When the Lord Jesus was praying to His Father, as recorded in John 17, He may have been on His way to Gethsemane or just arrived there. Luke 22:39–46 shows that Christ was under tremendous pressure—indeed, “Gethsemane” means “oil-press”—yet He was not crushed under the very difficult circumstances that He knew would come upon Him. With the cross before Him, He expressed full confidence in the Father and, as always, enjoyed perfect communion with Him, even there in the garden. In harmonious relationship with the Father, the Lord Jesus was totally committed to His interests, even though He was anticipating the dark hours of the cross. Yet, contemplating those coming hours, He was greatly troubled.

At the age of twelve, Jesus had said, “I must be about My Father’s business” (Lk. 2:49). About thirty years of age, He had begun His public ministry and was always fully engaged in God’s interests, even though rejected by His people from the beginning (Jn. 1:11). Forty days of temptations by the devil could not make Christ deviate from this objective to serve God. Now, having completed His earthly service, the Lord Jesus prayed about the work He would accomplish on the cross. This work formed the basis for His prayer to the Father asking Him to glorify His Son, since the Son had glorified the Father all through His earthly ministry (Jn. 17:4).

Comparing this request with the one in verse 5, we may catch a glimpse of His greatness. There He asks to be glorified as a Man in the presence of the eternal Father, with the glory He already had before the world’s foundation, as the eternal Son! As mind-boggling as these thoughts may be to us human beings, they lead us to worship Him.