Jesus’ Prayer
(John 17: 1-26)
The seventeenth chapter of the Gospel of John
in the New Testament of the Christian Bible portrays a prayer of Jesus Christ
addressed to his Father, immediately before his betrayal and crucifixion. The prayer
can be divided into three sections:
Verses
1-5: Jesus Prays for Himself
Verses
6-19: Jesus Prays for His Disciples
Verses
20-26: Jesus Prays for All Believers.
Jesus
looked toward heaven and prayed for:
Himself
“Father,
the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you
granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those
you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true
God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by
finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your
presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
His
Disciples
“I
have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours;
you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that
everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave
me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and
they believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the
world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is
yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will
remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming
to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave
me, so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected
them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the
one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
“I
am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so
that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them
your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more
than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world
but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as
I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me
into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself,
that they too may be truly sanctified.
All
Believers
“My
prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me
through their message, 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. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may
be one as we are one—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.
“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.
“Righteous
Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you
have sent me. 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.”
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