Marketing Assistant (Writer), CBN Europe
After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
“I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
“I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one – I in them and you in me – so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
“Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
(John 17:1-26 NIV)
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‘After saying all these things, Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so he can give glory back to you.’
(John 17:1 NLT)
Reading through the Easter narrative every year is a habit* that I have tried to cultivate. It is my way of reminding myself of the extent of the sacrifice that was made for me. Each year I hope to discover the story in a fresh way.
This year, whilst preparing for this series, I was drawn back a little further beyond the ‘regular’ beginning of the story, to John chapter 17.
I’d never fully picked up on the fact that the priority of Jesus, before He began His gruelling journey to the cross, was to pray. I knew about the Garden of Gethsemane but had skipped over John 17. A full chapter, prior to the Easter journey, was dedicated to Jesus communing with the Father and I simply hadn’t picked up on it.
It’s as if Jesus, knowing what He was about to face, needed to fully immerse Himself in the presence of the Father, giving Him the power and the strength to withstand what was before Him.
Reading through chapter 17 of John, I’m reminded of the importance of prayer. Prayer, simply put, is talking to God*. To complicate prayer further is to heap burdens upon ourselves that we then struggle to stand up under.
Jesus, I can imagine, didn’t change His tone, didn’t put on a ‘prayer voice’ nor did He go on and on. He simply and honestly – and with great vulnerability – pleads with the Father to protect the people who belong to Him.
These are my thoughts. As we travel through the story of Jesus’s death, burial and resurrection, my question to you will be this – what does today’s scripture reveal to you?
Each of us relates to God in a deeply personal and unique way and, rather than impose my interpretation onto you, it is my prayer that you will discover what God is highlighting to you, for you.
Intimacy is the mark of a healthy relationship, knowing one another and accepting one another wholly. God wants to speak to you personally today and, just as Jesus prepared Himself for the cross in prayer, I would encourage you to prepare yourself in prayer for what God may want to do in and through you this Easter time.
In each day of our Easter 2020 Devotional we will have some new questions to ask you regarding what you have read. Why not take some time, listen to the music below, and contemplate what God would say to you today?
Q1. What does today’s scripture reveal to you?
Q2. How can you challenge yourself to look at the Easter narrative afresh this Easter period?
Q3. What are you hoping God would do as you commit to exploring His Word over Easter?
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