Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
https://soundcloud.com/hapearce/reflection-for-april-29-2025
John 17:6-19
Jesus Prays for His Disciples
6“I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. 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. 12While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
13“I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
Today’s reading is a part of John’s account of Jesus’ Last Supper with his disciples. New Testament scholars sometimes use the term “farewell discourse” for the things Jesus said to them on that night, which was the last night of his earthly ministry. What we’re reading today is part of great prayer Jesus prayed at the end of that discourse. The scholars call it a “priestly prayer,” because Jesus was acting as an intermediary between the disciples and God. After he did and said all of the other things we remember the Last Supper for, like washing the feet of the disciples, foretelling his betrayal by Judas, and promising them that he would send the Holy Spirit to help and guide them, he declared them his friends and commanded them to love one another. Then Jesus prayed in their presence the prayer from which today’s reading comes.
I don’t know about you, but this strikes me as a very important moment in the relationship between God and his people. Our understanding is that Jesus was (and still is) a person of the Trinity. His birth on earth in the event we call “the incarnation” was an act by which God assumed human form to share in our human life. So when Jesus prayed this great prayer in the presence of his disciples, he was allowing them to listen in on a conversation between two persons of the Trinity — essentially allowing them to hear the thoughts of God. And because the apostle John and his own disciples remembered and recorded what Jesus said on that night, we have the privilege of sharing in that experience of listening in on the thoughts of God.
In the first part of the prayer, Jesus basically prays about his own mission. He says that the events that were about to occur – his death on the cross and his resurrection – those events would make the glory of God known in the world. As you might remember from earlier Reflections on passages from John, one of the themes of this gospel is that Jesus’ death on the cross would be the ultimate revelation of God’s glory. Several times in the Gospel of John, Jesus speaks about being glorified when he was “lifted up.”
In the second part of that prayer, the part we’re reading today, Jesus prays for his disciples. And what he prayed for them strikes me as very important for what it reveals about his thoughts about those who first followed him, and about those of us who follow him now.
He begins by saying that the disciples had heard and embraced what he had taught them, and that in doing that, they were embracing the teaching of God. So even though they would fail him in many ways through their human weakness and sinfulness, even though they would betray him and deny him and doubt him in the days ahead, Jesus understands that his teachings had been impressed upon the disciples well enough that they would be able to carry them into the world and start the movement we call the church.
Jesus also says that in this case, he is praying for his disciples, and not for the world at large. I think it’s important not to miss the significance of that. Jesus seems to be making the point that he thinks of his followers as being separate from the world – as we say, “in the world but not of it.” His followers are to represent a counter-culture in the world, not fully fitting in or embracing the world’s values. The Greek word used to designate the church was ecclesia, which literally means ‘those who are called out.’ (And as you might remember from Reflections a month or two ago, this idea of the church as a counter-culture is one of the main themes of the collection of teachings we call “The Sermon on the Mount.”) The way Jesus puts it here is that his followers “are not of the world any more than I am of the world.”
Jesus also prays for God’s continuing protection for the disciples. Jesus points out that they will face hostility and opposition in the world, and he doesn’t really pray that they would be spared that opposition. Instead, he prays that God will empower them to continue the ministry he was passing on to them. Jesus also prays that his followers will be sanctified, which means “made holy” or “set aside for sacred use.”
So the bottom line is that Jesus prayed for his followers on the last night of his earthly ministry, and prayed for God’s continuing participation in their life and mission. But his prayer wasn’t that they be spared trouble, but rather that they be strengthened and guided to work in unity for the establishment of the kingdom, even in the face of the trouble that might come.
Jesus also prayed in this prayer that his followers might have “the full measure of my joy in them.” So in spite of the inevitable troubles and challenges of advancing the mission of Jesus in a world whose values are very different and even in conflict with those he taught, it’s still the intention of our Lord that we be joyful. And why not? We have the joy of knowing that we are adopted children of God’s own family, beloved brothers and sisters and friends of Jesus, working at his side to bring his peaceful reign to fulfillment “on earth, as it is in heaven.”
Let’s pray. Lord, we thank you for the gift of Jesus, for coming into the world among us to teach us and show us the meaning of the abundant life you have in mind for us. In all that we say and do, let us glorify you by living and serving in obedience to Jesus and in imitation of him. Amen.
Grace and Peace,
Henry
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