After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed. He said, “Father, the time has come. Bring glory to your Son. Then your Son will bring glory to you.
I cried softly like a weak little bird. I sounded like a dove as I mourned. My eyes grew tired as I looked up toward heaven. Lord, my life is in danger. Please come and help me!
Jesus returned the third time. He said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come. Look! The Son of Man is about to be handed over to sinners.
“But the tax collector stood farther away than the Pharisee. He would not even look up to heaven. He brought his hand to his heart and prayed. He said, ‘God, have mercy on me. I am a sinner.’
It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world. It was time for him to go to the Father. Jesus loved his disciples who were in the world. So he now loved them to the very end.
“A time is coming when you will be scattered and go to your own homes. In fact, that time is already here. You will leave me all alone. But I am not really alone. My Father is with me.
When he said this, he meant the Holy Spirit. Those who believed in Jesus would receive the Spirit later. Up to that time, the Spirit had not been given. This was because Jesus had not yet received glory.
He spoke these words while he was teaching in the temple courtyard. He was near the place where the offerings were put. But no one arrested him. That’s because the time for him to die had not yet come.
The God of our fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, has done this. God has brought glory to Jesus, who serves him. But you handed Jesus over to be killed. Pilate had decided to let him go. But you spoke against Jesus when he was in Pilate’s court.
Because of what Christ has done, you believe in God. It was God who raised him from the dead. And it was God who gave him glory. So your faith and hope are in God.