Passion Week 4: Father, I Desire
I in them and You in Me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that You sent Me and loved them even as You loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, may be with Me where I am, to see My glory that You have given Me because You loved Me before the foundation of the world. ... I made known to them Your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which You have loved Me may be in them, and I in them." - John 17:23-24, 26
Thursday of Passion Week is traditionally known as Maundy Thursday. “Maundy” is derived from the Latin word for "command," and refers to Jesus' commandment to the disciples to "Love one another as I have loved you." Today we remember and celebrate the evening in Passion Week when Jesus shared a Passover meal with His disciples before He was arrested and went to the cross. The somber evening is recorded in John’s gospel in great detail starting in chapter thirteen.
After they finished supper, Jesus laid aside His outer garments and washed the disciples' feet; demonstrating what servant-leadership looks like. He then instructed the disciples to do the same to each other.
Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside His outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around His waist. Then He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around Him... You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. - John 13:3-5, 13-14
Jesus then tells Peter that he would deny Him three times and that another one of the twelve would betray Him (Jn 13:21-38). The mood was somber. The disciples did not understand what Jesus was saying and were greatly distressed. Jesus comforts them with the promise of the New Jerusalem and the promise that He would send another Helper, the Holy Spirit, to be with them and in them forever. He would comfort us, lead us into all truth, tell us of things to come, convict the world of sin, and take what belongs to Jesus and give it to us.
"Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going." ... And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. - John 14:1-4, 16-18
Jesus then shifts into His memorable teaching on the life of abiding in the vine, pruning, and friendship with God (Jn 15:1-17) and ends with a call for them to overcome, just as He was about to overcome.
Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave Me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with Me. I have said these things to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world." - John 16:32-33
After Jesus finished speaking He lifted His eyes to Heaven and began to pray to His father. Jesus peers through the veil of the temporary into the eternal realm to “Our Father, who is in Heaven”. Can you imagine this moment? Can you imagine what it was like for the disciples? They were getting a front-row seat to God talking to God about God’s desires, plans, and purposes. All of a sudden, heaven and earth converged around the table, and Jesus, caught up in the glory, uttered five words that catapulted created order into glorious transition (Jn 17:1).
“Father, the hour has come…”
The memory of the glory that He and the Father shared together in eternity before anything created began to touch Jesus. The Man, Christ Jesus, was remembering how They, the eternal Trinity, had dreamed up the plan for all things, for the human race and for the earth together before the foundation of the world.
“And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.” - John 17:5
Then Jesus begins to pray for His friends around the table. What were the disciples thinking sitting around the table while God talked to God about them? (John 17:9-19) The farther He goes up in prayer, the farther He sees out over the mountain ranges of millennia. Jesus, lost in supplication, looks down the halls of time and begins to pour out His heart, before the Father, as He prays for us and all who believe in Him through the apostles’ witness.
"I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” – John 17:20-23
Jesus looked ahead at the glory of His Church, walking in the power of the Holy Spirit and in love for one another. He was looking at what all we would gain from His sacrifice. He began to gaze upon her as she shines in brilliant beauty in the midst of the darkness. Jesus was overwhelmed as He erupted in emotion crying,
“Father, I desire…”
An explosion happened in the heart of Jesus as it became a groan of intercession. The same desire that brought creation into existence was about to bring a new creation out of His own body. These last words in prayer, before His betrayal in the garden, reveal the motivation of His heart in everything that will transpire over Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, may be with Me where I am, to see My glory that You have given Me because You loved Me before the foundation of the world. - John 17:24
Jesus pointedly asked the Father in verses 24- 26, that through the work He would accomplish we, weak and broken people, would be with Him where He is and that we would behold His glory. Not only with Him but for the same love which His Father has for Him would be in us, His church. That we would feel the same way about Him that the Father does. Can you hear the heart of the Bridegroom? What He was about to do, He would do for love. That your heart would flow like a river with love and affect for Him forever.
“I made known to them Your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which You have loved Me may be in them, and I in them." – John 17:26
Jesus has done the unthinkable. He asked the Father to give the redeemed of the human race the highest pleasure possible, to behold the unparalleled splendor of God in the face of Jesus and to feel the same love that the Father has for His Son. God’s intentions are not to simply give us the right set of Gospel facts in order for us to pass the test to get into Heaven. He has dreamt up something far more magnificent. He wants us to see and experience the pleasure of holy love for the glorious Son. He died to make it possible.
