Jesus…said: …·‘The principal leader of this world is coming. Yet he does not have one thing on me; ·…I am acting this way according to how the Father has directed me…; ·In me YOU may have peace; in the world YOU will have pressure but be courageous! I have overcome the world.(John 14:23a,30b-31a; 16:32-33 GH[i])

Jesus lifted up his eyes towards heaven and said: ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son, so that the Son may glorify you, ·so that he might give eternal life to every one of those you have given to him, just as you have given to him authority over all flesh. ·And eternal life is this: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus the Messiah whom you have sent. ·I have glorified you on earth; I have finished the work that you gave me to do. ·Now, Father, glorify me alongside yourself with the glory that I had alongside you before the world existed. ·I have made your name visible to the people you gave me out of the world. They were yours and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word... (Jn.17:1-6 GH)

‘All things that are mine are yours; and those who are yours are mine, and I have been glorified in them. ·But I am no longer in the world, yet they are in the world; for I am coming towards you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you gave me, so that they may be one just as we are. ·While I was with them I kept them in your name, which you gave me. I also kept watch and not one of them was destroyed—except for the ‘son of destruction’, so that the scripture text might be fulfilled. ·Yet now I am coming towards you, and I am speaking these things while in the world, so that they may have my joy, which has been fulfilled in them. ·I have given them your word, and the world rebuffed them because they are not shaped by the world, just as I am not shaped by the world. ·I do not ask you to take them away from the world, rather that you should keep them from the evil one. ·…Sanctify them in the truth—your word is truth. (Jn.17:10-17 GH)

‘Just as you sent me into the world, I send them into the world; ·and I sanctify myself for their sakes so that they too may be sanctified in truth. ·I am not praying only for these, but also for those who will believe in me through their word: ·that they all may be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you; and that they may be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me... ·Father, Righteous One, that same world has not known you; yet I have known you and these have known that you have sent me. ·Also, I have made your name known to them—and will continue to do so—so that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I may be in them’. (Jn.17:18-21,25-26 GH)

Jesus prayed, ‘Father, glorify your Son so that the Son might glorify you’, in the presence of his disciples so that they would come to know that the glory of the Father's loving presence was for them too (Med.#37). In addition, he prays this prayer for ‘glory’ as a Son in order to complete the work the Father had given him to do. There is a shine and significance that goes with doing the Father's work and with exercising his authority to accomplish that work. When Jesus was casting out demons, healing sick people and forgiving sins, he was doing so with the Father’s authority. And people responded by praising God, because they recognized that it was the glory of his authority, operating through a human being, Jesus. Jesus then passed on the same glory for doing the Father's work, the same authority, to the twelve apostles (Mk.3:14; Jn.14:11-12)—and to ‘seventy-two’ other disciples as well (Lk.10:1,18-22)!

So in this prayer, Jesus envisions that all who believe in the apostles' message will also be set apart in the Father's glory—in his love, in his work and in the exercise of his authority. When the power of the Holy Spirit is given at Pentecost, both men and women suddenly began to do the Father’s work in his authority—impacting people from a wide variety of ethnic and language backgrounds. If you have believed in Jesus and received the Holy Spirit, then you too have received the glory of the Father's authority to do his work. You too have been sent back into the world as Jesus was sent (Med.#60). You too are one of the Father's ‘co-workers’ (Med.#32): as an adult daughter or son, and as a ‘co-heir’ with Jesus—one who also shares in his suffering (Med.#5).

Now as Jesus now faces his worst ‘hour’ of suffering—when the ‘evil one’ seems to have the upper hand—he prays for the Father to glorify him so he can continue to uphold his Father's name as he completes the second part of his Father's work. He has already completed his work of training his disciples, but now he is going to the cross so that he can impart eternal life to people. And this will involve people coming into a relationship with the Father through faith in him, and through receiving the Holy Spirit.

In his prayer Jesus acknowledges two obstacles that need to be overcome for him to finish well this ‘work’ of imparting life. These same obstacles can also keep us from finishing well. First, most people don’t know the Father. Because they live in a fallen world, they have difficulty recognizing his true name and character, often because they blame him for all the senseless violence and suffering they see around them. Such people can only put their confidence in the Father's true character and receive eternal life if they can see his glory perfectly reflected in the Son who bears his name! But if they are going to recognize this glory of the Father's name in Jesus, they need to see him reflected, even if imperfectly, in us—those who claim to have become sons and daughters of the Father through Jesus.

This raises a second potential obstacle: the difficulty of people seeing the Father’s glory in his sons and daughters because they have stopped reflecting his character—often because they have given up following Jesus during times of suffering. This is what Satan expects will happen (Jb.1:9-12); and this is what happened to Judas, the disciple alluded to in the text as the ‘son of destruction’. Like the other disciples, he had received the glory of the Father's name—his love and authority to work miracles. Working miracles may get people’s attention, but it is not enough to impart eternal life to them. Nor is it enough to keep us safe from the evil one. Only doing the will of the Father to the end can do that (Med.#16). What sets us apart from the world is not having God’s word, but continuing to obey it—so we grow more mature, merciful and holy like our Father (Med.#12). Therefore, when I pray to the Father for his glory in times of suffering, I am not praying for protection from suffering, but for protection from the ‘evil one’ during the suffering because I know I bear the Father's name (Med.#15). Jesus, even though he was the Holy One who came from the Father, prayed this prayer and set himself apart again (‘I sanctify myself’): so that the truth of the Father's word and the righteousness of his character would remain clear to us. He knew that his choices during his hour of suffering could dishonor his Father's name and so undermine the successful completion of his work in his disciples.

If I do not continue to set myself apart to obey the Father's word, like Jesus did, I can lose the protection of my Father's name, like Judas did, during a time of suffering. While Satan was allowed to test all the disciples (Lk.22:31), the others who failed the test still kept their eyes on Jesus and repented. Judas, however—though given several chances to repent—chose to remain in darkness; and Satan finally ‘entered’ him (Jn.13:27). No one has the power to suddenly snatch me out of my Father's hand (10:29; Rom.8:35-39); yet I must never underestimate my own vulnerability: to the temptations of ‘the destroyer' (Rev.9:11), and to how my own choices at such times (Med.#83) can eventually lead me to becoming a ‘son of destruction’ like Judas.

The significance of our lives, and our impact on this world, will be based on how we obediently continue to reflect our Father's glory, especially during times of suffering. And if we finish well, our lives too will be multiplied through those who also come to know Jesus and the Father through our witness. Are you praying Jesus' prayer during times of temptation and suffering—both for yourself, and for your brothers and sisters?