Monday, May 13, 2013
John 17:1, 5 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 ... And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was."
THE OTHER LORD'S PRAYER
John chapter 17 could well be called the Lord's Prayer. It is not the prayer we know by that name -- the prayer that the Lord taught us to pray. This is the prayer that the Lord Himself prays for us.
This is one of the few prayers that Jesus prayed out loud for His disciples, including us, to hear. What a privilege and comfort to listen in as Jesus pours out his heart to His Father on our behalf.
Jesus prays, "Father, the hour has come." That is the hour when Jesus will complete the great and final work for our salvation -- His suffering and death on the cross. However, Jesus is already looking past His death to His ascension. Notice in verse five Jesus is praying to be restored to His original glory with the Father in Heaven. Two more times in this prayer Jesus speaks of going to the Father. Read verses 11 and 13. This past Thursday was Ascension Day and in this prayer we see one of the great comforts we have in Jesus ascension -- that Jesus intercedes for us. This prayer is more commonly known as Jesus' High Priestly Prayer, because as our High Priest Jesus is interceding for us before the Father. Speaking of Jesus as our great High Priest, the writer to the Hebrews says, "Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:25).
During this week's devotions we are going to take a closer look at this prayer of our Lord and consider some of the ways our ascended Lord prays for us.
