Gospel of St. John

Prayers for Christ – 17:1-5

The seventeenth chapter of John contains the longest recorded prayer our Lord offered during His public ministry on earth.  It has been justly designated His High Priestly Prayer.  It was offered in the presence of His apostles, after the institution and celebration of the Lord’s Supper.  This example of solemnity, elevation of thought, power of expression and comprehensiveness of meaning is beyond the reach of mortal man.  It is a model of His intercession for us in the presence of God, the Father.

“These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come;  glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:  As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.  And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”  We covered three chapters with Jesus preparing the disciples for life without him.  Now he commends them to the care of the Father – His Father and their Father.  In effect, he went from preaching to praying.  It illustrates another lesson to us.  After we have done all we can to promote the holiness and comfort of those with whom we are connected, we should in prayer and supplication beseech Him, who is the author of all good, to bless the objects of our care and the means which we have employed for their welfare.  Doctrine has no power, unless efficacy is imparted to it from above.  Christ’s example is to mingle prayers with his work to implore the assistance of God, that His blessing may render the labors fruitful.

As Anglicans, we believe that bodily gestures should not be ignored in prayer and worship.  Gestures can naturally express our withdrawal from earthly things as well as our deep veneration and holy confidence.  Jesus raising his eyes to heaven denoted the elevation of His heart to God.  It is a turning away from dependency on the things of this life.

God is Father of Jesus in a three-fold sense.

Ø      God produced Jesus’ human nature.

Ø      God is the Head and Representative of the holy family.

Ø      Father defines the essential relationship between God and Jesus and God and us.

Jesus recognized that the hour is come that God will glorify the Son so the Father may glorify Him.  He prays for support while on the Cross and to bring Him out of the grave.  This is not to bring glory to Jesus but to bring glory to God.  Jesus has illustrated that God give him power over all flesh.  He asked that God show that He may give eternal life to those given to Him by the Father.  Finally, he acknowledged that those receiving eternal life would be those who know God as the only true God and believe on Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son.

“I have glorified thee on the earth:  I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.  And now, O Father, Glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.”  Jesus declares that He has glorified the Father by finishing the works assigned to him.  He glorified Him by His miracles and His words, constantly praising God.  He glorified him by his holy life which was totally set aside in obedience to God’s will.

Jesus asked to be glorified with the glory He had before the incarnation.  Before the world existed, Jesus had the glory of God’s own self.  He knows what that glory involves and was with God during the creation of the world.  He does not say, “I will glorify myself.  He retains the relationship of Father and Son and asked that the Father glorify him as he was before.

This prayer can be summarized as:

Ø      I have finished the assigned work

Ø      Thy Son be glorified

Ø      Thy Son glorify the Father

Ø      Acknowledged power over all flesh

Ø      Eternal life for all believers

Ø      All with eternal life know the one True God.

Prayers for the Disciples – 17:6-12

“I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world:  thine they were, and thou gavest them me;  and they have kept thy word.  Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.  For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me;  and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me”  In the prior verses, Jesus prayed for himself.  Now he prays for the disciples.  He starts by describing those for whom He is praying.  They are the ones who kept God’s word.  They are the ones who believed the words from God delivered by Jesus.  They are the ones who believed Jesus was sent by God.  He described what He had done; what the Father had done and what the disciples had done.  These are the facts involved in eternal life.  It does not involve a particular doctrine, liturgy or discipline other than that described above.  Jesus does not take credit for the integrity of the disciples.  He attributes it to God’s special blessing and assistance.

Jesus is talking here of the disciples’ faith.  He makes no mention of their weak character, incomplete knowledge or faint hearts.  No master ever led such weak servants as Jesus had in the eleven apostles.  It shows the least degree of faith is very precious in His eyes.  Faith requires reception of Jesus words.  Faith provides the potential for growth and the overcoming of human weakness.

“I pray for them:  I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me;  for they are thine.  And all mine are thine, and thine are mine;  and I am glorified in them.”  There is a common mold of this world in which the characters of men are formed.  There is a course of this world in which men walk until they have been transformed by the renewing of their minds.  Christ is not praying for those of the world.  Christ is praying for those who are on the narrow way which leadeth unto eternal life.  He is the propitiation for our sins which makes him an advocate for us.  He died for our sins and he makes intercession for us in a spiritual saving way.  When he prays in a spiritual saving way, he prays for those who are reborn and renewed by his teaching.

Christ taught, “love your enemies, bless them which curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.”  When Christ is displaying the attributes of the perfect man, he prays for everyone.  When Christ displays the attributes of a mediator, he prays only for those who desire saving grace and will modify their lives for it.  Some people believe that Christ will never let a soul go its own way.  God gave people free will and Christ will not take it away.  Those that persist in refusing Christ’s teaching won’t get the same gift as those who follow God’s will.

Christ again acknowledges that all his followers were given to him by the Father.  All He has is the Father’s and all the Father has is His.  There is no separation between them.  There is but one God head.  These are known as the Father’s children, Christ’s members and the Holy Spirit’s temples.

“And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee.  Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.  While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name:  those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition;  that the scripture might be fulfilled.”  Christ reminds the Father that the disciples will soon be deprived of his personal care.  He had been their Guide and their Guardian, as well as their ever-present and all-sufficient Friend.  He bore their infirmities, upheld them in weakness and protected them from evil.  He now commits them to the Father’s care.  He asks that they be kept in the name of the Father, that they may be one, as we are.  It does not talk of oneness in reference to theology, doctrine, liturgy, or practice.  It talks of oneness of personal knowledge of and fellowship with the Father and the Son.  That is oneness in spirit, affection and aim.  It is the oneness of divine power as opposed to human agreement.

Only Judas was lost and he was the son of perdition.  He was not reborn and renewed by Christ’s teaching.  He was not inclined to walk the narrow way.  Jesus was not deceived by Judas.  Judas was necessary that the scriptures might be fulfilled.