Year 2, Week 38, Day 5 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 38, Day 5

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of John 17; Matthew 27.

Today’s reading consists of two different Gospel accounts covering two separate days in Jesus’ life and ministry. John 17 completes a segment of John’s Gospel account that contains an extended conversation that Jesus had with His disciples on the eve of His arrest and crucifixion. While John 14-16 consisted of Jesus’ instructions to His disciples, John 17 is His prayer for His disciples: “When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him” (John 17:1-2). The contents of Jesus’ prayer, which is the longest prayer by Jesus recorded in the Gospel accounts, is on the eve of His arrest and crucifixion and expresses much interest in the glory of God and the good of His people. Matthew 27, which is set in the timeframe of being the morning of Jesus’ crucifixion: “When morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death. And they bound him and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate the governor” (Matthew 27:1-2). The account spans the entire day from the examination of Jesus by Pilate, to the events that unfolded at the very moment Jesus died, to the proper burial that Jesus was provided: “When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus…And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away” (Matthew 27:57-60).

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading is the way in which Jesus’ prayer focuses on knowing God: “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). Eternal life is defined relationally—it is knowing God and Jesus Christ. Knowing means more than just intellectual apprehension or merely knowing about God and Jesus; it means knowing God and Jesus in a personal way through faith. The Father gave His Son, Jesus, the gift of granting eternal life to His people. This eternal life consists of knowing the Father and the Son involves experiencing the glory of the Father and the Son: “I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed” (John 17:4-5). The Son has glorified His Father in accomplishing the things that He was sent to do. Jesus purposed to show how glorious His Father truly is. Jesus desired to reveal what He has always known and seen, by revealing His Father’s glory through the life that He lived: "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth…No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known” (John 1:14,18). Now, as Christ’s crucifixion would soon occur, Jesus asks His Father to glorify Him with the glory that was His before His incarnation. At the Cross, Jesus displays His and His Father’s glory in that fact that the death of Jesus demonstrates the great holiness of God as well as the immense love of God. The Cross provides the way for sinners to know God. The Cross shows the holy justice of God for it shows that God will not bend the rules, change the boundaries, or redefine the terms. God is so committed to his own holiness that he does not spare his own Son. The Cross also shows the rich love of God for it shows that God will punish His own Son for the sake of His people.

As Jesus continues His prayer focus on knowing God, He turns to speak of the people who have been enabled to know God: “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word” (John 17:6). Jesus has shown His people His Father: “And whoever sees me sees him who sent me” (John 12:45). Jesus put the character of His Father on display and lived in accordance with His Father’s priorities. It is in this sense that Jesus speaks of manifesting His Father’s name. As Jesus’ people know Him, they know the Father: “Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me” (John 17:7-8). Jesus’ people know that He is from His Father and therefore, in looking to Jesus and receiving what He has shown them, they know the Son and the Father. The Father entrusted judgment and authority to the Son (see John 5:22, 27); He granted the Son to have life in himself (John 5:26); He gave the Son works to do (John 5:36); He gave the Son Words to speak (see John 17:8); and the Son accomplished them all (John 17:4). And now the love that the Father has for His Son, is on His people: “I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:26).

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe