Glorified through Obedience

Gospel Reflection for Tuesday, June 3rd, 2025 - John 17:1-11a

Jesus lifts up His eyes to heaven and begins to pray.

If you can imagine the scene with me: the upper room is still. The hour has finally come and before the weight of the Cross is fully pressed upon Him, Jesus turns to prayer. All eyes are on Him as He speaks these words “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you”

He knows what lies ahead, and yet His focus is on obedience, on love, and on glory. Not the glory this world offers through fame, and money, but the kind of glory that is eternal, that is found in obedience, in suffering, and in love. The kind of glory that reveals the love of the Father through obedience, even unto death.

Then Jesus speaks these words “I glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do. Now glorify me, Father, with you, with the glory that I had with you before the world began.” He had the fullness of glory before the world began. And yet, He chose to step into time, to humble Himself, to obey. His whole earthly life was one great act of surrender to the Father’s will.

Then Jesus shifts the focus of His prayer from Himself to the disciples. “Now they know that everything you gave me is from you, because the words you gave to me I have given to them, and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me.”

To be disciples of Christ means accepting the words of Christ, to receive them as the Father’s own words, and to respond with belief. That is our glory. That is how we honor Him. Like Jesus, we glorify the Father, not with perfect actions, perfect words, perfect lives, but through surrender and obedience.

Finally, Jesus entrusts His disciples to the Father’s care. “I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me, because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours and everything of yours is mine, and I have been glorified in them.”

He doesn’t ask the Father to remove them from the world, instead He asks that they be kept faithful within it. That through them, Christ and the Father may be glorified through their faith and their obedience.

Friends, today’s gospel gives us a simple mission that is hard to live out. To hear Christ’s words and believe, yes, but to do more than that. To hear Christ’s words, and be moved to obedience, and through obedience, love. We are challenged in today’s gospel to glorify Christ and the Father through our faith and obedience to Christ’s words. Thankfully we have Christ’s prayers to help us succeed a little more each day, and the prayers of all the angels and saints to help us persevere to the very end.

Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said,
“Father, the hour has come.
Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you,
just as you gave him authority over all people,
so that your son may give eternal life to all you gave him.
Now this is eternal life,
that they should know you, the only true God,
and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.
I glorified you on earth
by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do.
Now glorify me, Father, with you,
with the glory that I had with you before the world began.

“I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world.
They belonged to you, and you gave them to me,
and they have kept your word.
Now they know that everything you gave me is from you,
because the words you gave to me I have given to them,
and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you,
and they have believed that you sent me.
I pray for them.
I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me,
because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours
and everything of yours is mine,
and I have been glorified in them.
And now I will no longer be in the world,
but they are in the world, while I am coming to you.”