JOHN 17:1-5 GLORY TO GOD

1 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:

“Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

Now is the time for which Jesus was born. It is the fullness of time as determined by the Father. The self-sacrifice of Jesus on the cross makes the true nature and will of the Father known, and at the same time the Father makes Jesus known as the way of salvation through his exaltation. The ultimate announcement and demonstration of God’s direction and purpose for the world is the cross and empty grave of Jerusalem.

The key to making God known is intentional self-sacrifice. Jesus’ intention is articulated in his prayer before the Temple authorities ever set out to arrest him. His prayer tells us that Jesus was not a victim, but the Priest and Sacrifice. The greatest witness to God is the person who knows that obeying God will bring him grief and death in this world and yet does not waiver even when specifically threatened.

That Jesus prepared for his Passion by prayer should give us cause to sit up and take notice. What opportunities to effect the world for the kingdom do we miss each day because we do not begin by expressing to God our intention to serve him and our neighbors? Like a military officer preparing to enter the field of battle, we need to enter God’s briefing room, receive our instructions and articulate our willingness to perform as directed. We should not be leaving the success of our mission for the kingdom up to serendipity.

Raise me up each morning, Jesus, and guide my thoughts into prayer to the Father. Open my heart and my spirit to the direction and purpose of God. Empower me to announce and demonstrate God’s will in all I do so that God might be known by my neighbors. Amen.