The Outcome

 John 17:1 - 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.”

It is often hard to see anything good in the worst of times. A few hours before he was crucified, Jesus opened his prayer with these words: “Father, the hour has come.” He knew His time to die the incredibly painful death on the cross had come. This would be unimaginable suffering. Yet, Jesus’ next words seem out of place: “Glorify your Son.” Romans used crucifixion to humiliate convicted criminals. How could Jesus expect to be glorified? The glorification came in how he died and, more significantly, that he rose again. He would never have seen his greatest glory if he had not gone through the crucifixion.

In His hardest hour, Jesus focused on the good that would come out of it. Jesus’ words in the next verse show how he would glorify God the Father: by giving eternal life to those God gave him. Verse 3 gives us the greatest message in all of history: “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

We would never have had the opportunity to have eternal life had Jesus not endured the pain required to have the death to be resurrected from. Even in that pain, his eyes were on the good that would come out of it, and that good is what it means for us. We each can have eternal life when we believe and come know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent.