In the Bible, the Holy Spirit is referred to as the ‘Spirit of … supplication’ (Zech.12:10). Supplication is: The act of supplicating or entreating; humble and earnest petition or prayer. In other words, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of humble and earnest prayer. And a Christian or a Church that is Spirit-ual will be shaped and defined by their experience of such prayer. We see this personified in the Anointed One, Jesus. Everything Jesus does, He does by the Spirit, including His praying. There is a great deal we could say about Jesus and His life of prayer, notably how much time He gives to it. He spends entire nights in prayer, and often withdraws from teaching and public ministry in order to pray.
It is worth reflecting on this. Much of our experience of prayer is born out of our acute sense of need… we need forgiveness, need strength, need guidance, need wisdom, need encouraging... Indeed, when we go to prayer it is generally driven by our profound sense of our need of God. That’s why we tend to pray more when facing crises.
Jesus prays more out of desire. He delights to pray. Jesus is the One who from the beginning has been with the Father, who from everlasting ages past has delighted in intimate fellowship with the Father, who has shared the glory of His Father – and that dynamic of desire and delight, that longing to commune and fellowship with His Father, does not diminish when He becomes flesh and dwells amongst us. He delights to pray, to enjoy His relationship with His Father through the Spirit.
And this is the relationship into which we are caught up by that same Spirit. We tend to get side-tracked by questions about whether prayer makes any difference. Meanwhile, the Spirit’s heart is for us to share in Jesus’ delight of prayer. We tend to parody prayer, seeking God’s involvement in what we are doing. Jesus longs to be faithful to what His Father is doing, and His own part in that. The hope of His heart is that through His own faithfulness, the Father may be glorified. Jesus’ example resonates perfectly with His teaching that we pray: Hallowed be your Name (that your Son may glorify you); your kingdom come (that He might give eternal life); your will be done (to all you have given Him… finishing the work you gave Him to do).
Jesus confidence in the Father’s will being done doesn’t undermine His commitment to prayer. It makes it more compelling. Here Jesus is praying for His ascension. There is precisely no chance that this isn’t going to happen. All creation exists for the sake of this ‘hour’. And because His Father has decreed it, Jesus prays about it. There is something about this dynamic of prayer the Spirit may want to teach us.
Oh well… sometimes being sidetracked isn’t a complete waste of time.
Questions:
It might be worth reading I Cor.15:20-28 alongside John 17:1-5.
How is the glorifying of the Son the foundation for the glorifying of the Father? Could the Father be glorified without the glorifying of the Son? How do we - as Christians - fit into this transaction between the Father and Son? How should it affect how we see the place of the Church in history and in the world?
What do you make of Jesus’ language about giving eternal life to all those the Father has given Him (see also Jn.6:35-40 for similar ideas)? What is Jesus teaching here? Do you agree with it? Does it cause you to feel anxiety or adoration? How does it affect your thinking about evangelism?
How should the link Jesus makes here between evangelism and the glory of God affect our ministry and outreach at MIE?
How do you know if someone ‘knows’ the Father? Have a look at some other passages where John explores this: I Jn.2:1-5; 3:1-6; 4:6-8. What would you say to someone who said they had eternal life, but didn’t exhibit the characteristics of those who know God?
Can you know God without knowing Jesus Christ? What would you then say to someone who claimed to do so? How would you help them to realise the indispensibility of Jesus? What would you say to someone who thought you could know God through sincerely following other religions?
Jesus had a clear vision of the work the Father had called Him to do. Is this unique to Jesus, or is there any sense in which we can know the work the Father has called us to? How could we know if we had ‘finished’ it?
based on the last few chapters of John’s Gospel that we’ve been studying together, what would you say was our ‘work’ as a Church?
We too will share in the glory of God, see e.g. Rom.8:17-21; II Cor.3:18 etc. What does this mean? How does it shape the decisions we make about how we live now? How does it shape our thinking about and expereince of suffering (see Rom.8:17-21 again, or II Cor.4:16-18)?
What is the connection between present suffering and future glory? What is there from Jesus’ recent teaching in previous chapters that might help us answer this question? How does that play out in our experience at MIE?
