Road To Calvary (I)

Since it is the final week before Easter comes around, i decided that I wanted to dedicate this week to Jesus' road to Calvary. Im planning to go through his last moments on earth, everyday, starting from John 17 (not sure why i picked there). Here goes. May God speak to you and me through his Word.

¹ After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:

“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. ² For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. ³ Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. ⁴ I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. ⁵ And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

Jesus Prays for His Disciples

⁶ “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. ⁷ Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. ⁸ For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.⁹ I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. ¹⁰All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. ¹¹ I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. ¹² While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.

¹³ “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. ¹⁴ I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. ¹⁵ My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. ¹⁶ They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. ¹⁷ Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. ¹⁸ As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. ¹⁹ For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

Jesus Prays for All Believers

²⁰ “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,²¹ that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²²I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— ²³ I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

²⁴ “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

²⁵ “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. ²⁶ I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

John 17

After reading through and listening to what Jesus said in this prayer, there's really a lot of context here. So i'll try to break it down, or just share first thoughts that came to my mind. In the text i was reading in, ESV, i didn't know it was split into so many parts, but i guess that'll be an advantage.

Verses 1-5, when reading this, i thought that this could also be a prayer we should be praying to God with. He talks about glorifying God with his life (v.2) just as we should be with our speech, and actions, living as a holy and pleasing sacrifice. It also hints about our purpose on this earth. Christ's purpose was to be sent to die, carrying the sins of mankind, granting us salvation and forgiveness for those who believe and repent. But for us, can we say v.4 before we leave the earth? That we've brought glory to his plan?

Verses 6-19, going through this, i can really see how Christ is the connection between us and God. Like that cartoon i've seen where the cross is the bridge between earth and heaven. In these verses I feel like he's really talking FOR us. For instance, he says protect them (v.11). He's really talking for us, wanting the best for us, but something extremely important is that he's praying for those who have accepted the truth (v.8-9). He states very clearly that he is praying for them (those who accepted the word), NOT the world. Reading this section over and over, you can really see how much God has loved us. He talks about how he's protected us while he was on earth, but now that he's leaving he hopes God can provide and watch for us (v.11-12). The rest of the verses continue to show his connection with us, being the link between the sinful and the holy. Verse 16 dives right back into being representatives of Christ, of living IN this world, not OF this world. As followers of Christ we must live and strive to imitate him. Jesus knows that following him is hard, and the world will hate you because you are going against the current, the trends, but its a fight (v.14).

Verses 20-26 are similar to the section before, but instead, Christ is praying for all the believers versus his disciples earlier. But no only does Jesus pray for the believers, he adds in the non believers too. He knows that there are people who do not believe, and that he proclaimed his name, radiating God's love to others, and he hopes that that can continue to happen through his disciples and through us. Thats one of the more general purposes we have on this earth, to share his love and good news to others.

Reading and going through this passage, I think i've finally opened up and have seen Christ's love for me. I've always felt distant from his death and sacrifice because it happened so long ago, but reading his prayer, it really shows his love for us as we see him speaking for us.

verse of the day: 1 John 4:9-11

⁹ This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹ Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.