The Hour Has Come

John 17:1  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,

The hour has come.

Have you ever been falsely accused? Had your reputation and good name slandered about something you were innocent of? Have your words ever been twisted by someone who took them the wrong way? Has anyone ever disliked or hated you so much that your very existence was such a threat that they not only wanted to murder you but actually planned it out and acted on that plan?

We’ve all been falsely accused, been slandered (gossiped about) and had someone twist our words around. But how many of us actually had a hit taken out on us only because someone saw us as a threat to them but we had never done any actual wrong to them? Very few of us.

Jesus was charged by the Jewish authorities for the crime of blasphemy because He claimed to be the Son of God; a title the Jews recognized as Messiah, as King. They refused to receive the truth of His title and instead they saw Him as a threat to their worldly agenda. They simply refused to take Him at His word and felt so strongly about His existence being a threat that they violated the very commandments they were sworn to uphold.

And at the same time it was the plan of God.

Wait a minute. God planned for His Son to be unjustly accused; to be tortured beyond comprehension; to be executed as the worst possible criminal alive when His Son was innocent? God planned for sin to be acted upon in order for salvation to come into the world? Well, yes.

Because there was just no other way. In order for the hour of salvation to come it had to happen in this exact way. Man had to be shown that the only legitimate sacrifice for sin would be an innocent, guiltless, sinless Lamb of God. And man would have to be shown that the best that man can do is to take what is pure and holy and turn it into bloody rags. Man’s part in all of this was to bring his sins to the table. Man could do nothing to accomplish salvation except to play his sinful part in all of this. And all man could do afterward was to hopefully begin to take God at His word and trust in His word and then receive God’s salvation.

It’s not my salvation, it’s His. God does all the work, takes the anguish, the pain, the horror, the degradation of my sin upon Himself. The only proper and fitting response is to worship. Worthy is the Lamb who was slain. Holy, holy is He.

The hour has come.