Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from “The Adult Sabbath School Guide” is titled “That They All May be One”. It’s always a great study to delve into John 13-17; “Jesus’ last words of Instruction, culminating with what has sometimes been called His ‘high-priestly ministry’” (quarterly for October 13). John chapter 17 in particular, is our focus this week. A most remarkable chapter as we listen to Jesus pray to His Father… for us. So as you study this chapter, please read each day’s lesson and then meditate on this. Picture yourself in the upper room with the 11, with Jesus praying. This is God Himself in the flesh, one with us. This is a prayer from the heart of our Savior. Who stands as one of us, praying as one of us. As you listen, try to have all your preconceptions held in abeyance and just listen. Read the entire prayer first, the entire chapter, to get the entire sense of the intent. The remarkable thing is that this prayer is from Jesus’ heart as He stands on the verge of being glorified…
NOTE: Christ at His arrest, trial and crucifixion demonstrated the Glory of the Father. This is the glory of all Heaven, the glory of the Godhead! Christ on the cross glorified God and demonstrated the character of the Father… and of all who are His, who have been won back to their true image. “And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was” (John 17:5). Please do not miss this point! The cross is THE demonstration of God… as He is. The cross was not some special event or special demonstration. “Few give thought to the suffering that sin has caused our Creator. All heaven suffered in Christ's agony; but that suffering did not begin or end with His manifestation in humanity. The cross is a revelation to our dull senses of the pain that, from its very inception, sin has brought to the heart of God.” (Education pg. 263). Pain due to His love for us. “It was not the dread of death that weighed upon Him. It was not the pain and ignominy of the cross that caused His inexpressible agony. Christ was the prince of sufferers; but His suffering was from a sense of the malignity of sin, a knowledge that through familiarity with evil, man had become blinded to its enormity. Christ saw how deep is the hold of sin upon the human heart, how few would be willing to break from its power. He knew that without help from God, humanity must perish, and He saw multitudes perishing within reach of abundant help” (Desire of Ages pg. 752). The cross shows us the self-sacrificing nature of our God and His love for us. As EGW says in Desire of Ages, pg. 379, the cross is Christ’s true coronation… because the cross demonstrates the character of The King… and all those who aspire to be the King’s true children, too.
In this week’s lesson, the point is made twice that in His prayer recorded in John 17, “Jesus needs to intercede” for Himself (Sunday’s lesson); and for His disciples (Monday’s lesson). The implication is that Jesus is asking of the Father something the Father would not do otherwise. Yet this is a misunderstanding of what Christ does as intercessor or mediator. The role of intercessor/ mediator is the role of someone between 2 parties attempting to reconcile the two. “A mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one” (Galatians 3:20). God is the mediator between us and God! Therefore, Christ is not praying to God to bring the things of man to God (because He is God!). But praying aloud to the 11 (and to us who read) so that we will know that God hears and is with us. He intercedes, brings, the things of God to man… not the things of man to God… for Christ is God.
This is familiar territory for Jesus (praying aloud so that others will know the heart of the Father). He has prayed for others in their hearing before. At the grave of Lazarus, Christ prayed this way to His Father. “And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me” (John 11: 41-42). This is a similar reason as recorded in John 17 in the upper room with the 11. He prays so that those in earshot will hear and so they will know that Christ is speaking, representing and demonstrating the heart of the Father. The most important understanding for the 11 is that they know that Christ represents the Father… perfectly. And that they are not left alone when Christ passes from their sight. Over and over again, Christ draws the attention of His hearers to the fact that the Father is just like the Son. This is Christ’s heart burden. To show them this truth and that the Father loves them just like the Son. A most important truth for them (and us) as we live this life with an invisible God. The Father and the Son so value us that Christ says He is glorified in us!!! (see John 17:10). As we live a life of selflessness like Christ, as we live a life so dedicated to others that we can say, “I have been crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20), then we too glorify the Father just as Christ did. Let us always be true to the trust our Father places in us.
With brotherly love,
Jim