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:
This verse opens what scholars call Jesus' "High Priestly Prayer" — the longest recorded prayer of Jesus in the Bible, spoken the night before his crucifixion. Jesus is speaking to God the Father, knowing exactly what is about to happen to him. In the Jewish tradition, a high priest would intercede before God on behalf of the people; here, Jesus steps into that role for himself and all who would follow him. When he says "the time has come," he means the cross — not as a tragedy that snuck up on him, but as the moment everything has been building toward. The word "glorify" here doesn't mean fame or applause; it means revealing the fullness of who someone truly is, so that the other might be revealed too.
Father, I don't always understand what glory looks like in the middle of hard things. But Jesus trusted you with his most defining hour — help me trust you with mine. Let something real be revealed through what I'd rather escape. Amen.
Most of us pray for things to get easier. Fewer complications, lighter loads, a way around the hard thing that's coming. Jesus prays for something radically different the night before his death — he asks to be fully seen. "Glorify your Son." He's not asking to be rescued. He's asking that what he's about to do would reveal something true and beautiful about both himself and the Father. That reframes what glory even means. It's not spotlight and applause. It's being fully known in your most defining moment — even when that moment involves a cross. What would it look like if you brought that posture to your own hard seasons? Not "God, get me out of this," but "God, let something true be revealed through this." That's not resignation or masochism — it's a particular kind of trust. It's the belief that your story, even the painful chapter you're currently living, is held by someone who can make it mean something. Jesus didn't pray to escape suffering; he prayed for the suffering to count. That prayer is still available to you.
What do you think Jesus meant when he said 'the time has come'? Why might he have framed the cross as a moment that arrived rather than a tragedy that struck?
When you pray, what do you most often ask for? How does your typical prayer compare to what Jesus prays here — and does that comparison challenge or comfort you?
If glory means being fully known in your most defining moment, does that change how you think about God being glorified through suffering — yours or someone else's?
How might your relationships shift if you prayed for the people around you to be truly seen and known in their hardest moments, rather than just helped out of them?
What's one situation in your life right now where you could honestly pray 'let something true be revealed through this' instead of 'get me out of this' — and what would that require of you?
I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.
John 17:4
My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me.
Psalms 31:15
Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.
John 12:28
Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:2
And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
John 17:5
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
Philippians 2:9
And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.
John 12:23
Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;
Hebrews 5:7
When Jesus had spoken these things, He raised His eyes to heaven [in prayer] and said, "Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, so that Your Son may glorify You.
AMP
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,
ESV
Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, 'Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You,
NASB
Jesus Prays for Himself After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.
NIV
Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You,
NKJV
After saying all these things, Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so he can give glory back to you.
NLT
Jesus said these things. Then, raising his eyes in prayer, he said: Father, it's time. Display the bright splendor of your Son So the Son in turn may show your bright splendor.
MSG