After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.4 I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began” (John 17:1-5).
As we’ve already seen, on the day before Jesus was crucified, he gathered his disciples together for a final meal. He knew that within 24 hours he would be hanging on a cross and he was getting his disciples together to prepare them for his departure and for his glorious resurrection. He washed their feet, ate with them, and spoke of his broken body and the shedding of his blood to provide forgiveness. Jesus also spoke to them about serving each other and loving each other, and he wanted to make sure they knew about the Holy Spirit.
In John 13, Jesus began to speak to his disciples, and he didn’t finish speaking to them until John 17, where he began to pray. In fact, it’s the longest recorded prayer of Jesus.
Jesus and his followers left the upper room and began walking to the Garden of Gethsemane, and sometime before he arrived our Lord lifted up this amazing prayer in John 17. The prayer can be divided up into three sections. In the first five verses, Jesus prays for himself. In verses 6-19, Jesus prays for his disciples, and in verses 20-26, Jesus prays for believers throughout history. It’s a prayer that even includes us!
Have you ever thought that Jesus wants us to be the answer to his prayers? That’s an intriguing thought, isn’t it? That we can be the answer to Jesus’ prayers!
Jesus says, “Father, the hour has come.” That phrase may not mean very much to us, but those words are found in other places in John’s gospel. In John 2, Jesus told his mother, that his time had not yet come. In John 7:8, Jesus said his time had not yet come, and in John 7:30, it says that some people wanted to capture him, but “no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.” And now, our Lord proclaims, Father, the time has come! He had been waiting his entire life for this occasion.
Jesus lived with a sense of purpose and divine destiny. He was sent by the Father into the world and this was the time that God had ordained for his son to suffer and die for the sins of the world. At the prospect of being scourged, humiliated, stripped, and nailed to a Roman cross, when most people would have bailed, Jesus went the distance out of love for you and me.
This prayer reveals the unique relationship that Jesus had with God the Father. The entire focus of Jesus’ life was to please his Father. He spoke what the Father wanted him to say and did what the Father wanted him to do. Jesus glorified the Father through his miracles and his message, and shortly, Jesus would be glorifying the Father through his substitutionary death. The cross was an incredible display of God’s amazing love for this world!
Why does Jesus say that He finished the work he was given to do, when at this time he had not yet gone to the cross? There is a work that Jesus did through his life and a work Jesus did through his death and resurrection. The work that Jesus did through his life was to bring glory to the Father and to raise up disciples who would carry on his mission in the world. Of course, the work that he did through his death was to pay the penalty for our sins, and his resurrection affirmed his deity and his ability to offer salvation to all who believe.
In Jesus’ day, there were a lot of people killed by the Romans, so why was his crucifixion so significant? Because of who he is — one who is fully God and fully man. Jesus said, “Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” Jesus is one who shared the Father’s glory even before the world began, which is a testimony that both the Father and the Son are co-equal and co-eternal in nature.
In verse 2, Jesus said that he had been given authority over all people. If Jesus was only a man, then why would he boldly proclaim that he had authority over the entire human race? Notice how he uses that authority — to grant eternal life to those who believe! In fact, the essence of eternal life is to know the Father and the Son. He’s talking about having a relationship with the Lord where he imparts his life to us, abundant life right now and everlasting life throughout eternity.
In John 17:20-26, Jesus continues: “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. 25 “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
Jesus assumed that his disciples would faithfully proclaim his message and that others would also believe. He longed for the day when he could dwell with his disciples forever.
Jesus also prays for all of his followers to be one. He wanted them to experience the same kind of oneness, the same kind of perfect unity that he experienced with the Father. In a world that is so cold and so divided, filled with violence and hate, Jesus calls us to be an alternative society, where love and unbreakable bonds prevail.
How essential it is for God’s family to be united, with the Spirit of Christ being the glue that connects our hearts together. Jesus wants us to experience the kind of unity that would give credibility to our witness. Our oneness in Christ is so important because it demonstrates the reality of the gospel message and gives incentive for people to put their trust in him.
Before Jesus started into the prayer, he spoke plainly on this subject in John 13:34-35: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Prayer
Thank you, Jesus, for your example of prayer during the most stressful time of your life. You asked for your disciples to be one, and today we ask that the walls would be torn down that divide your church. Bind our hearts together with our brothers and sisters in Christ. By your Spirit, please make us the answer to your prayers so that you may be lifted up in this world.
Question
What part will you play in bringing reconciliation and unity to God’s people?