Opening Scripture

“The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life – only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father” (John 10:17-18).

Opening Prayer

Gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for rest and the promise of a new day. I praise You for Your loving kindness, Your thoughtful provision, and Your comforting presence. Help my hope and security be in You today, not in what I do, or what I have, or what others think. May Your Spirit guide me in the way I should go. Help me to appreciate Your blessings and see You at work around me. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Daily Bible Reading

John 17:1-5

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.”

Reflection  

Today’s passage begins “The Lord’s Prayer.” In this first section, Jesus prays for Himself. Looking up toward Heaven, He confirms with the Father, “The hour has come.”

Back in John 2, at the wedding in Cana, Jesus told his mother, “My hour has not yet come.” Later, in John 7, Jesus told His brothers, “The right time for me has not yet come; for you any time is right.” After that, as Jesus was teaching in the temple courts during the Feast of Tabernacles, some tried to seize Him, “but no one laid a hand on him because his time had not yet come.”

The Pharisees sent the temple guards to arrest Jesus, but they returned empty-handed declaring, “No one ever spoke the way this man does” (John 7:46). Sometime later, as Jesus was again teaching in the temple courts, the people were divided about Jesus. Some who objected to what He was saying wanted to take him by force, “yet no one seized him, because his time had not yet come” (John 8:20).

After His triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, Jesus told His disciples, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour” (John 12:23,27).

Then, on that Good Friday, John tells us, “It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (John 13:1). Then, He washed the disciples’ feet.

All of this was God’s perfectly timed and divinely orchestrated plan of redemption.

In today’s text, Jesus also prayed, “Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 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.”

Jesus asks the Father to: sustain Him through His impending suffering and crucifixion, accomplish redemption through His death and resurrection, and restore Him to the place of eternal glory He shared with the Father before the world began. All of this will, in turn, reveal God’s glory. Jesus knew His death was not a crushing defeat – as it appeared to be – but instead, was God’s glorious and ultimate victory over sin and death.

Jesus then proclaims the crux of this redemption plan. “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.”

Five times in this “Lord’s Prayer,” Jesus refers to his followers as those God the Father has given Him. These are the ones who have received eternal life, and this is “eternal life”: knowing the One True God made manifest in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Greek word “know” here (ginóskó) means personal, intimate knowledge through firsthand experience. It refers to a continuous, dynamic relationship, like that with a close friend or family member. This “eternal life” is not just endless existence – because everyone will exist eternally somewhere – but an unending and deeply satisfying relationship with Almighty God.

Ginóskó appears 222 times in the New Testament. The Synoptic gospels use it primarily for factual recognition or intimate relationship (including sexual interaction), while John links this “knowing” to God’s divine revelation, faith, obedience, and eternal life.

Jesus had completed the work the Father had given Him, including obedience unto death. Though the cross was still before Him, it was a certainty. The word “completed” (teleioó) means ‘to bring to perfection or maturity.’ It suggests the successful culmination of effort, which also supports future consummation – the later point at which something is fully completed, finalized, or brought to fulfillment.

“I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.”

Flourishing Habit

Flourishing Christians

In the wide-ranging segment before He begins His prayer to the Father (John 14-16), Jesus shares extensively about His Messiahship and the nature of citizenship in the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus instructs His disciples about salvation, sanctification, and what it means to follow The Jesus Way.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. If you love me, you will obey what I command. The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. If you remain in me, you will bear much fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing.

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, That is why the world hates you. A time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me.

“But when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will bring glory to me by taking what is mine and making it known to you. The Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

How do these statements from Jesus resonate with you?

What comes to mind when you hear what our Lord says in these verses?

How will you bring glory to God by finishing the work He has given you to do?

This week’s collective prayer: Lord, I come before You on behalf of my fellow believers here at our church. Make Yourself known to them and draw them to Yourself. Amen.

You can do more than pray after you’ve prayed, but you can’t do more than pray until you’ve prayed!