Glorifying Jesus.

John 17.1-5.

After the Last Supper, Jesus taught his students a number of things, and capped off his teachings with a prayer we find in John 17. Some Christians call it his “high priestly prayer,” since Jesus is Christianity’s head priest; others just call it “the prayer of Jesus.” Whatever you care to call it, it expresses his will—and since he always pursued his Father’s will, it expresses his Father’s will too.

It wasn’t really meant for us to pray as well, like the Lord’s Prayer. But there’s no reason we can’t pray portions of it, or borrow ideas from it. This is all stuff Jesus wants, after all.

John 17.1-5 KWL

1Jesus speaks these things,

and lifting his eyes to heaven, says,

“Father, the hour came.

Glorify your¹ son

so {your¹} son can glorify you.¹

2Just as you¹ give him authority over all flesh,

so he might give everyone whom you¹ gave him

life in the age to come.

3This is life in the age to come:

They can know you,¹ the only true God,

and the one you send, Christ Jesus.

4I glorify you¹ on the earth,

completing the work you¹ gave me so I may do.

5Now glorify me, Father, by yourself¹

with the glory I had before the world came to be,

with you.¹”

This is the part of the prayer many bibles title, “Jesus prays for himself,” because he asks his Father to glorify him—the verb δοξάζω/doxádzo meaning “magnify, extol, hold in honor, hold a high opinion of, esteem.” The Father had said more than once he does hold a high opinion of his Son, but Jesus wants him to make it obvious because Jesus’s purpose on earth is to explain the Father to us, Jn 1.18 and the more Jesus is honored, Jesus’s exposition of his Father is likewise honored. And you notice how many a pagan, who’s had it up to here with Christians and our churches, nonetheless like and respect Jesus. They may not know him or what he teaches; they might’ve been filled to the brim with Historical Jesus rubbish. But they do glorify him, somewhat—and that’s the route by which the Holy Spirit can get through to them and lead them to Jesus, and Jesus can lead them towards actually knowing his Father.

And this, Jesus says, is life in the age to come. They’ll know the Father, and Christ Jesus whom he sent. And live with them forever; the age to come never ends, which is why so many bibles automatically translate αἰώνιον/eónion, “age [to come],” as “eternal.” Life in the age to come is eternal life. Wanna live forever? Get to know Jesus.

Promoting Jesus. Not ourselves.

There’s a fair amount of overlap between borrowing Jesus’s words from this prayer, and “Hallowed be thy name” from the Lord’s Prayer. We want God’s name to be uplifted; we also want Jesus’s name to continue to be uplifted. If people recognize Jesus is a righteous man, a great moral teacher, and ultimately the world’s light, when they have an existential crisis they’ll recognize Jesus as someone trustworthy to turn to—even when they doubt Christians.

And the Holy Spirit can work with that, which means we can work with that. Okay, so they don’t trust Christians, but they do sorta trust Jesus, so let’s encourage that. Let’s not foolishly waste time trying to defend ourselves: “Okay yes, other Christians suck, but you can trust me.” Let’s do what we should’ve been doing all along, and glorify Jesus: “Yes, I suck too. We all do. But Jesus doesn’t, and you know he doesn’t, so you can put your trust in him.”

And let’s pray the Father continues to glorify the Son. Which he will, regardless—but let’s get on board with the idea, and glorify the Son along with the Father.

Problem is, Christians are in the bad habit of promoting Jesus and a whole bunch of things we wanna attach to him. Namely our own plans, causes, and ministries. We wanna promote Jesus because we figure this’ll help promote us. We wanna glorify ourselves, and we figure the way to get this accomplished is by glorifying Jesus. It’s self-serving, and doesn’t actually uplift Jesus any. Just the opposite—we drag his name through the mud by soiling it with our ambitions and avarice.

Even if we really do think our projects are righteous and beneficial! Like a new church, a new outreach, a new homeless shelter, a soup kitchen, a hospital; any ministry which we hope fulfills Jesus’s Lambs and Kids Story, and does for the needy like Jesus wants us to. But every such ministry, no matter how much God inspires and empowers it, is still run by us humans. As much as we might try to make ’em corruption-proof, they’re still corruptible. And when corrupt people are found in those ministries—because good food attracts vermin too, y’know—being too linked together with Jesus will drag him down when those evildoers are exposed and prosecuted. We wanna make it nice ’n obvious: We uphold Jesus. Our ministries always come second to him. Jesus is way better than these earthly things.

And it does not disparage our ministries to say this. I mean, graded on a curve with Jesus, everything sucks. Even the best of things. That’s how high we lift him up. That’s how high we should lift him up. So let’s do that in our prayers.