Reflections on John 17

John 17 (Contemporary English Version)
1. After Jesus had finished speaking to his disciples, he looked up toward heaven and prayed: Father, the time has come for you to bring glory to your Son, in order that he may bring glory to you.
   
2. And you gave him power over all people, so that he would give eternal life to everyone you give him.
   
3. Eternal life is to know you, the only true God, and to know Jesus Christ, the one you sent.
   
4. I have brought glory to you here on earth by doing everything you gave me to do.
   
5. Now, Father, give me back the glory that I had with you before the world was created.
   
6. You have given me some followers from this world, and I have shown them what you are like. They were yours, but you gave them to me, and they have obeyed you.
   
7. They know that you gave me everything I have.
   
8. I told my followers what you told me, and they accepted it. They know that I came from you, and they believe that you are the one who sent me.
   
9. I am praying for them, but not for those who belong to this world. My followers belong to you, and I am praying for them.
   
10. All that I have is yours, and all that you have is mine, and they will bring glory to me.
    
11. Holy Father, I am no longer in the world. I am coming to you, but my followers are still in the world. So keep them safe by the power of the name that you have given me. Then they will be one with each other, just as you and I are one.
    
12. While I was with them, I kept them safe by the power you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost, except the one who had to be lost. This happened so that what the Scriptures say would come true.
    
13. I am on my way to you. But I say these things while I am still in the world, so that my followers will have the same complete joy that I do.
    
14. I have told them your message. But the people of this world hate them, because they don't belong to this world, just as I don't.
    
15. Father, I don't ask you to take my followers out of the world, but keep them safe from the evil one.
    
16. They don't belong to this world, and neither do I.
    
17. Your word is the truth. So let this truth make them completely yours.
    
18. I am sending them into the world, just as you sent me.
    
19. I have given myself completely for their sake, so that they may belong completely to the truth.
    
20. I am not praying just for these followers. I am also praying for everyone else who will have faith because of what my followers will say about me.
    
21. I want all of them to be one with each other, just as I am one with you and you are one with me. I also want them to be one with us. Then the people of this world will believe that you sent me.
    
22. I have honored my followers in the same way that you honored me, in order that they may be one with each other, just as we are one.
    
23. I am one with them, and you are one with me, so that they may become completely one. Then this world's people will know that you sent me. They will know that you love my followers as much as you love me.
    
24. Father, I want everyone you have given me to be with me, wherever I am. Then they will see the glory that you have given me, because you loved me before the world was created.
    
25. Good Father, the people of this world don't know you. But I know you, and my followers know that you sent me.
    
26. I told them what you are like, and I will tell them even more. Then the love that you have for me will become part of them, and I will be one with them.
    
    

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    Jesus concluded instructions to His disciples with prayer. First He prayed for Himself that the Father would glorify Him, through His death and resurrection, so He might give eternal life to "all You have given Him." He defined eternal life to be to "know You, the only true God, and the One You have sent--Jesus Christ." (17:3) His word for "know" was one of intimacy. Eternal life involves an intimate relationship with God.
    
    Jesus also prayed for His disciples that the Father would "protect them from the evil one." (17:15) And He prayed that the Father would sanctify them by the word of God's truth. To be sanctified is to be set apart for a special use. So Jesus was praying that the disciples be sanctified so that as the Father had sent Him into the world, He was also sending the disciples into the world. He was setting them apart for the special use of telling the world about Him.
    
    Finally, Jesus prayed for "those who believe in Me through their message." (17:20) That is, those who believe through the message of the disciples. This was a prayer for all future believers. Since the disciples were the first to go into the world with the message of Christ, this would be a reference to all who have believed since then. His prayer for future believers was that they may "all be one, as You, Father, are in Me and I am in You. May they also be one in Us, so the world may believe You sent Me." (17:21) The building up of God's kingdom was based on the unity of believers. Jesus prayed that all believers would have a unity that was like the unity between the Father and the Son. This is a unity of character rather than a unity of agreement in all things. As believers have a unity in exhibiting the character of God and of Christ it will cause the world to believe that God send Christ.
    
    If we are to have the eternal life that Christ came to give, we will have an intimate relationship with God which involves this unity for which Christ prayed. It is being in the Father as the Son and the Father are in one another. If we seek to be in unity with God we will also be in unity with all others who are in unity with Him. Without this unity our words to the world about Christ will have little influence.