Read­ing Time: 3 minutes

The hour has come

“Fath­er, the hour has come; glor­i­fy your Son so that the Son may glor­i­fy you” (John 17:1). In the pre­vi­ous chapter (John 16), Jesus informed the dis­ciples of his death and depar­ture, and the prom­ise to send them the Paraclete. This is no longer the time of veiled lan­guage. The dis­ciples rejoiced he spoke to them in plain lan­guage, and believed he came from God (John 16:29–31). Although they believed Jesus came from the Fath­er, yet, Jesus reminded them that they will all for­sake him. He also reminded them that they will have trouble in the world, but this should not worry them because he has conquered the world (John 16:32–33). It was after these touch­ing words that Jesus lif­ted his eyes to heav­en and implored the Fath­er to glor­i­fy him to enable him glor­i­fy him too. What is this ‘hour’ that has come?

In response to his mother’s invit­a­tion to save the newly wed­ded couples from embar­rass­ment by provid­ing them with drinks for their guests, Jesus replied to Mary “woman, how does that con­cern you and I? My hour has not come yet” (John 2:4). Again, dur­ing the Jew­ish feast of Shel­ters (Sukkoth), Jesus trav­elled to Jer­u­s­alem and when the feast was over, he went to the Temple to teach. As he taught freely in the Temple, the people wondered why the author­ity allowed him to do so, ques­tion­ing if they had recog­nized and accep­ted him as the mes­si­ah (John 7). When they com­plained that they knew where he came from, and that when the true mes­si­ah comes, no one will be able to tell where he came from, Jesus cried out as he taught in the Temple “You know me, and you know where I am from. I have not come on my own. But the one who sent me is true, and you do not know him. I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me” (John 7:28–29). On hear­ing these words, they wanted to arrest him. Now, John notes that because his hour has not yet come, no one laid a hand on him (John 7:30). Twice, the text says it was not yet his hour. But in John 17:1, Jesus says it is his hour.

This hour (Greek: ōra) is a theo­lo­gic­al hour. It is the hour of alleg­a­tions and false accus­a­tions. It is the hour of pas­sion. It is the hour of death. It is the hour of sal­va­tion. It is the hour when the redempt­ive acts of Jesus will be accom­plished. It is the hour of resur­rec­tion. It is the hour of judg­ment. It is the hour of glor­i­fic­a­tion. This is the hour Jesus has been wait­ing for. The hour estab­lished and decided by God him­self – the hour of redemp­tion. It is divine hour. It is God’s time. It is the hour of his exal­ta­tion. It is the hour of his return to the Fath­er after his pub­lic and earthly mis­sion. In Isai­ah, God con­fessed he will nev­er give or share his glory with any­one (Isa 42:8; 48:11). But here, Jesus beck­ons on God to glor­i­fy him. One of the reas­ons the Jews wanted to kill Jesus was because he made him­self equal with God (John 5:18; cf. Phil 2:6). Jesus did not just claim to be equal with God, he was one with God (John 10:30; 17:22).

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