A Mission To Make Much Of...

During these weeks leading up to Easter, we are looking at the final conversation that Jesus had with His closest followers before His death, which is recorded for us in an account of Jesus life in our Bibles called the gospel of John. This week, I would like for us to spend our time together by jumping back into the final conversation that Jesus had with His followers. But before we jump back into this conversation, let’s take a minute to look at the context in which we will be jumping into.

In the remainder of John chapter 16, Jesus reinforces the reality, in crystal clear language, that He was leaving the disciples and going back to His Father in Heaven. The disciples responded to this reinforcement by proclaiming that they believed that He was the Son of God who came as the Messiah. What the disciples were not prepared for, however, was Jesus response to their proclamation of belief and trust in Him. Jesus responded to their proclamation of allegiance by basically saying “Oh, so now you say that you trust Me? Well, here’s the deal, in a very short while you are all going to bail on Me at the time when I need you the most. And while you are going to bail on Me, My Heavenly Father will not bail on Me, but will be with Me”.

Jesus then ended His conversation with the disciples by explaining that this entire conversation was so that they could understand that it was through Him that they would be able to experience peace with God. And while they would have trials and difficulties here on earth, at the end of the day, they would have peace with God for all eternity as a result of Jesus defeating those in the world that place themselves in opposition to God and the kingdom of God.

After saying these things to His disciples, Jesus changes the tone and the direction of His conversation. Jesus shifts from a horizontal conversation with His disciples to a vertical conversation with God.   Before their very eyes and ears, Jesus shifts from a proclamation to His disciples to a prayer for His disciples. And it is in this prayer that we will see Jesus provide a timeless call to His followers. So let’s look at this prayer together, beginning in John 17:1:

Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. "This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. "I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. "Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.

Jesus begins His prayer by making a request: glorify Your Son. The word glorify here literally means to cause to have splendid greatness. In other words, to glorify is to make much of someone in a way that makes one great. Jesus is asking God the Father to make much of Him so that He would be great. Now while that may seem to come across as being arrogant, notice why Jesus is praying that God would make much of Him so that He would be great. Jesus is asking that He would receive glory so that He could give God glory. Jesus is asking that God make much of Jesus so that Jesus could make much of God.

In verse 2, Jesus then unpacks how God would be made much of as a result of Jesus being made much of. Jesus explains that God the Father placed Him in a position where He was large and in charge over humanity, so that all of humanity that God gave to Jesus would receive eternal life. The eternal life that Jesus is referring to here is the opportunity to experience the forgiveness of sin and the relationship with God that we were created for.

And that eternal life, Jesus explains in verse 3, is “that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent”. Jesus point here is that forgiveness and a relationship with God is based on arriving at and responding to the knowledge that Jesus Christ is the Messiah that God promised that He would send to provide humanity the opportunity to be rescued from the selfishness and rebellion that separated them from God.

You see, Jesus had been given a mission. A mission to enter into humanity to live the life that humanity refused to live; a mission that would soon result in Him allowing Himself to be treated as though He lived our selfish and sinful lives so that God the Father could treat us as though we lived Jesus perfect life. And Jesus had accomplished that mission. And as a result of accomplishing that mission, God had been made much of. God the Father received the maximum amount of glory from Jesus.

And so that God the Father would continue to receive the maximum amount of glory, Jesus is asking that He would receive the glory that He had always had for all eternity, but that He had willingly set aside in order to enter into humanity on a rescue mission for humanity. But not only does Jesus pray that God the Father would make much of Him, so that Jesus would make much of God the Father.

Tomorrow, we will see Jesus shift the focus of His prayer off of Himself and onto His closest followers…