Jesus Told The Father That All Was Ready

What Did Jesus Do?

He lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said,
“Father, the hour has come.”
John 17.1

Jesus, if you will, was the Father's “Man on the Scene.” Certainly, the Father saw and knew all that transpired. But there's always an advantage to being able to get “hard intel” from someone who has their feet on the ground in the theatre of operations. There was nothing to prevent the Father from acting on his own sovereign authority, but he deferred to the judgment of the Son. When Jesus told the Father that all was ready, with the message, “Father, the hour has come,” it triggered the events of the greatest rescue operation ever.

You see, the Father had sent the Son into the world as a one-man insertion team for one purpose only—to rescue the children of God from sin and death. Like many other operations, this mission depended upon precise timing. Certainly, with all eternity to choose from, you didn't think that the Incarnation occurred at some arbitrary moment in time. There was a people to be chosen, kingdoms to rise and fall, prophecies to be made and fulfilled, and, ultimately, a Son to be born to us (see Isaiah 9.6).

The Father had complete trust in the Son; he would not have sent him on the mission if he had not been sure that Jesus would accomplish every single task required of him, no matter how daunting, dangerous, or deadly. And, in the fullness of time, it was Jesus who would say whether or not the mission was a “go.” To be sure, Jesus was no different from any of us in that he desperately hoped there might be another way to complete the operation that would save all those the Father had given to him. Yet, his sense of duty and obedience to the Father kept Jesus focused on what had to happen to complete the mission as planned (see Mark 14.36).

And so, when he judged everything was perfectly in place, Jesus turned his eyes heavenward and told his Father all was now ready, the hour had come. It would be the most momentous and memorable hour in history. It would be an hour of great passion. It would be an hour betrayal, denial, and desertion. It would be an hour of great darkness and evil. It would be an hour of terrible pain and suffering. It would be an hour of sacrifice and sorrow. It would be an hour when death would appear to have triumphed. It would, ultimately, be the hour of the greatest glory the world will ever know this side of the coming kingdom of God. And the glory was what both Father and Son had their eyes on, glory that would be manifest in the Son giving eternal life to all whom the Father had given to him (John 17.2).

Oh, the band of soldiers and officers that came and arrested Jesus thought he was in their power, but the hour was under the authority of the Father and the Son. The Sanhedrin would convene and convict Jesus, and sentence him to be crucified, but the hour and manner of Christ's death had been determined by the Father and the Son. Satan believed he had finally succeeded in his rebellion against God, but the hour had arrived when the Son of the Father was about to crush the head of the ancient serpent. The world believed it was done with Jesus, but it was in fact the hour for the Son to be glorified in heaven and on earth.

Now, some might say, “This is all well and good that the Father and Son had such a perfect plan worked out for Jesus. But what about my life?” Well, the truth is, in and through the Son, the Father has a perfect plan for the life of each one of his children. The key for that plan to be gloriously carried out in our lives is for us to live by faith, and to trust the Father when our hour comes. That's what Jesus did.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenminitries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4