[AI translation] When I come to this part of the New Testament, my hand holding the Bible always shakes. I feel, as someone once said, almost the same warning that Moses heard at the burning bush: "Unloose your shoes from off your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground." A man's prayer is always a holy thing. So is Jesus'! For here Jesus is praying, long and long to the Father! We get a glimpse of the innermost relationship of Jesus on earth with His heavenly Father that truly surpasses all human understanding. So let us contemplate with prayerful reverence the mystery of the timeless unity of the Father and the Son! I can understand Spener, one of the most blessed preachers of the last century, who is said not to have dared to preach on this passage once in his 40 years of ministry. Let us approach it, then, as Moses approached the burning bush: with humility, with reverent reverence, as those who walk in the sanctuary of the whole New Testament! I do not want to systematize the verses read, to bring them into a single perspective, but to listen to the Word almost verse by verse, sometimes word by word, and to amplify something of the message of this holy prayer through the megaphone of human words.Let us begin at the beginning. Jesus begins, "Father!" Just like that, simply. No priestly phrases, no adjectives like "heavenly" or "almighty" or "eternal" or "sweet," but simply, but all the more majestically, "Father!" As one who knows himself so much in the immediate presence of the living God, in full intimate communion with God, that at any moment, in any situation, he can simply begin to talk to him. There is no need for any introduction, no preparation, no quieting down, no relaxation. There is no ritual, no liturgical formality, no church, just simply the most confident address, "Father!" This single word is the secret of the great, deep peace and security that pervades the whole prayer. Yet Jesus said this prayer as he was on his way to the Garden of Gethsemane. That is, when he was fully aware that he was about to embark on a terrible night of suffering! And yet there is not a single word of complaint, not a single lament in the whole prayer. Not a trace of fear of the suffering and death that awaited him! Indeed, the only secret of all this is that, both on the way to Calvary and on the way to the cross, immense peace, tranquillity and strength are given by the most intimate relationship with God, expressed in this address: "Father!"
I know very well that no one on this earth has ever said the word "Father" as Jesus did. Yet it was Jesus Himself who encouraged us to dare to address the mighty God in the same way that He does: "Father!" Jesus brought that mysterious, invisible and unimaginable God close to the Father! He came into our world for this very purpose, to leave for a time the heavenly glory which He enjoyed with God before the world was, in order to make known to us the supreme Lord of the whole created universe as our Father. Hence it was all: all the suffering, the death on Calvary, the tomb opened, that we might know the only true God as Father, through Him whom He sent to this earth. So that you and I, and all puny, small, imperfect people like us, may call upon the holy and true God, "Father!" Sadly, we have become very accustomed to this address, and there can be no greater privilege for man on this earth! If only you could say "Father" a little like Jesus, you would have more peace, calmness and security in your heart.
A colleague of mine in Switzerland told me that once, when he was travelling with his little son on the train, the train passed through a tunnel several times. When it suddenly became dark, the father felt the little child's body clinging to him and clinging to his arm. If he couldn't see his father, he could at least feel his presence. And that was enough for him. A child's heart could be so still at the feeling of a father's nearness. All anxiety, pain, worry, in fact, comes from a lack of a sense of protection, a sense of being vulnerable to people or to fate. A lack of awareness of the closeness of the Father. So, if Jesus means anything to you, you too are free, without any knocking, without any religious ceremony, to simply address that mysterious divine power above you as Jesus did: 'Father'. Let every troubled, wavering heart think only of Jesus and say with childlike confidence with Him, "Father," and it will find peace.
"Father," says Jesus, and continues, "the hour has come." Yes, it is! And what an hour it is! The hour of the most terrible suffering and humiliation. The dreadful hour in which he must drink from that bitter cup! The hour of the darkest night! Do we remember? Jesus also said, "My hour is not yet come!" Now, pray, he says, "My hour has come!" It is a moving expression, because it hints at something of the divine plan that was made in the counsel of the God of the Trinity, in which everything that must happen to Jesus in time is worked out in advance with almost clock-like precision. And now, behold, the time has come for something, just as the alarm clock sounds at the time it was previously set for. Observe the majestic calm with which Jesus states that this hour, this dreadful hour, has also been appointed for him by the Father. It is also a predestinated hour. It is in God's earthly programme for Jesus. This hour did not come by chance! No! It was the Father's eternal plan. That's why Jesus can look up to the Father with such calm confidence in this hour, which has now come! And that is why in this hour, for Jesus, there is not only suffering, but also consolation!
I know very well that such an hour has never yet come for anyone, nor will it ever come again, as has come for Jesus. But there comes an hour of darkness in the life of each of us. Perhaps a tragic bereavement, or a serious illness, or a painful disappointment, or some kind of sadness or suffering. Let us not forget that God has a programme for our lives too. And that programme includes these hours. And when one of these hours comes, always remember that this is the hour that God has calculated into the plan for your life. That behind this hour is God, with his fatherly love! That is why this hour cannot make you doubt the fatherly love of God. In such an hour, just think of Jesus, who so peacefully and calmly went to Calvary. And such a thought of Jesus will already help you a lot to be able to face such hours with such peace and such calm confidence! In the hour accepted from the hand of God, even in the midst of suffering, there is always comfort!
"Give glory to your Son, so that your Son may give glory to you", Jesus' prayer continues. Again, something quite strange and unusual by human standards. For just think, in what does Jesus glorify the Father, and in what does the Father glorify the Son? In nothing other than what this hour will bring: suffering and death on Calvary! What is failure and shame by our standards is glory by divine standards! Jesus glorifies the Father by obediently following his appointed path through suffering and damning death. In offering himself as a sacrifice, offering his innocent, pure life in place of sinful human lives, to bear the divine punishment that all human sin deserves. And God glorifies the Son in that it is precisely through His suffering and death that He communicates to us human beings His true love, the love that covers all things, forgives all things, and His true power to raise us to new life, to create new life even out of death. Jesus now prays that every event of Gethsemane and Calvary may be a witness to God's redeeming love. May people come to know in His cross the divine resource from which they can draw comfort, forgiveness of sins, and the possibility of renewal of even the most depraved life, at all times. And so, in the darkest place of the world, on sad Golgotha, the greatest light, the eternal glory of God, will shine forth!
O how the Father has heard this prayer of the Son! To this day, for the death of Jesus on the cross, most men on the face of the whole earth glorify God! For there, on Calvary, heaven meets earth. There, God's forgiving love embraces and lifts up our sinful lives.
I received a letter from someone the other day. Among other things, he wrote: "It is unbearable for me that Jesus has taken all my sins upon Himself. How dare I expect and accept it from Him? If I am a sinner, I have to be punished and I cannot put the burden on Him! I suffer at the thought!" Would that many of us would suffer from that thought! Would that the thought were not so common, so empty a sound! If only it were so unbearable that we would collapse under it! Under the thought that all my sins He has taken upon Himself and He has punished me for them. Look - this is what Jesus prayed for! And that's why Jesus prayed that we would dare, with great humility, but dare to accept this sacrifice from Him! You truly give God glory by accepting from Him the new life, cleansed from sin, that Jesus wants to give you through His redemptive death!
This new life is eternal life itself! Thus Jesus says here, "But this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." Again, such an unusual expression. Is it eternal life to know God? We usually think of eternal life as that which will be opened beyond the grave to whom it is opened. Well: it is! But that eternal life begins right here and now! And it is with the knowledge of the one, true God through Jesus. Here the word "knowing" does not mean an intellectual, intellectual function, but in the biblical sense of the deepest and most intimate relationship, as the Bible uses the word to express the most intimate relationship between spouses. Let me illustrate with an example. A poor girl, when she meets a rich young man, in the ordinary sense of the word, does not change anything in the way she lives. But if she knows him in the biblical sense of the word, that is, if they become each other's, if they say to each other, "I am yours, you are mine, spade and spade, and the great bell shall separate us" - then the poor girl's life, which was narrow until then, is drawn into the generous life of the other, her whole form of life is changed.
Well, that's the kind of insight we're talking about. On Calvary there was the great happy realization that I am all His. God's! He, God, is all mine! And this intimate relationship is no longer separated even by the shovel-knife and the great bell. Whoever thus comes to know God through Jesus is already involved in a higher form of life, is already living from above. From the world of God, from the power of God, from the grace of the Father! In full communion of life with God!
I would now like to ask you all: do you know the one true God and the one he sent, Jesus Christ? Is this how you know Him? This is what Jesus wanted! That is what he prayed for!
May it be that for your heart and your faith, the prayer is now being heard! Then you too can now begin a new life of purity, joy and reconciliation with eternal life in your heart!
The whole passage began, "Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, 'Father.'" In the darkest part of his life, he lifted his eyes to heaven. That is what we should learn from Him! To go through life with our heads up, looking to the sky! And just when the road gets darker and darker, the burden gets heavier and heavier. Not to hang your head down, but to lift it up just then! Look not to the situation that is full of trouble, but to the Lord! Upwards, to the sky! Or dare you not? Is there something in your life that makes you dare not lift your eyes to the sky? It is true, anyone who is carrying some burden of conscience, some sin, cannot and dare not look up to heaven freely. Is it something like this that hinders you? Take it under the cross. Believe me, he will forgive you. He will free you, he will heal your soul. Then you too will know, you too will dare to lift your eyes freely, joyfully, to the sky and say with Jesus, with childlike confidence, "Father!"
Amen!
Date: 23 March 1969.