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The High Priestly Prayer, Part One (John 17:1-5)

 When Jesus had finished saying what we have recorded in chapter 16, he began to pray. Jesus is a prophet and the true King of Israel, but he is also the true high priest of the new covenant. This is the prayer that Jesus prays for the apostles, and for all of us. Priests offer prayers and sacrifices to God, and Jesus doesn't see a reason to change what we would expect.

He asks the Father to glorify him, so that he may in turn glorify the Father. Jesus tells us through his prayer that receiving eternal life is a matter of believing in the one true God, and in him, whom the Father sent. We see once more that Jesus considers himself to be fundamentally the one who was sent by the Father.

What is Jesus praying for, if God has no needs, and God has glory in Himself? Jesus wants the glory of God the Father to be seen in this world. If the goal of our lives is to be in relationship with God forever, then a life well lived will show this glory, the same glory that Jesus is praying for. He says he has brought the Father glory on earth.

We could ask an important question: what was the work that Jesus was given to do? A big part of the work was to glorify the Father. Jesus also came in order to complete the story of the people of Israel. The people had been in exile in Babylon (mostly modern-day Iraq) since Jerusalem was invaded and destroyed about 600 years before this. The people wondered if God would keep his promises to the great kings David and Solomon, that one of their heirs would sit on the throne forever. Now the last King of Israel is here.

Yet Jesus says that he had far more glory in the intimate presence of the Father than any earthly king could ever manage. We are touching the great mystery of Jesus, and His eternal existence as the Son of God. He took on our human nature, but he did not begin to exist when he did that. Jesus has always been, and always will be.

It is a matter for prayer, to consider that Jesus took on human nature for us, and is not ashamed of it. We should recognize the goodness of our bodies, even if they trouble us, because Jesus took on a human body. He dignified and glorified the human body, and human nature, forever.

Let's think about this, when we are tempted to hate ourselves, or to hurt ourselves, or each other. Our destiny is with God, and it will be with the human nature that he gave us. Better, and not subject to death, or weakness, or any other thing, but human, even so.

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