The Seventh Sunday of Easter - John 17:1-11 - The Rev. Colette Hammesfahr

 

May 17, 2026 - John 17:1-11

“Jesus looked up to heaven and said.” Today, we hear a prayer from Jesus. It’s the eve of his crucifixion and just hours before his betrayal and arrest. This prayer is at the conclusion of what we call The Farewell Discourse – the final instructions and words of comfort Jesus gives to his disciples. He is in the Upper Room in Jerusalem, following the Last Supper. The prayer is the beginning of what is known as The High Priestly Prayer, the longest recorded prayer of Jesus in the Bible. With him are the eleven disciples – Judas has already left.

Jesus prays, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you.” “I glorified you on earth,” now “glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence.” “Glory” is a word we use a lot in our liturgy. We sing, “Glory to God in the highest.” In the Eucharistic Prayer, we say, “All honor and glory is yours, Almighty Father.” In the Sanctus, we sing, “Heaven and earth are full of your glory.” In the Lord’s Prayer, we pray, “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory.”

What does the word “glory” mean? I think in our culture today, we define it much differently from what Jesus was praying. Today, “glory” often means visibility, influence, admiration, achievement, and winning. With the rise of social media, we can sometimes define glory as the number of followers someone has, how many “likes” their posts have, and whether something has gone “viral.” We live in a culture that tells us to build a name for ourselves, to be successful, to have power and prestige. In our modern world, “glory” usually means standing above others. Do we think that’s what Jesus is referring to when he prays, “Glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you.”?

The film, A Hidden Life, is a true story about Franz Jagerstatter. Franz is a quiet Austrian farmer who refused to swear loyalty to Hitler during World War II. He’s not famous or influential and not very charismatic. He’s an ordinary village farmer, a husband, and a father. His family and friends tell him that his resistance to Hitler is pointless. Who really cares what he thinks? Nobody’s going to notice. The war is going to go on anyway. He should comply quietly like everyone else in the village and make things easier on his family.

In John’s Gospel, Jesus is praying about glory at the very moment when everything around him seems to be collapsing. He’s getting ready to be betrayed and arrested. He’s going to go through suffering, humiliation, and soon death. From the world’s perspective, that is not glory. But Jesus prays, “I have glorified you on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.” Glory comes through faithfulness, not through popularity, success, or outcome. The question for Franz was not, “Will I change the outcome of the war?” The question was “What is faithful? What kind of person am I called to be?” He’s not trying to become important. He’s simply trying not to betray what he believes is true before God.

Because he doesn’t take an oath to Hitler, Franz is arrested and put in prison. He’s now separated from his wife and daughters. Instead of supporting his family, the people of his village turn against them. Eventually, Franz is executed. From the world’s perspective, his life looks like a failure. He doesn’t win. He doesn’t become powerful. He doesn’t change the outcome of the war. But the film asks us a deeper question: What if glory wasn’t measured by success but by faithfulness? What if our lives become glorious not because the world admires us but because we reflect the truth and love of God? Jesus is speaking of glory not in terms of worldly victory but in terms of his faithfulness to the work God has given him to do. Jesus’ glory is revealed in costly love that remains faithful all the way to the end. Like Franz, Jesus remains faithful not because faithfulness guarantees.

Maybe that is what Christian glory really is—not making ourselves the center but allowing the light of God to shine through us. A stained-glass window from the outside can look dark and ordinary. No stained-glass window shines by itself at night. It does not shine on its own. Its beauty is revealed only when light passes through it. Perhaps that is what Jesus is praying about in John’s Gospel. Glory is not about drawing attention to ourselves. Glory is about revealing the presence and character of God. It is about becoming transparent enough that others can see Christ through us.

We cannot always control results. We cannot fix every problem. We cannot guarantee success. But we can decide whether we live truthfully, love faithfully, and reflect the character of Christ in the lives we have been given. The world tells us that glory means being seen. But Christian glory means allowing the light of Christ to be seen through us.

In this prayer, Jesus transforms our understanding of glory. We expect glory to shine through success, power, and victory. But John teaches us that glory shines through humility, sacrifice, and love poured out for others. On the night before his betrayal, Jesus shows us that even suffering and death cannot overcome the love of God. In Jesus, God does not glorify suffering. God is glorifying love that remains strong through suffering and remains faithful all the way to the end. Amen.