John 17: Jesus prays...for me!

I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 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.

John 17:20-21

Read the whole passage here.

Once he has finished his final teaching session, Jesus prays.  How amazing that we get to overhear Jesus praying to the Father.  The idea of Jesus - who is one with the Father - praying to the Father seems incongruous when we think of prayer as some transactional process where we pitch our own desires to God in the hope that he'll grant us our requests.  Doesn't the Father already know what Jesus wants, and don't they want the same thing?  Why does Jesus need to ask for these things?  Because prayer is not like that.  Prayer is so many things, but at its heart it is expressing our hopes to God - not because he doesn't know what's on our hearts, but because it causes our hearts to align with his.

The majority of this prayer, and the bit I'm going to focus on today, is for his disciples - his followers.  What does he pray for?  What does Jesus long for, for them?

Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. (17:11)

Jesus asks his Father to keep them in [his] name.  He charged his disciples to abide in him two chapters ago, but at the same time it is God who keeps us in him.  This is what being a follower of Jesus is - remaining in his love, making our home there, and God himself dwelling in us.

And in remaining in him, Jesus prays that they may be one.  A church that is not only unified with God but with itself - not a collection of individuals, but a body.  This does not mean we all become clones - the members of the Trinity are indeed all different - but, like a body, we are all in our wonderfully varied ways part of something bigger.  As we've explored before, and Paul explores with his various body analogies, this is only possible if that body itself is one with God - with Christ at the head.

I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. (17:15)

God could take his people out of the world to be with him and see him face to face, but he does not at the present time.  We remain in the world, but Jesus prays that we will not be seduced by it.  As in all John's writings, the world, similar to the flesh, refers not to God's glorious creation or purely the 'physical realm' but the realm of sin, with the creation as it is being under that realm.  We find ourselves still 'in the world' and therefore we feel all the struggles of being in it.  But Jesus prays to keep us from giving our hearts to sin and from the forces of destruction.  He will never let us go.

Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. (17:17).

Our reason for staying in the world?  Because we are set apart for God's work here.  This is what sanctified means: to be sets apart.  We are set apart in the truth in order to be God's witnesses here on earth.  As we share in his love, we share in his mission that all should know him.

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. (17:24)

Finally, Jesus prays that his people will see his glory.  This could refer to seeing the results of his work on earth, but I think it ultimately refers to when we will see him in full when he returns or when we go to be with him.  And in this verse we get a reminder of the fact that Jesus existed before the world began and that love within the Trinity existed before then.  This is so huge, and yet Jesus prays that we would see it.

The thing I first remember learning about this passage, is that this is not just Jesus praying for the disciples who were with him - those he'd just been teaching.  He was praying for us too!  He says:

I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word (17:20).

More that 2000 years ago, Jesus knew us.  He's known us for eternity.  He has been praying for us.  And Jesus' words are still true and I believe he is still praying those things.  And we are one with all believers, past and future, and all rooted in his love.