In 26 verses, John chapter 17 contains Jesus’s high priestly prayer. It was His prayer to God The Father before Jesus’s crucifixion… and it was on your behalf, on my behalf, for all those who would ever receive the gracious gift of salvation through all of human history.
Jesus begins His prayer with, “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.” Jesus first prays that God the Father would glorify Himself through Jesus’ coming crucifixion. The Roman cross was never connected with glory; it was a symbol of shame and dishonor. The Apostle Paul would later call it a “stumbling block to Jews” and “foolishness to Gentiles” (see 1 Corinthians 1:22). The Jews stumbled over the idea that God would let His Son be humilitated, suffer and die on a cross. The Gentiles thought it was foolishness that one could receive eternal salvation through someone else’s execution paying for your spiritual debt.
Jesus continues, “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 may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” Hanging on that tree fashioned into a cross, Jesus would not appear to be the Creator of the world… but He was and He is. He would not appear to being fully man and simultaneously fully God, but yet, He was and He is. And it is this second person of The Godhead that was praying for our eternal life less than 24 hours before The Cross.
While on earth, Jesus fulfilled His role as Supreme High Priest by offering a sacrifice on just like the Old Testament High Priest did but with no hinderance of strict rituals and preparation because Jesus had all power and authority as God. To go even further than that, Jesus simultaneously fulfilled the role of the lamb to be slain on the spiritual altar of atonement as He laid upon the altar of the cross. Jesus, Supreme High Priest, offered Himself as a sacrifice to atone for your sins forever. As High Priest in heaven, He interceded for us and He continues to intercede for us, taking our prayers before the throne of God. He takes our imperfect prayers and makes them perfect before they reach the ears of our Father in heaven, hence, we present His righteousness by closing our prayers with Jesus’s name as we say “amen”.
Dear One, see that Jesus — fully God, fully man, being both the Supreme High Priest and the ultimate and final sacrificial Lamb of Atonement — had YOU in his mind and heart when He prayed that beautiful prayer in the last hours before he hung on that cross. That He was anguished at the impending unfathomable pain yet all He could think of was you and securing your eternity. That is the God who loves you and calls you to follow Him.
Questions to ask yourself:
- Will the understanding of how Jesus thinks of you effect your worship of Him? In what way?
Prayer Prompt:
(free prayer)