Page 235 - Demo

JOHN 
The Prayer of Jesus.*
1When Jesus had said this, he raised his eyes to heaven* and
said, “Father, the hour has come. Give glory to your son, so that 17
your son may glorify you,a 2* just as you gave him authority over all people,b so that he may give eternal life to all you gave him. 3* Now this is eternal life,c that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ. 4I glori ed you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do. 5Now glorify me, Father, with you, with the glory that I had
with you before the world began.d
6“I revealed your name* to those whom
you gave me out of the world. They belonged
to you, and you gave them to me, and they
have kept your word. 7Now they know
that everything you gave me is from you,
8because the words you gave to me I have
given to them, and they accepted them and
truly understood that I came from you, and
they have believed that you sent me. 9I pray
for them. I do not pray for the world but for
the ones you have given me, because they are yours,e 10and everything of mine is yours and everything of yours is mine, and I have been glori ed in them.f 11And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are. 12When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me, and I guarded them, and none of them was lost except the son of destruction, in order that the scripture might be ful lled.g 13But now I am coming to you. I speak this in the world so that they may share my joy completely.h 14I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world.i 15* I do not ask that you take them out of the worldj but that you keep them from the evil one. 16They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. 17Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth.k 18As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world.l 19And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.
17:1
Jesus has been speaking to his disciples; now he prays for them. This passage is known as the “high priestly prayer” of Jesus, because he intercedes for his people, a priestly task.
Christ in glory, tympanum of a portal of the Cathedral of Chartres, France
17:15
Jesus knows that his followers will experience hatred in the world because they follow him. And yet, he prays, “I do not ask that you take them out of the world” (17:15). We are not to establish utopias, perfect, remote societies where there is no hatred and no con ict. Rather, we are to live in the midst of a world to which we do not fully belong.
17:21
Jesus prays for the unity of his followers. Like mutual love (13:34), unity is to be a hallmark of believers. How do we reconcile the divisions among Christians with Jesus’ prayer for unity?
a. [17:1] 13:31.
b. [17:2] 3:35; Mt 28:18.
c. [17:3] 1:17; Wis 14:7; 15:3; 1 Jn 5:20.
d. [17:5] 1:1, 2; 12:28; Phil 2:6, 9–11.
e. [17:9] 17:20.
f. [17:10] 16:15; 2 Thes 1:10, 12.
g. [17:12] 13:18; 18:9; Ps 41:10; Mt 26:24;
Acts 1:16.
h. [17:13] 15:11.
i. [17:14] 15:19.
j. [17:15] Mt 6:13; 2 Thes 3:3; 1 Jn 5:18.
k. [17:17] 1 Pt 1:22
l. [17:18] 20:21–22.
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* [17:1–26] Climax of the last discourse(s). Since the sixteenth century, this chapter has been called the “high priestly prayer” of Jesus. He speaks as intercessor, with words addressed directly to the Father and not to the disciples, who supposedly only overhear. Yet the prayer is one of petition, for immediate (Jn 17:6–19) and future (Jn 17:20–21) disciples. Many phrases reminiscent of the Lord’s Prayer occur. Although still in the world (Jn 17:13), Jesus looks on his earthly ministry as a thing of the past (Jn 17:4, 12). Whereas Jesus has up to this time stated that the disciples could follow him (Jn 13:33, 36), now he wishes them to be with him in union with the Father (Jn 17:12–14).
* [17:1] The action of looking up to heaven and the address Father are typical of Jesus at prayer; cf. Jn 11:41 and Lk 11:2.
* [17:2] Another possible interpretation is to treat the rst line of the verse as parenthetical and the second as an appositive to the clause that ends v 1: so that your son may glorify you (just as. . .all people), so that he may give eternal life. . ..
* [17:3] This verse was clearly added in the editing of the gospel as a re ection on the preceding verse; Jesus nowhere else refers to himself as Jesus Christ.
* [17:6] I revealed your name: perhaps the name I AM; cf. Jn 8:24, 28, 58; 13:19.
* [17:15] Note the resemblance to the petition of the Lord’s Prayer, “deliver us from the evil
one.” Both probably refer to the devil rather than to abstract evil.