The Four Faces of Jesus in John 17

Jesus’ “high priestly” prayer seems repetitious and rambling until we perceive its magnificent liturgical architecture. Once unveiled, the astonishing Old Testament allusions built into His blueprint for the future ought to make us tremble.

Like Adam, Noah, and Abraham, Jesus is about to go into a “deep sleep” from whose darkness He will arise and found a new world. But in this fragrant prayer to the Father, Jesus is also a Spirit-filled craftsman, a co-worker with God. Just as the fashioning of Eve from the side of Adam is described as an act of “construction,” in this prayer Jesus diagrams a four-cornered, four-tiered holy city that descends from the court of God in heaven as a “four-winged” holy robe of righteousness for the bloodied, “circumcised” earth.

After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, that no wind might blow on earth or sea or against any tree. (Revelation 7:1)

The imminent rivers of blood—those at the cross, in the subsequent martyrdoms and the resulting destruction of the corrupted city—would be changed in the twinkling of an eye to a river of life. For that to occur, Jesus would be voluntarily “cut off from His people,” rendered barren, stripped of His Israelite robe with its four blue tasseled “wings” that corresponded to the four rivers of Eden. As the ultimate High Priest, He would then be nailed in type to the four corners of the land, then lifted up as a bloody firstfruits upon the altar of Israel. As the final sacrifice, His fragrant works would rise to heaven and He would be robed again with an eternal glory, ascending with healing in His four “wings” that the bridal city might descend as a cloud, a host of glory, upon the mountain of God.

The basic themes of His petition in John 17 comprise a single sevenfold pattern, but structure of the prayer itself consists of four literary cycles. As a horizontal compass, these four corners or “wings” correspond to the four faces of the cherubim (as seen in Ezekiel and Revelation), and thus the four points of the cruciform Tabernacle. In a vertical descent, they also correspond to the four major “testaments” of the Bible as the points of the horizontal cross are extrapolated as a sequence of stepped terraces — a 4 x 4 spiritual ziggurat, a holy mountain that grows to fill the earth.¹For more discussion, see Jacob’s Ziggurat.

1. The first cycle of the prayer is fivefold, corresponding to the five books of Moses.
2. The second describes the disciples as the mighty men of the Davidic king.
3. The third speaks of the apostles’ ministry as persecuted prophets like Elijah against the first century “Ahab and Jezebel” dwelling in Jerusalem — the Herods and their Temple.
4. The fourth cycle concerns Jesus’ request for all those from the nations who would believe in Him once the hindrances of the old order were wiped away.

Through His detailed (and clearly, Spirit-inspired) employment of the covenant-literary pattern, our Savior puts a liturgical-architectural spin on every word and phrase in the prayer. Read in this light, the apparent shambles is revealed to be a work of breathtaking grandeur, every bit as palatial is John’s description of the Holy City in Revelation 22. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus is already the light at the center of the city — the Spirit-filled architect poring over His blueprint for the real estate He was about to purchase with blood and commission with water. His death was indeed the judgment of the old world (John 12:31).

THE SEVENFOLD SUBJECTS

The “objects” of Jesus’ prayer follow a heptamerous covenant pattern, arranged according to the annual festal calendar but also alluding to the furnishings of the Tabernacle:

 

THE FOURFOLD MOUNTAIN

Moving beyond this general aspect of the prayer, closer analysis reveals four covenant-literary cycles in which Jesus presents four compass points, as symbolized in the faces of the mighty rulers of the four domains of the earth and their corresponding covenant eras: Moses (Ox – Priesthood), David (Lion – Kingdom), Elijah (Eagle – Prophecy), and Messiah (Man – Triune Office united in the Great Prophet).

OX – Moses

The first cycle of the prayer is fivefold, corresponding to the five books of Moses. This also corresponds to the five offerings described at the start of the book of Leviticus.²See The Shape of Leviticus. Jesus completes the work given to Him as the Prophet promised by Moses, yet, like Moses, without receiving any earthly inheritance. This east-facing quarter of the prayer ends with a “Deuteronomy.”

TRANSCENDENCE: Genesis – Ascension Offering

• This stanza carefully presents Jesus as a human Tabernacle, as described in John 1:14. It also moves through the heptateuch, alluding to the authority of the Creator (Genesis), the voice of Yahweh on Sinai (Exodus), the establishment of the Aaronic priesthood (Leviticus), Balaam’s vision of the star of Jacob (Numbers), the redeemed sons of Israel (Deuteronomy), the ultimate promised country (Joshua), and the words of the inspired champions (Judges).

HIERARCHY: Exodus – Tribute Offering

• Through His death and resurrection, Jesus will be both the lamb slain that will divide “Egypt” from “Israel,” Hagar from Sarah, and also the redeemed firstborn of God.

ETHICS: Leviticus – Peace Offering

• As High Priest, Jesus mediates for the true children of God. Instead of ministering ceremonial purity and the continuance of the “land and womb” promises to Abraham, His crucifixion will make the Aaronic priesthood redundant, and indeed bring an end to the sacrifices for sin. With the carnal symbols stripped away, what they had been pointing to millennia could finally be revealed in full—the promise of eternal life.

OATH/SANCTIONS: Numbers – Purification Offering

• As Greater Phinehas, Jesus’ faithfulness makes Him the recipient of the priestly order. As a “eunuch for the kingdom,” all the remaining trappings of earthly inheritance (historical continuity) would be taken from Him that He might receive one hundredfold in the world to come (Matthew 19:12, 29).

SUCCESSION: Deuteronomy – Guilt Offering

• This final offering ended the priestly vow of the Levite, rendering him once again a commoner. The transition from priesthood to kingdom would require the eating of the offering by consecrated priests. In Jesus’ case, He offered His own flesh and blood.

LION – David

The second cycle describes the disciples as the mighty men of the Davidic king. It reiterates the authority of Christ in its first stanza, and then describes in detail what this “work” was that He has just referred to—the training of an initial “body” of twelve.

TRANSCENDENCE
Creation – Sabbath – Ark of the Testimony

• This mysterious request implies that the pattern of submission, humiliation, and glorification on earth described in Philippians 2:5-11 was in fact only a microcosm of Jesus’ role in the history of Man from the Creation to the Cross. He did not lay down His glory at the incarnation, but at the Creation. This means that His servanthood began in some respect in Genesis 1, and indicates that He may not have been fully privy to the Father’s plans not only for Mankind but also for Him throughout covenant history, yet He obeyed as a faithful steward despite events that caused regret and broke His heart (Genesis 6:6; 1 Samuel 15:11; Jeremiah 19:5). Some things were still yet not revealed to Him, such as the time of His coming against Israel, but all would be known once He ascended in the glory cloud to receive His inheritance.³For more discussion, see “The Eternal Perfection of the Son” in Michael Bull, Dark Sayings: Essays for the Eyes of the Heart, and “Educating Jesus” in Michael Bull, Inquiétude: Essays for a … Continue reading
• This assertion is supported by the architecture of the stanza, which puts the request for glory at Creation/Sabbath, places the Father behind a veil (like Noah), the throne of co-regency at Ascension/Firstfruits, the kingdom fellowship of the Spirit at Pentecost, the plunder of faithfulness at Trumpets, the world promised to Him at Conquest, and Jesus’ coming rest and rule at Glorification.

HIERARCHY
Division – Passover – Veil

• The “Exodus” stanza in this cycle is tenfold, reiterating the Ten Words given at Mount Sinai at the first Pentecost and alluding to the revelation of the name of Yahweh to Moses as a prefiguring of this new revelation of the name of God as “Abba” to each believer. Its structure also shows that believers are a “covenant blessing” to Christ, a gift to Him from His Father, just as He is the Father’s gift to us.

ETHICS: Priesthood
Ascension – Firstfruits – Altar & Table

• The Ascension stanza pictures the disciples as a Levitical firstfruits from the Land, and supports the assertion that the Last Supper commissioned these men as sacrificial “firstfruits” lambs, men whose blood would “fill up” the sufferings of Christ as a “continual offering” before the rulers of Israel and Rome.

ETHICS: Kingdom
Testing – Pentecost – Lampstand

• Jesus’ role as priest-king is highlighted in the Pentecost stanza. As a burning bush, the Spirit-filled Son is a sign of greater gifts—and greater deeds—to come.

ETHICS: Prophecy
Maturity – Trumpets – Incense Altar

• The threefold Ethics of the covenant relate to hearing the Law (priesthood), opening the Law (Kingdom), and receiving the Law (Prophecy). That triune process is completed in this stanza, as the final of three.
• The matrix thread that shines here is the pattern of sacrifice, but as the Maturity stanza it also relates to the eyes of the hearer being opened.

OATH/SANCTIONS
Conquest – Atonement – Laver & Mediators

• The Atonement stanza puts Jesus in the Holy Place, standing in the gap, the veil now His flesh, mediating for the saints as their High Priest. This explains His deliberate division between the two goats of Yom Kippur—the ascension goat (believing Jews) and the azal goat (unbelieving Jews). He is the “man in linen” from Ezekiel 9:1-11.

SUCCESSION
Glorification – Booths – Shekinah

• The final stanza is an expression of perichoresis (mutual indwelling) that moves beyond the relationship between the Father and the Son to incorporate the saints gathered by the Spirit. In God’s economy, in contrast to that of Adam, nothing is taken; everything is given as a gift.

EAGLE – Elijah

The third cycle speaks of the apostles’ ministry as persecuted prophets like Elijah against the first century “Ahab and Jezebel” dwelling in Jerusalem — the Herods and their Temple. The prophets would be murdered, and there would be a famine in Jerusalem, a precursor to greater calamities to come at the hand of the ascended Christ.

TRANSCENDENCE
Creation – Sabbath – Ark of the Testimony

• At his ascension, Elijah passed his mantle to Elisha, with a double portion of the Spirit. That event prefigured the ascension of Christ (as “sacrificial head”) and the testimony of the apostles (as “sacrificial body”) against the apostate rulers of the Jews in the first century.

HIERARCHY
Division – Passover – Veil

• The Hierarchy stanza alludes to the protection of the saints by the blood of Christ but also relates to their position as a new court of accountable Sons who stand as lamps before God in heaven. This is revealed in Revelation 2-3, the Hierarchy section of the prophecy, where Jesus tends to the lamps, making sure that their prophetic testimony shines brightly as “writing on the wall” against spiritual Babylon (Daniel 5:5).

ETHICS: Priesthood
Ascension – Firstfruits – Altar & Table

• The Priesthood stanza is twofold, corresponding to the Bronze Altar (the four-cornered Land) and the Golden Table (its Levitical firstfruits). This architecture reveals the context of the mention of Judas: he pictured the carnal firstborn, Cain, the kingly son for whom Abel, the priestly brother, made an offering of blood and was yet slain. The phrase “son of destruction” thus refers primarily to the curse upon the offspring of the serpent, kings who desired dominion of the earth without submission to heaven. Jesus would thwart the devil by giving him exactly what he wanted—sacrificing the sons yet in His lions that He might garner millions of spiritual offspring.

ETHICS: Kingdom
Testing – Pentecost – Lampstand

• In the Kingdom stanza, Jesus predicts the sending of the Spirit as the culmination of the era of Moses, bookended by the first Pentecost and the last, a move from terror and death under the Law to joy and peace in the Spirit.

ETHICS: Prophecy
Maturity – Trumpets – Incense Altar

• Maturity relates to the prophetic testimony of the martyroi. This stanza not only puts the apostles outside the camp in the wilderness like John, but also puts their flesh on the Bronze Altar as “child sacrifices.” Jesus would forgive the nation for its murder of the infants after His birth, but for the conscious slaying of the Sons of God He would not forgive. The four angels would no longer be held back from destroying the city and the sanctuary (Daniel 9:26; Revelation 7:1). As in Numbers, Israel would be spared from destruction, but the inheritance of the saints would be delayed for one generation.

OATH/SANCTIONS
Conquest – Atonement – Laver & Mediators

• Jesus now mediates as the Great Prophet speaking from heaven, and this request is the subject matter of the book of Revelation—the spiritual warfare between the “true Jews” and their false brothers. The Cains were earthy, like Esau, but the Abels were heavenly, like Jacob. As priest-kings of a new Melchizedekian order, the believers—preaching the Gospel and baptising both Jews and Gentiles—would be the gatekeepers of the new city, a Jerusalem which is above. As a resurrected Israel, the Church would be like the Old Testament “school of the prophets,” not a carnal body set apart (sanctified) by bloodied members but a spiritual body perceived and united by its obedience.

SUCCESSION
Glorification – Booths – Shekinah

• Just as the era of the Prophets ended with the scattering of Israel as seed across the entire oikoumene, and and establishing of synagogues to teach the Word in preparation for the coming of the Messiah, so here Jesus commissions the saints as a body of prophets at the culmination of a process of “covenant renewal” worship. The prophecy of Jeremiah concerning the reunion of Israel and Judah after the exile through a restored Mosaic Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34) would be fulfilled again in a greater way—the reunion of Jew and Gentile (Hebrews 10:16).⁴For more discussion, see “Jeremiah’s New Covenant” in Michael Bull, Schema Vol. 1.

MAN – Jesus

The fourth cycle concerns Jesus’ request for all those from the nations who would believe in Him once the hindrances of the old order were wiped away. As it was on Day 6, and for Noah, and in Canaan, and in Daniel 7, the dominion of the beasts upon the Land was only a preparation for the arrival of the Man. Due to his faithfulness, the even the mightiest beasts would bow in submission, culminating in the taming of the dragons of the Sea. The New Covenant is the era of the Man. From the cross onwards, even idolatrous rebellion would become “humanistic,” that is, anti-Christ.

TRANSCENDENCE
Creation – Sabbath – Ark of the Testimony

• Jesus segues from His disciples and their coming apostolic ministry as Firstfruits to a greater Pentecostal harvest. His mention of unity relates to the nature of this New Covenant as a unity of Spirit that transcends all human demarcations. This unity would be signified in the “reversal” of the division of tongues at Babel, whose diverse houses would all now be conquered, possessed, and inhabited by the Spirit of God through the Gospel of Christ, translated into every language upon the earth. The “name” that we now desire is the name of Jesus (Genesis 11:4; Philippians 2:9).

HIERARCHY
Division – Passover – Veil

• This Delegation stanza relates to the tearing of the physical body of Jesus as a “veil” in order that the hidden “head” in the Most Holy Place might be united with the ministerial body of the priesthood in the Holy Place. This pictures the union of heaven and earth.

ETHICS: Priesthood
Ascension – Firstfruits – Altar & Table

• God works in layers. Just as Jesus would be the firstfruits from the dead, Jesus and the apostles would comprise the firstfruits of a greater first century harvest. Then that completed stage would become the head of an even greater body. And this continued growth—like rings in the trunk of a tree—is all the outworking of the union of the Father and the Son.

ETHICS: Kingdom
Testing – Pentecost – Lampstand

• Stanza four—corresponding to the rulers of the heavens—collects the priestly subjects of the first three stanzas and unites them as the governing lights of kingdom, a panoply of Abrahamic stars (Genesis 15:5).

ETHICS: Prophecy
Maturity – Trumpets – Incense Altar

• This stanza relates to the promise of Jesus to His disciples that He would prepare a place for them as household heads (John 14:2-3). They would supersede the existing elders—robed and crowned as faithful saints—who would greet Christ in heaven at His inauguration ceremony (Revelation 4:4). Described as having the same glory as that promised to the saints by Jesus in the letters to the pastors of Asia Minor, these were likely the Old Covenant “heads”—the “fragrant incense cloud” of witnesses mentioned in Hebrews 12:1-2. That is the context of this Trumpets stanza as it relates to the elders and their bowls of incense before the throne of God: not the four “living creatures” as beastly guardians but the enthronement of men before God as His Sons—heirs of the kingdom.

OATH/SANCTIONS
Conquest – Atonement – Laver & Mediators

• Jesus reiterates His role as Chief Priest, the one who would present His own blood as a propitiation. The key word here is “known,” perhaps relating to the purpose of sacrifice as a “nearbringing” that atones for sin in order to restore fellowship.

SUCCESSION
Glorification – Booths – Shekinah

• The “Babelic name” is reiterated in this Booths stanza, mentioned both the Jews (“made known”) and the coming ministry to the Gentiles (“will make it known”). This ultimate perochoresis is the fulfillment of the Shekinah that indwelt the Tabernacle of Moses and the Temple of Solomon, the name above the cherubim now filling the entire earth, completing the construction of the Holy City, that it might finally “place its foot” upon the earth just as the dove of the Spirit had descended upon Christ at His baptism (Genesis 8:9; Luke 3:22).
• With the city completed, Jesus having conquered in the Garden, the Land, and the World, the Son will then present it to the Father as the plunder of conquest, and glory of the earth will exceed the glory of heaven, just as the glory of bride exceeds the glory of the bridegroom, a “magnification” of His virtues (Isaiah 1:3; Luke 1:46).

When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all. (1 Corinthians 15:28)

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