Charles Spurgeon Commentary John 17:1

"These things spake Jesus; and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that the son may glorify thee:" — John 17:1 (ASV)

These words spoke Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come;

That tremendous hour which was the very hinge of history, — that hour in which he must suffer, and bleed, and die, to pay up the ransom price for his people: Father, the hour is come;

Glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:

In the endurance of the cross, there was a mutual glorification. It was the time of the Saviour's humiliation, and yet, in a certain sense, he was never so glorious as when he died upon the tree. Then, too, he glorified his Father, vindicating divine justice, and manifesting divine love.

These words spoke Jesus, and lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come;

This is in a very special sense our Lord's prayer. What a word that is from the lips of Jesus, Father! This was the night of His deepest sorrow and His heaviest woe, but He begins His prayer with this tender expression, Father, the hour is come; the hour of darkness, the hour of His passion and death, had now arrived.

Glorify your Son, that your Son also may glorify you:

Did Jesus look upon his suffering as his glory? He does not merely pray, "Sustain your Son," but, "Glorify your Son." In truth, our Lord's lowest stoop was his highest glory.

He was never more resplendent than when he hung upon the cross, which was his true spiritual throne, so he prayed, "Glorify your Son," — "Enable him to bear the agony, and to pass through it to the glory." "That your Son also may glorify you."

The death of Christ was a great glorifying of God. We see his love and his justice rendered more glorious in the death of Christ than they would have been by any other method.

These words spoke Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven.

Not his hands, as we do who are poor suppliants; but his eyes, indicating where his thoughts went. He lifted up his eyes to heaven.

And said, Father, the hour is come; glorify your Son, that your Son also may glorify you.

No mere man would have dared to pray such a prayer as this.

Jesus asks that he may be glorified by his Father so that he also may glorify his Father. He put the two things together: Father, glorify your Son, that your Son also may glorify you. This is not a plea that is fit for merely human lips. It is Jesus the Son of God who, in receiving glory from his Father, is also able to return it to his Father.

These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:

Christ's great intercessory prayer begins with his appeal to his Father to glorify his Son. Christ knew all that he would have to suffer during that "hour" to which he had looked forward from eternity, but his eye could see, beyond the cross with all its shame, the crown with all its glory. The Son being glorified, he would also glorify his Father, and there is a wondrous glory that comes to the Father through the death of his Son upon the cross.

These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:

What a sight it must have been to see the Divine Intercessor in this his last great prayer before he poured out his soul to death!

We can never read this chapter so as fully to enter into its meaning, for there must always be in it a depth far greater than our experience can fathom. A man must die, and enter heaven, before he can fully realize all that Christ meant when he said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee.

These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee.

The hour has come. The most important, the darkest, the most dreadful hour of Christ's life had come. But he had only one thought in his mind: Glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee.

Beloved, when our hour comes—and we shall have hours of darkness—may we have nothing on our mind but that: that God would help us to glorify his name. We shall not dread suffering if that is our one desire, because we shall see that suffering often gives opportunities to God for manifesting his own glory in the patience of his people.

These words spoke Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify your Son, that your Son also may glorify you.

Jesus is going forth to die, and he knows it; yet he prays to his Father, Glorify your Son. There was no way of his coming to that glory except by passing through tears, and blood, and agony, and death. He only asks that he may be glorified in what he is about to do, and to suffer, and he is ready for it all: Father, the hour is come; glorify your Son, that your Son also may glorify you.

These words Jesus spoke, and lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come;

The hour to which He had so long looked forward, the hour which He had anticipated with ardent desire: The hour is come.

On the very night that Jesus prayed this prayer, Luke's record tells us, When the hour was come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him. And He said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer;

So He began His great intercessory prayer, Father, the hour is come, —

These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:

The great design of Christ, all through his life on earth, was to glorify the Father. He came to save his people, but that was not his first or his chief aim. It was his object, through the salvation of myriads of the sons of men, to glorify the Father.