FINISHED THE WORK ...Daily Devotional, Saturday, March 17, 2012

SATURDAY, MARCH 17, 2012

John 17:4  "I have finished the work…”

SCRIPTURE READING: JOHN 17:1-11

1 These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:

2 As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.

3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

4 I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.

5 And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.

6 I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.

7 Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.

8 For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.

9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.

10 And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.

11 And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.

REFLECTION: 

It is is known at Christ’s “High Priestly Prayer.”  Like the High Priest in the Temple at Jerusalem, Jesus ceremonially washed, then prayed for himself and the people.  Unlike the High Priest of the Old Covenant, Jesus would offer himself as the sacrifice for the sins of the people.  (Read Hebrews 7:26,27).

The Last Supper had ended.  Jesus had washed the disciples’ feet.  Now He prays.  His intercession is recorded for us in the 17^th Chapter of John’s Gospel.  We see seven specific requests that Our Lord made of His Father:

…keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, (John 17:11)

…that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. (John 17:13)

…not that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. (John 17:15)

…Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. (John 17:17, 18)

…that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, (John 17:21) (this is repeated in John 17:11)

…that the world may believe that You sent Me. (John 17:21)

                                        

…that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.  (John 17:24,25)

These are wonderful prayer requests.  But it is our Lord’s preface to the requests that captures our attention.  Jesus said, “I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.” (John 17:4)  It’s not hard to see that He glorified God.  But this, “I have finished…” is a hard saying.

Jesus healed, but He certainly did not heal every sick person in the world, or for that matter even in Israel. Yet He said, “I have finished …”

Jesus restored homes and mended hearts, but He did not restore and mend every one of them on earth.  But He said, “I have finished…”

Jesus did not convince every skeptic, win every heart, and save every lost soul living in His day. But He said, “I have finished…”

How could He say that he had “finished?” 

The key to the text lies in the context. (It always does.)  “I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.” (John 17:4).  Indeed He had “finished” all the work that His Father had given Him to do to that point.   Each day He finished what His Father asked of Him. 

He didn’t do everything, He did that something that His Father willed that He would do each moment. 

There is nothing that pierces the soul of Christ’s disciples like His cry from the cross, “It is finished!”  But we knew that He would, “finish” that is.  He always has. He always does. And He always will.

So the God-man finishes.  But what of God’s men, can they finish? Shortly before the axe man severed his neck, the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy,“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 4:7).   He too finished.  He did not finish my course.  He did not finish your course.  He finished his course. 

I find here both consolation and motivation.  Consolation that I need only accomplish what the Lord asks of me. And motivation to know and to do His will “moment by moment.” 

PRAYER: Father in Heaven, Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost!  “Hallelujah! Thine the Glory! Hallelujah! Amen!” We find great comfort and joy in the knowledge that as our Lord prayed, He prayed not only for His disciples but for those of us who would one day be His disciples.  We pray that we will finish the work you have for us today.  May we listen for your instructions.  May we act in time and on time to do your will.  And may we one day hear you say, “well done, enter thou into the joys of thy Lord.”  This we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen. “Our Father, &c.”