THE HOUR HAS COME

Jn.17:1 – “Jesus spoke these things; and raising His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, so that the Son may glorify You…”

Special times bring about special things. Jesus knew the time for His appointed death had come, the hour of God’s greatest act, the work of redemption was now in progress. Gethsemane marked Jesus’ final surrender, His surrender to the predetermined plan for His death on a cross. His death and subsequent resurrection would release His power of redemption into all the world. Could it be we are in one of those God moments right now? Could it be it is time for God to be glorified with His final harvest and the glory of God put on display in His church? I believe that is exactly what is going on, it is time for God to glorify His Son in His final harvest in the earth. Here is how Augustine describes this verse.

“In saying, “Father, the hour is come; glorify your Son,” he showed that all time, and every occasion when he did anything or suffered anything to be done, was arranged by him who was subject to no time … Let no one think that this hour came through any urgency of fate but rather by divine appointment. It was no necessary law of the heavenly bodies that tied the passion of Christ to its timetable. How could anyone think that the stars compelled their own maker to die? It was not the time, therefore, that drove Christ to his death, but Christ who selected the time to die. He also fixed the time when he was born of the Virgin, with the Father, of whom he was born independently of time.… He then may say, “Father, the hour is come,” who has arranged every hour with the Father saying, as it were, “Father, the hour,” which we fixed together for the sake of humanity and of my glorification among them, “is come; glorify your Son, that your Son also may glorify you.”

That is pretty powerful, Jesus was recognizing and yielding to the time that He had set. On the outside Jesus looked like a victim, the reality was that He had set the time frame Himself. He chose when to lay down His life. It wasn’t Judas, the Jewish leaders, or even Pilate; Jesus chose where and when to lay down His life. He is also the One orchestrating the events in our world today. Trust Him, He is the Good Shepherd, no one can snatch us out of His hand or stop His plan from coming to pass.