Summary of passage: Beautiful prayer of Jesus to his Father, saying the time has come to glorify Him through himself, defining eternal life as knowing God and himself, Jesus Christ. Tearful!
Questions:
3) The definition of glorify according to Webster’s Dictionary is: “to make glorious by bestowing honor, praise, or admiration; to elevate to celestial glory; to light up brilliantly; to represent as glorious : extol; to cause to be or seem to be better than the actual condition; to give glory to (as in worship)”
Jesus asks God to glorify him so that He Himself would be glorified.
Glory according to Webster’s Dictionary is: ” praise, honor, or distinction extended by common consent : renown; worshipful praise, honor, and thanksgiving; giving glory to God”.
It is time to give glory to God by bringing His plan to fruition and saving mankind for Himself.
4a) Knowing about Jesus doesn’t mean you believe in Him. Most people in the developed world know about Jesus. Only those saved know who Jesus is and what he has done for them as sinners and be saved. I know about Communism. That doesn’t make me a communist.
b) Personal Question. My answer: There have been signs recently in my life that time is of the essence and I need to get back to His path and quit dinkering around and being diverted by frivolous desires of my heart. It is all about Him and I need to get on it!
5) Before Jesus’ death, he had existed, taking a background to God. After he was sent to die for mankind, God the Father elevated him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above all names. All will bow in heaven and on earth before him and confess him as Lord and Savior. He sits at God’s right hand in heaven. God created the universe through Jesus. He is heir to all things. Jesus represents God’s being and radiates God’s glory. His role in this world was amplified for humans. Jesus was always there and important. God just chose not to reveal this to mankind.
Conclusions: I had missed that God made the universe through his Son! Awesome how there are always new revelations to discover in His word. Beautiful prayer to God. Great questions about completing God’s work for us.
End Notes: Commentators call this the greatest recorded prayer in the Bible.
Fun Fact: This is the only long, continuous prayer of Jesus recorded in the Gospels. It is sometimes called his High Priestly Prayer.
We see the nature and heart of Jesus. This echoes the Lord’s prayer and we see what it’s like to have equals revere one another. Amazing!
We see the customs of the time: Jesus prayed with his eyes open towards heaven, very different from us bowing our heads today.
Jesus’ work being done on earth except to die, he prays. Great lesson for us! He will never again perform miracles or instruct his disciples. He prays. This is a victory prayer.
Note the words: Father . . . Your Son . . . Your Son . . . You. This is a prayer deep and rich with relationship. Jesus prayed with a full and deep sense of the familial relationship and the natural hierarchy or order that exists between God the Father and God the Son. There is no Lord mentioned here.
This is often translated as “the hour has come”, which in my mind is better. To Jesus, it is but one hour to suffer to him. Great lesson for us who are stuck in the trenches of life’s tribulations. It is but an hour before we will be glorified or our trials will appease. Remember that!
Jesus is concerned for God’s glory only here. It is the cross that brings glory to God and to Jesus. If this doesn’t happen, then all if for naught. God is glorified in His wisdom and power over evil.
All of our prayers need to have the desire to glorify God in them. Are we looking for promotion so we can do God’s work? Is it His desire or yours?
Verses 2-3: Jesus has authority over all people (another claim to deity). This is comforting to us as we evangelize cause Jesus is in control, not us. With this authority, comes the authority to grant eternal life. Jesus is God’s gift to us. However, we are God’s gift to Jesus. God gave Jesus US! Powerful!
Everything Jesus did glorified the Father. Jesus saw his work on the cross as finished. Similarly, God sees the work in us as finished. We just have to do it.
Jesus asks for the same glory God has. Jesus relinquished some of this glory to accomplish his task. He asks for its return, confirming his preexistence and equality with the Father as One being. This happens at Christ’s resurrection and exaltation at God’s right hand.
Fun Fact: “World” occurs 18 times in this one prayer.
