The Hour

When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.  And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.  I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.  And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. 

John 17:1-5 (ESV)

On the evening of the Last Supper, Jesus shared the Passover meal with the disciples.  During the meal He taught the amazing lessons set forth in John13-16, and then He prayed.  His prayer is recorded as chapter 17, and it is remarkable in a variety of ways.  It gives us a glimpse into a conversation between two members of the holy Trinity, an intimate conversation between Father and Son, making it the holiest of holy words.  In the temple, the room set aside for God and entered only once each year by a priest who was first selected and cleansed, was known as the holy of holies.  Jesus’ prayer recorded as John 17 is the scriptural equivalent of the holy of holies.

Jesus’ teaching that evening leads to the prayer, and the prayer summarizes the teaching.  As the disciples gather that evening, preparing to enjoy the feast, Jesus removes His outer clothing, assumes the position of a slave, and washes His disciples’ feet, including feet of the one Jesus knows will soon betray Him and other who Jesus knows will soon deny Him.  Reversing roles normal in the world, the Lord and Teacher serves them like a slave, and He orders them to serve one another in the same way. 

As He teaches, Jesus explains who He is.  He is the way, the truth and the life.  He is the physical image of God the Father.  He is God, the path to God, the embodiment of God’s holy word, the author and giver of life.  Life is a component of who He is.  Life is His essence.  When He breathes, He exhales life.  When He speaks, He speaks life.  He says,

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.  If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.  From now on you do know him and have seen him.”  John 14:6-7

He teaches about the Holy Spirit.  He teaches about love.  He commands His disciples to love one another as He loves them.

He explains that because of their transformation through Him, they are no longer of the world.  They are unique, set apart, of God.  Because they are different, the world will hate them, just as it hates Jesus.  While explaining this, He promises to send the Holy Spirit to them to help by bearing witness to Christ Jesus, empowering them, and convicting the world of sin and righteousness.

He explains so much, and as the evening was winding down, He says, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now” (John 16:12).  Immediately after saying that, He mentions some interworking of the Holy Trinity saying,

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.  He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.  All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.  John 16:13-15

He concludes the teaching by explaining that He has overcome the world.  And then He prays, offering us a glimpse into a holy conversation between Christ Jesus and God the Father. 

Chapter 17 begins saying, “When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted his eyes to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come…” (John 17:1).  Over the course of His earthly ministry, Scripture often says that His hour had not yet come. When His mother asked Him to help with the wine shortage at a wedding in Cana, Jesus said, “My hour has not yet come” (John 2:4).  When His brothers urged Jesus to go to Jerusalem for the Festival of Booths, Jesus knew religious leaders there wanted to kill Him, and He said He was not planning to go because “My time has not yet come…” (John 7:6).  Scripture says, “So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come” (John 7:30), and “These words he spoke in the treasury, as he taught in the temple; but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come” (John 8:20).

But as His earthly ministry was ending, the message changed.  Shortly after riding the donkey into Jerusalem before adoring crowds, Jesus announced, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (John 12:23).  He continued saying,

“Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.  Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”  The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.”  John 12:27-29

And now, after the Last Supper, shortly before Jesus walks to the garden where He will surrender to guards, as He begins this amazing prayer, He exclaims that the hour has come.  The time is upon us.  The time for what?

The time has come for Jesus to complete His earthly mission, to fulfill prophecies uttered long before, to finish the plan placed in motion before time.  The time had come for Jesus to take the final steps before saying, “It is finished” (John 19:30).

Jesus is eternal.  His existence did not begin at the time of His birth in Bethlehem.  He has always been and will always.  He is the Creator of life.  Life is His essence, and He gave up His heavenly glory for a time to come to earth to live and teach and demonstrate God’s glory and to die and conquer death.  He came to offer a path to God the Father.  He came to fulfill the plan placed in motion before time began as foretold at the very beginning of Scripture while Adam and Eve were still in the garden.  God said,

I will put enmity between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
    and you shall bruise his heel.”  Genesis 3:15

Later, through the prophet Isaiah, God explained this time would come saying,

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
    a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,
    of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
And he will swallow up on this mountain
    the covering that is cast over all peoples,
    the veil that is spread over all nations.
He will swallow up death forever;
and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,
    and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
    for the Lord has spoken.
It will be said on that day,
    “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.
    This is the Lord; we have waited for him;
    let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”  Isaiah 25:6-9

God also said through the prophet Isaiah,

He was despised and rejected by men,
    a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
    he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs
    and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
    smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
    and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
    we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.  Isaiah 53:3-6

Earlier that week Jesus explained, “ Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.  And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:31-32).  By saying “lifted up from the earth,” Jesus knew He would soon be crucified.  And now, as Jesus starts praying, He says, “Father, the hour has come….”  His incarceration, trial, torture, crucifixion, death, resurrection … none of it was a surprise.  God used evil people fulfilling their evil intent to accomplish His holy will.

Paul describes the hour like this…

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.  2 Corinthians 5:14-15

 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.  2 Corinthians 5:21

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.  He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.  Colossians 2:13-15

Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.  Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.  By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.  2 Timothy 1:8-14

And the writer of Hebrews says,

But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.  For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.  Hebrews 10:12-14

The hour had come for Christ Jesus to finish His earthly ministry by transforming the world.  Through Him we gain life.  Through Him we gain communion with God the Father.  Through Him we become heirs to the Father.  God declares, “To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance” (Isaiah 45:23).  May you see Him for who He is; may you believe in Him; may you surrender to Him; may you receive His holy gift of grace by faith.  Amen.