“After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you…And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began…”
“I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.
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. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth…”
“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. “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.”
John 17:1, 5, 9, 11, 15, 17, 20-21, 24 NIV
In a prayer of 26 verses, Jesus makes only three requests, for Himself, for His disciples, and for those who would believe their testimony. The rest of His prayer is fellowship with the Father.
When we examine the content of Jesus’ requests, we begin to understand what was uppermost on His heart before the cross.
“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you…And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began…”
Finally, the moment has arrived! This is the moment to which all prophecy pointed and on which all of history pivoted. So much depended on how Jesus would move through this series of events unspoiled by one fragment of sin. If He slipped, sin would disqualify Him from being God’s perfect sacrificial Lamb.
How would He endure the cross?
What was the issue at stake? Would He perfectly live up to the divine character He carried with Him into His humanity? He would die as a man, but what kind of man? Would He respond or react to the worst injustice and cruelty ever inflicted on a human? Would He be perfectly submitted and obedient to the will of the Father despite all the pressures of an innocent human to the injustice of execution by crucifixion?
“During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him…”
Hebrews 5:7-9 NIV
“Father, glorify me…” He depended on the Father to give Him the strength in the moment of His greatest weakness, to be who He was in heaven…perfectly God. Throughout His earthly life, He had been in partnership with the Father, obeying Him and carrying out His will in every detail. Could He pull the same thing off to His final breath? Only if He did, would the great plan of redemption be fulfilled on earth that would reflect all the glory of the Father to the whole earth.
How did Jesus respond?
“He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.”
1 Peter 2:22-23 NIV
This plan of salvation, fulfilled by Jesus would confirm Habakkuk’s desire…
“For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”
Habakkuk 2:14 NIV
How would His disciples handle the world?
“I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.
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. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth…”
How imperative that the disciples, eleven now because number twelve had disqualified himself through treachery, be preserved from the ravages of their own sin nature, aided and abetted by the world and the devil. They needed the armour of truth in their minds and in their lives to protect them against disqualifying themselves from fulfilling their sacred task.
In Jesus’ prayer for His disciples… (”protect them from “Poneros”, translated “the evil one”) has less to do with devil, and more do with their corruption from the original character God breathed in Adam, that is “morally degenerate”. As in the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus was more concerned about what His disciples could do to themselves if they followed the desires of their old corrupt nature, and not about what the devil could do to them. They needed a power within to overcome the ravages of their flesh nature.
“When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.”
James 1:13-15 NIV
Jesus’ third request draws in every person who believes in Him to the end of time.
“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. “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.”
What was Jesus’s chief concern? Unity! Why unity? Jesus has entrusted a body of truth, contained in a written record called “the Word of God” which contains the message of Jesus, the gospel of salvation. He requires that this deposit be kept intact and delivered, without additions or subtractions, to each succeeding generation. He needs a body of witnesses who will be faithful to His Word, both in living out and delivering the true message.
In this way, there will be unity among Jesus’ followers. If each individual believer lives within the boundaries of His Word and delivers an intact message, the Holy Spirit, who initiated the unity, will enable God’s people everywhere to preserve the unity.
“Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”
Ephesians 4:3-6 NIV
This unity, anchored in the truth revealed in the Word, is the only guarantee that the same message and the same witness to Jesus will be passed on from one generation to the next. Disunity and fragmentation of the church the body of Christ, has happened because faithless people, led by corrupted leaders, have followed human opinion and convenient doctrines rather than the truth.
“But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping…If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them.”
2 Peter 2:1-3, 20-21 NIV
So, Jesus’ prayer, spoken to the Father at that moment in time, played out then and continues to play out today in keeping His message intact for the salvation of all who believe and are destined for eternal life.