John 17
John 17 Focus: Jesus PRAYS His High Priestly Prayer
JOHN 17: Insights, Highlights and Points to Ponder:
A BIG PICTURE Point about Prayer: The entire chapter of John 17 is Jesus praying to His Father in Heaven. This prayer of Jesus is named: The High Priestly Prayer. As Jesus prays, He also reminds us of the importance and priority of prayer! Jesus frequently prayed to His Father in Heaven throughout His entire Ministry on earth. All of the Gospels highlight Jesus would often go away by himself to pray. We think of Jesus teaching us the “most excellent way to pray” through the Lord’s Prayer (also at times called the “Our Father”). As we move toward the emotional events of Passion week, we will also recall Jesus agonizing and praying in the Garden of Gethsemene. Let us pray…
Question: Do you remember what the Small Catechism lists as the THREE(3) primary Old Testament Offices (or Divine positions) fulfilled by Jesus?
Answer: Prophet, Priest, and King. Jesus completely fulfilled these three Offices through what He said and did for us. For example, in the Old Testament, many priests acted as the representatives or mediators between the Children of Israel and God. Jesus is our perfect Priest and the only Mediator we need before God. I Timothy 2 says: 5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.
In His High Priestly Prayer in John 17 Jesus first prays for His disciples (and all believers; Jn. 17:1-19). Jesus then also prays for those in the world who do not (yet) believe in Him (Jn. 17:20-26).
Gary P. Baumler provides a beautiful summary of John 17:
Jesus prayed that all believers might be one. This unity was to be like the perfect, essential unity of the Father and the Son. It was to include all believers for all time. God was in Jesus, and Jesus was in God. A similar unity results for those who believe in Jesus. The bond is spiritual in nature and grows even as faith grows. (John: The People’s Bible Commentary, Northwestern/ Concordia, 1997. p. 228)
We now read: John 17 (interspersed with commentary and insights)
The High Priestly Prayer
17 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
How does Jesus show God’s glory? Jesus shows God’s glory by completing His work of salvation. Unexpectedly, Jesus demonstrates God’s glory by His gory death on the Cross. Through Jesus we have salvation and oneness or unity with our Father in Heaven. Think back to John 1:14, 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. God’s true glory is revealed and seen in His Son sent to save us by grace through Faith in Him and His Word. Jesus and the Father are One.
Interesting: Notice in 17:3 Jesus refers to “eternal life.” The word usually used that is translated “life” is BIO (like a Biography--story of a person’s life). The term used by John in Greek for life is always ZOE (not BIO). The meaning of Zoe provides a deeper and richer understanding of “life” (encompassing not only physical life but also our entire new spiritual life of faith in and unity with our Triune God).
6 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.
NOTE: Jesus prays God would protect those who believe Him from the evil one. Jesus knew they (and we) would face fierce opposition for faithfully following Him. To be “sanctified” means “to be made holy” or “set apart” by the power of God’s Word. Verse 17 stresses that we are made holy by God’s Truth. God’s Word IS God’s Truth. Jesus IS God’s Word in the flesh (John 1:14). The Word of God, Jesus, and Truth are interconnected. Jesus is praying we experience this oneness and Divine unity even as He is one with the Father.
20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
Verses 21-23 are both mind boggling and breathtaking! The words of Jesus once again describe His Divinity and unity with the Father in Heaven. Likewise, He is also praying WE would be made ONE with Him and His Father. This spiritual oneness is a mystery and a miracle!
24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
Have you heard the phrase: “It’s GREEK to me!”? You may be surprised to know that you actually already know and use a variety of important New Testament GREEK words. Here are seven very common examples of GREEK vocabulary words used in John 17 (and through the Gospel of John) that will prove you really do know some Greek:
GREEK: Agape (“Ah-gah-pay”) = ENGLISH: Love. Agape love is sacrificial, unconditional love; EROS is erotic love; Philos is “familial” or “brotherly love; compare to Philadelphia=”city (delphos) of brotherly (philos) love.”
GREEK: Apostollos = ENGLISH: Apostle or “one who is SENT”; The noun and verb forms of apostol- both mean to “be sent out.” This term refers both to Christ’s original Apostles and to us as Jesus also SENDS US OUT (17:20-21) to bear witness to others with His message of Truth.
GREEK: Dox- = ENGLISH: Glory or Praise (as in DOXOLOGY=”Words/logos of Praise/Doxo-” when we say or sing a doxology we are glorifying God by giving God our words of praise!
GREEK: Kosmos = ENGLISH: World (sounds like “Cosmic”)
GREEK: Logos = Meaning in ENGLISH: Word
GREEK: Pater (the same in Latin) = ENGLISH: Father
GREEK: Zoe = ENGLISH: Life (in the fullest sense)
See! You really do know and often use some New Testament Greek!
The Lutheran Study Bible(LSB) comments on John 17 are a fitting summary for our study of this chapter (CPH.org, LSB p. 1796):
Knowing that He is going to the cross, Jesus prays for His disciples and asks that they be united by faith in Him. Whenever Christians ignore God’s Word, they foster divisions within the Church and diminish their witness. But God’s Word is the truth that will unite His Church, glorify Him, and enable His people to fulfill their calling in a troubled world.
+Prayer+ Heavenly Father, reveal in my life the love that You have shown me in Your Son. Amen.
Practical APPLICATION: During 2021, let’s remember and frequently follow the example of Jesus Who demonstrates to us the importance of prayer.
+ We finish this reflection on John 17 by singing or saying the common Doxology (“praise words” to our Triune God):
Praise God from Whom all blessings flow.
Praise Him all creatures here below.
Praise Him above ye Heavenly hosts.
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! Amen.
In Christ’s Service,
Pastor Scott Schmieding
