John 17:1-2 Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him.
In His prayer recorded in John 17, we find all the aspects of divine love that we find expressed in 1 Corinthians 13:
1 Corinthians 13:4–8 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.
- Love suffers long and is kind: Jesus prayed, “Those whom You gave Me I have kept.” Yes, Jesus is speaking of those disciples who doubted, then believed, then doubted, then believed, then shot off their mouths and argued over their own legacies, then doubted, then believed … Those disciples. Whereas any other Rabbi might have sent them packing, Jesus patiently drew them in and kept them … loving them despite their flaws.
- Love does not envy: Jesus glorified the Father and manifested the Father to the world. He did not seek His own and did not bear witness of Himself, but of the Father. He affirms this in His prayer.
- Love does not parade itself: Jesus was praying aloud with the disciples listening in … and while most of us would have probably thrown something in like, “I sure hope these yahoos appreciate what I’m about to do for them,” He did not.
- Love is not puffed up: Jesus was not prideful, but humbled Himself even to the point of a servant … A few weeks ago we saw Him gird Himself with a towel and wash the feet of His disciples. In that prayer, we see Jesus praying as would a caretaker who is about to depart from the children He dearly loved.
- Love does not behave rudely: Jesus was not self seeking but was always mindful of others before Himself and courteous. In His prayer, Jesus glorified the Father first and then turned His prayer toward His disciples.
- Love does not seek it’s own: Jesus loved His disciples but did not pray that the Father should take them out of the world but that they be kept from the evil one. His actions, His words, His suffering … Everything He did was for our benefit, even as He prayed, “For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they may be sanctified by the truth.”
- Is not provoked and thinks no evil: Jesus’ prayer contains not one angry word … Pretty amazing considering the rejection He suffered and the illegal arrest and trial, and the horrible death that He was about to suffer. Even from the cross, He prayed, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”
- Does not rejoice in iniquity: Never did Jesus have iniquity of His own, but as He says in His prayer, He separated Himself for the work of the Father and unto the world and in the midst of it’s iniquity, without any sin of His own. He preached repentance and died on the cross so that we might receive forgiveness for our own iniquity.
- Rejoices in the Truth: There is a great intimacy in Jesus’ relationship with us that He expresses in this prayer. You see, not only would Jesus die for us, but even as the time of His suffering on our behalf neared, He was thinking about us in terms of kinship and unity … in terms of love, joy, peace, grace and compassion.
I haven’t covered them all in this devotion. Perhaps you have some thoughts about the final few: bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.
Jesus in this prayer modeled for us the very essence of the Father, just as He modeled for us the Father in His life. At one point a few chapters back in John, Jesus said, “Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father.” It’s important for us to realize that Jesus didn’t come to die for our sins as exclusive from the Father, but as One with the Father and so the very agony of Jesus on the cross expresses to us how great the Father loves us.
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