John 17:1-5,
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, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
We love to say, thanks to Pastor Kenny, that Sunday is the best day of the week. And if that’s so, then what is Resurrection Sunday but the best day of the year?
But why is Easter so good? Christians make much of Easter, and rightfully so, but do we know why? Why is Jesus’s resurrection so important? Didn’t Jesus himself say, on Good Friday, “It is finished”? If the work was accomplished on Friday, what’s so glorious about his rising at Easter?
Is Easter more than prophecies fulfilled, and God making good on his word?
Is Easter more than the Father vindicating the sinless life of his Son?
Is it more than confirmation that Good Friday worked, that our sins are covered, and perfect righteousness provided?
Is Easter more, even, than our having access to the finished work of Christ, because he’s alive, and by faith we’re joined to him so that what he did counts as ours?
That’s where John 17 takes us this Easter. It answers the question: What’s the bottom line why the resurrection of Jesus is such good news?
Longest WinterCities Church, it’s been a long winter (and not because of weather!). God has provided for us so remarkably by putting us in John 14–16 on this longest Thursday night in history, while many of us have endured through the longest winter of our lives. Oh how he has met us in these dark weeks with grace to let not our hearts be troubled, and to stay in the vine, and not fall away, but to lean on the promised Helper, even as we expect the world’s hate, and remember Jesus’s greatness, and know he turns our sorrows into joy.
And then last Sunday, to end chapter 16: Take heart, Cities Church, your Lord has overcome the world!
Now, on Resurrection Sunday, he provides for us again with John 17:1–5, which is not only about resurrection, but also crucifixion. We have here both Good Friday and Easter Sunday, and we have the answer for what makes Easter so glorious. This prayer from Jesus goes to the very bottom of why the resurrection of Jesus is so worthy of our celebration.
This Majestic ChapterJohn 17 is one of the greatest, most majestic, chapters in all the Bible. Here we have Jesus, God himself among us in our flesh and blood, praying aloud, at length, for us to hear.
He begins in verses 1–5 praying for himself as he goes to the cross, and he spends the bulk of the chapter praying for his disciples (vv. 6–19) and for us, “for those who will believe in me through their word” (vv. 20–26). You’re in this prayer. Jesus is not just praying for his disciples; he’s praying for you.
What makes this chapter special is its height and depth. From beginning to end, this is the Bible’s most unsearchable, inscrutable, incomprehensible chapter. We get to overhear Jesus praying to his Father, on the night before he goes to the cross. He prays from a soul that has joy set before him, enough to go to the cross and endure unimaginable agony. This prayer is an endless ocean of wonder, and so we wade in on Easter Sunday.
Four Easter GloriesThe reason this is such a good Easter text is that the main request Jesus makes in verses 1–5 is that his Father would glorify him — and resurrection is an essential part of that glory. He makes his main request twice:
End of verse 1: “glorify your Son”
Verse 5: “Father, glorify me”
But this is not only a prayer for resurrection. To understand what Jesus asks for when he prays for his Father to glorify him, we need to understand this story of his glory which has been unfolding in the Gospel of John and now comes to a head in these verses. Jesus’s prayer in verses 1–5 strikes four notes about his glory that lead us to the deepest reason why Easter is worthy of celebrating.
1. Pre-world glory: Jesus had glory before creation (v. 5)If we take these glories in chronological order, we start with the pre-world glory of the divine Son before creation in verse 5:
“…now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.”
Divine glory is not new to Jesus as he comes to the cross. The eternal Son had glory with his Father before the foundation of the world; he is preexistent and eternal, as we confess,
“God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made; of the same essence as the Father. Through him all things were made.”
The Father and Son did not make the world in order to obtain a glory they lacked. Rather, they existed together from all eternity in such overflowing, effusive, abounding glory that their fullness spilled over in creation to make a world in which that glory might be displayed.
And if the glory of God is reason for the world, the lack of his glory in us is what’s gone wrong with the world. Sin is our falling short of, our lacking, the glory of God. Romans 3:23: “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” That’s true for everyone in this room: God made you to reflect his fullness of glory, and you have not lived up to that calling. We have not imaged him, as we ought. In fact, in our sin, we have rebelled against and made assault on his glory.
So, first in the story is the pre-world glory. Jesus had glory with his Father before creation, and they made the world to display their glory.
2. Incarnate glory: the Son came and lived to his Father’s glory (v. 4)Our sin against God, and his glory, became the occasion for God the Son to come on a rescue mission in the world he made.
So, the eternal Son, sent by his Father, emptied himself of divine privilege and added our humanity to his person, and lived utterly dedicated to his Father’s glory. So, Jesus says in verse 4:
“I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.”
Jesus dedicated his earthly, human life to thinking and feeling and speaking and acting in such ways as to make his Father known as great. As man, Jesus lived for his Father’s glory, not his own, as he says in John 8:50, “I do not seek my own glory.” His teaching honored his Father (John 7:16–18). His miracles, his good works, all to the honor of his Father. “I honor my Father” (John 8:49).
And in doing so, Jesus shows us our privileged calling as humans, as those who bear the image and carry the name of God: to live to his glory. To think, feel, speak, and act to make him known as great.
Yet, as the cross comes near, something new emerges. It’s not a pivot or change of direction, but now, uniquely, as the divine Son, we see in Jesus’s “near approach” to the cross that he is different from us. Truly man but no mere man. We do not follow him here.
We heard for the first time in chapter 12 that at last his hour had come. What’s this hour? Notice the first thing he prays and then what he says in John 12:23–24 and 27–28:
“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. . . . 27 Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name.”
As Jesus has prayed his whole life, so he prays, Father, glorify your name — even as he acknowledges “the hour has come” which is an hour “for the Son of Man to be glorified.” And he talks about dying. How does his being glorified, to his Father’s glory, go with his dying?
3. Crucified glory: the Father exalts his Son at the cross (v. 1)The first way the Son will be glorified is by dying. He will be lifted up (glorified) as he is lifted up in torture on the cross. He will be glorified in his dying.
Which brings us back to 17:1, in this holy moment, in prayer, the night before he died. He prays, “Father, the hour has come,” and then, “glorify your Son.” Which means he is praying for the cross. “Glorify your Son” is his way of praying, Your will be done. When he prays, Glorify your Son, he is resolved to go to the cross.
This is the strange glory of Good Friday. It’s not the glory humans expect. We expect the divine Son to be lifted up to the throne; we do not expect him first to be lifted up in the shame and horror of the cross.
And the reason it’s glory (a lifting up), and not defeat (going down), is because the sins he dies for at the cross are not his own. If Jesus had deserved to die, this would have been utter shame, not glory. But he died, verse 2 says, “to give eternal life to all whom you have given him” — that is, the Father gives him a people, called the church. And the people are sinners, rebels against God. They deserve death. And Jesus dies for their sins, to make them right with God. Which makes the cross a glory. Which is why we’d call an otherwise horrible Friday good.
So, Jesus’s main prayer, first in verse 1, then echoed in verse 5, is “Father, glorify me.” In verse 1, it means lift me up as I go to the cross. And in verse 5, we get more.
4. Resurrected glory: the Father exalts his Son by raising him (v. 5)Now, let’s get all of verse 5:
“And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence [with yourself, beside yourself] with the glory that I had with you [beside you] before the world existed.”
Jesus looks not only to the strange, crucified glory of Friday, but to the triumph of Sunday and to the great lifting up to come: in the resurrection, then in the ascension, and then coronated as king of all at his Father’s right hand.
And verse 5 shows us how Jesus got there. In this prayer, Jesus looks through the shame of Friday to the honor of being with his Father. He looks through the pain of the cross to the joy of being with his Father. Which is “the joy set before him” Hebrews 12:2 so memorably talks about:
“…for the joy that was set before him [Jesus] endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Looking to the joy of resurrection, and ascension, and coronation, and reunion — that is, being glorified with his Father, beside his Father, in his presence — that look strengthened Jesus to endure the cross. What got Jesus to and through the cross was looking to the joy of resurrection glory, with his Father.
Which brings us back to our question and the last part of this prayer in verses 2–3. Our question was: Why is the resurrection so important? What’s so glorious for us about Easter?
Over All, for His ChurchFirst, verse 2:
“you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.”
The Father has given Jesus authority over all flesh — get that, all flesh, all humans, no exceptions. Jesus is over all. But for what purpose?
End of verse 2:
“to give eternal to all whom you have given him.”
Who’s that? His church. Those who believe in him and worship him and celebrate him and find joy in him. The Father gave him authority over all that he might give eternal life to his people. That he might build and beautify his church.
Let that sink in. Do you know what the risen Christ is doing right now with his authority over all? He’s taking care of his church.
Do you know what he’s doing with his authority over Iran? He’s giving eternal life to all whom the Father has given him.
Do you know what he’s doing with his authority over this country? Building his church; caring for his church.
People in the world may say “Trump this” and “Iran that,” and “Putin this” and “China that,” and the risen Christ says, Who? They are my tools, servants whom I use as I give eternal life to my church. I’m giving eternal life to all the Father has given me; I’m saving my people; I’m building my church.
Easter’s Bottom LineBut we’re not yet to the answer of our question. One verse remains, and verse 3, like Philippians 3:7–8, is one of the most important in all the Bible, because it gets to the very bottom of it all. There Paul says,
“whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”
And here in John 17, in this sacred moment, the night before he dies, having prayed that the Father will glorify him, that he might glorify the Father, and that by giving eternal life to those God has given him, he now says what this eternal life is. Verse 3:
“And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
Eternal life is not luxury vacations. It’s not mere reunions with loved ones. It’s not just streets of gold. At its heart, in its essence, eternal life is knowing God — the God who made you and made you to know him. Your heart is restless till you find rest in him. You will be unsatisfied until you find satisfaction in him. And then Jesus adds, “and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
There is no competition for glory here between Father and Son but mutual glorification as the Son glorifies Father in life and in going to the cross, and Father glorifies Son at the cross and in raising him, and the Son glorifies his Father by giving eternal life to his people, and eternal life is knowing the Father, and the Son.
Brothers and sisters and guests, this is eternal life: to know Jesus and his Father. And it begins now. That’s the bottom line why Easter is such good news: Jesus is alive to be known and enjoyed forever.
He’s alive, not just to forgive your sins, but that you might know him and enjoy him. He’s alive not just to provide your righteousness, but for the joy of daily communion — and one day soon full communion. He’s alive not just to vindicate his work but to satisfy our souls in him. He gives himself, and his Father, when he gives eternal life.
The glory of Easter is that Jesus is alive to be known and enjoyed forever. That’s who we seek together at this Table, and in church life, and in his word, and in prayer — we make use of these God-given, Christ-bought means to the great end of knowing Jesus.
At the bottom, the resurrection gives us Jesus.