John 17:1-8,13
Paul Miller, the author of Love Walked Among Us, begins teaching seminars by writing these words on a flip chart: I do nothing on my own. I can only do what I see my dad doing.
He asks for analysis. In the age of Oprah and Dr. Phil, the armchair psychologists’ answers come.
He sounds weak. Almost helpless.
Does he have a mind of his own?
If he’s an adult, he needs a little separation from his dad.
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Has this person been to counseling?
Not healthy.
Very childlike.
He’s codependent.
Miller writes, “After I’ve let the hook go deep, I tell them that Jesus said those words.” – “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does . . . .By myself I can do nothing . . . ” (John 5:19, 30, NIV).
Jesus is the model of submission. Let us read John 17 and consider the submission of Jesus in His High Priestly Prayer and what it says to us today. May the hook of God’s grace go deep and reel us in to see just how dependent we are . . . and how wonderful that is.
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, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. i glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me” (John 17:1-8).
“But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves” (John 17:13).