co-equal and co-eternal. They are not three separate Gods—they are One—but they are also not interchangeable.

The early church fathers chose to describe the relationship of the Persons of the Trinity as a “perichoresis,” a compound Greek word from “peri” (“around”) and “choerin” (“to make room or give way”). Because we get “perimeter” from “peri” and “choreography” from “choerin,” many scholars have compared the nature of the Trinity to a “circle dance” where the Persons co-indwell each other and “interpenetrate.” In other words, the individuality of the three Persons is maintained while each Person shares in the life of the others as One God. All three Persons will and act together. The Son lives for and in the Father, and the Father lives for and in the Son. The Spirit lives for and in both Father and Son. The Son gives the Spirit; the Spirit reveals the Son; the Son speaks what the Father gives Him to say.

Understanding the intimate relationship of the Trinity can help us understand what Jesus is asking His Father for in this first of five petitions in the High Priestly Prayer. He is asking for His beauty and majesty to be revealed in what is about to happen so that He can reveal the Father’s beauty and majesty (and the Spirit’s, who will be given to all believers and who will, in turn, bring glory to the Son [see John 16:14], who brings glory to the Father…and the beautiful circle dance of Trinitarian love goes on…).

After asking the Father to glorify Him that He might bring more glory to His Father, Jesus made two petitions for His disciples. He prayed (1) for the Father to protect them and (2) for the disciples to be sanctified by the truth.

Jesus began these petitions by stating that the work given to Him had been completed. He had revealed Himself to the disciples the Father gave Him, relating all the Father had given Him to say. Because of this, the disciples believed. Their belief brought glory to Jesus—glory that He shared with His Father. Verse 10 is more evidence of the “perichoretic,” intimate oneness of the Trinity, and now, the disciples would be invited into this intimate, loving relationship (more on this tomorrow). Jesus asked the Father to protect them since they would still be in a hostile world after He left them (v. 11) and the devil would inevitably persecute them as well (v. 16).

In verse 13, Jesus revealed that He was praying aloud to help His disciples. He had often prayed to the Father before in private, but He prayed this prayer openly so that His joy might be His disciples’ joy. They would be able to look back on this prayer and find assurance in Jesus’ words for the difficult times ahead.

The second petition Jesus made for His disciples involved their sanctification. As Lawrence Richards says in his Bible Reader’s Companion, “God’s way is not to take us out of the world, but to take the world out of us.” Sanctification (literally being “set apart”) is the process of being conformed to Christ’s image. So, Jesus was praying for His disciples’ spiritual growth and formation as the Holy Spirit worked in them, guiding them into all truth (see John 16:13).

With this prayer, Jesus was sending His disciples into the world just as He had been sent into it. They would continue the work He began. He “sanctified” Himself (set Himself apart from the world, dying and rising again) so that the disciples could be “sanctified” (set apart by being conformed to His image). Their sanctification (and ours) is only possible because of Jesus’ death and Resurrection.

In the petitions for His disciples, Jesus was asking that His friends come under the love, protection, and guidance of the Trinity. And this prayer was not just for them, but for all believers, as we will see in tomorrow’s reading. Jesus prayed for those who had been given to Him—those He had revealed Himself to. If Christ has revealed Himself to you, then you, too, are no longer “of this world,” and you are loved, protected, and guided by the Trinity.

Ask God to give you a better understanding of who He is and thank Him that you, as a believer, may bring Him glory. When you do His will, prompted by His Spirit living in you, He is expressing Himself through you. You are displaying His beauty to the world—a living testimony of what He has done in you.

Spend some time with God today, pondering the ways He is “taking the world out of you.” Ask Him to show you how He is shaping you to be like Christ so that you may cooperate with Him in this, and thank Him for His continual love, protection, and guidance.

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My name is Melissa Anderson. I'm a spiritual director and ordained pastor who loves God, people, and words. You can read more about me by clicking the button below.

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