Jesus uses ‘Father’ as a relational approach to God, just like the trust which the boy Jesus surely must have had with Joseph, husband of His mother Mary, many times.
Yet what does this mean to a disciple of Jesus’ teaching to address the Lord God as Father?
Father, the hour has come
There’s a certain immediacy to saying, ‘the hour’ is come, or now is or has come. It is the precise time we have been awaiting – a time prepared long before now.
Our present focus of The Hour Is Come is Jesus’ prayer at the precise time after Judas left the room and prior to the Lord and the Eleven departing for Gethsemane where He is about to be betrayed.
When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come;
glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.
John 17:1-2 ESV
Jesus begins His conversation in prayer by addressing the LORD God in a most intimate and relational way.
“Father,” the Son of Man so boldly addresses Almighty God in heaven. What a connection!
A Man Who IS more than a man — speaking directly to the LORD GOD, as if He Who IS the very Son of God would humbly address his papa on earth.
Trinity begins with the Father
The lesson and relationship learned from Jesus’ prayer is both mysterious and wonderful — glorious in a sense of worship and humbling in the light of an intimate relationship.
Later we will focus again on Jesus the Son of God, His connection through the Holy Spirit and a new covenant of grace for all who will follow Jesus as Lord. But for now we look up only to the Father, as did Jesus in His prayer..
πατήρ – patēr
Choose any of the three definitions you like, but realize that John and the Eleven are listening to the Son of Man, Jesus their Master and Teacher, pray directly to the LORD God in heaven, whose Voice they have heard previously.
- generator or male ancestor
- metaphor for:
- the authors of a family or society of persons animated by the same spirit as himself
- one who has infused his own spirit into others, who actuates and governs their minds
- one who stands in a father’s place and looks after another in a paternal way
- a title of honour
- teachers, as those to whom pupils trace back the knowledge and training they have received (We don’t really honor teachers in this way in these last days, but some give this authority to a priest leader of a flock.)
- the members of the Sanhedrin (As you know, Jesus had some issue with these ‘fathers of Israel’ as well & they will be the ones to clandestinely convict the Messiah of God our Father sent as our atoning Sacrifice to save a remnant of Abraham.)
- God is called the Father (This applies is many ways you may read here, but above all ‘Father of spiritual beings and of all men.’)
By all Authority implied in Jesus’ opening of HIS High Priestly Prayer, it is highly significant that the Lord Jesus ‘lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father …’
And from Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament the definition instructs us from the everyday Greek word used by Jesus and those in Jerusalem governed by Rome:
πατήρ : ‘from a root signifying “a nourisher, protector, upholder” (Lat., pater, Eng., “father,” are akin), is used
[God’s] “Fatherhood” in spiritual relationship through faith is the subject of NT revelation, and waited for the presence on earth of the Son. The spiritual relationship is not universal.
Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament
[& an additional insight: Note: Whereas the everlasting power and divinity of God are manifest in creation, His “Fatherhood” in spiritual relationship through faith is the subject of NT revelation, and waited for the presence on earth of the Son, Mat 11:27; Jhn 17:25.
The spiritual relationship is not universal, Jhn 8:42, 44 (cp. Jhn 1:12; Gal 3:26).] [I will leave you to your own further revelation of the Father through your research of these scriptures. RH]
The ‘Father’ of Jesus’ prayer
With additional insight of bowing down to God the Father in our prayer to heaven, let us recall that Jesus had already taught the Disciples that which we know so well and do take for granted.
The Lord’s Prayer
After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Matthew 6:9 KJV
‘Our,’ which precedes Father, in the Lord’s Prayer is a personal possessive pronoun, a possessive plural in corporate prayer.
So perhaps appropriate in a singular personal possessive sense in prayer, you or I might reasonably pray,
“My Father in heaven. Holy is your Name.”
(And recall that the Lord Jesus has declared: “I and the Father are One.” [John 10:30]
What glorious mystery for us to observe Jesus and the Father, who are One, in this, His most personal prayer prior to the Son’s sacrifice on a Cross for our sins.
The Disciples had been accustomed to Jesus praying to the Father at many times corporately before the multitudes, more privately among them and privately away from them at times.
Luke 11:
And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him,
‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.’
And he said unto them, ‘When ye pray, say,
Our Father which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done,
as in heaven, so in earth.
Luke 11:2b KJV
When your mortal ‘time is come’ will you able to approach your heavenly Father saying, ‘Thy will be done?’
Roger Harned – talkofJesus.com on Jesus’ prayer in John 17
So from this final prayer following the last supper of Jesus and the Disciples, John witnesses this high priestly prayer of their Master and Teacher Jesus, a beloved father to the Twelve for these past three years.
πατήρ – patēr – a title of honour – teachers, as those to whom pupils trace back the knowledge and training they have received
John 17:
… “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You…
5 Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself…
11 I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You.
Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me,
that they may be one even as We are.
One with the One Father
Do you think that it is important to the Apostles that Jesus again prays to the Father with words confirming that He and the Father are ONE?
שְׁמַ֖ע יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵ֖ינוּ יְהוָ֥ה אֶחָֽד׃
“Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!
Deuteronomy 6:4 Masoretic Text, NASB
Jesus continues and prays just a short time later:
21 that they may all be one;
even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You,
that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.
Relationship with our Father in heaven
Paul, Apostle to the gentiles, later writes to the church in Corinth:
Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? … But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him… Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you
1 Corinthians 6:15-19 excerpt NASB
Again, the Apostle Paul and Jesus both point to the glorious mystery of the Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as ONE, as well as a personal relationship between the spirit of a redeemed man like you or me to the ONE GOD, Who IS Spirit and truth.
John 17:
Jesus continues His High Priestly Prayer as intercession for these disciples and those to follow:
24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am…
25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me…
What must the Disciple have thought following Jesus’ prayer to the Father?
What do you think of this prayer to the Holy Father in heaven by the Highest of High Priests praying for your soul?
“Lord,” they called Jesus — “the existing One” as more than a Son of Man, as the LORD GOD IS ONE!
אֱלֹהִים
‘elohiym – ʼĕlôhîym, el-o-heem’; plural of H433; gods in the ordinary sense; but specifically used (in the plural thus, especially with the article) of the supreme God
Our LORD is the ONE GOD — Trinity — the Son interceding by prayer and His own priestly Sacrifice for those who believe and would be saved.
When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered.
John 18:1 ESV
To be continued...
