The Prayer Life of Jesus – The High Priestly Prayer of John 17
The Prayer Life of Christ – The High Priestly Prayer of John 17.
“Tremendous power is released through the passionate, heartfelt prayer of a righteous man!” (James 5:16).
The Lord Jesus always was and still continues to be the ultimate prayer warrior. He prayed to the Father even before He was born (Hebrews 10:5-7), and He kept praying until the moment of His ascension (Luke 24:50-53). But He didn’t stop praying when His work on earth was done, for He continues to intercede for us at the right hand of the Father as we read this! (Hebrews 7:25). His ministry was largely a prayer ministry in the sense of prayer being the foundation for everything He did. He prayed for saints and sinners, privately and publicly, with His face to the ground and His head up facing the heavens. He prayed in grief and He prayed in gratitude, while exhausted and while full of energy. Jesus prayed with His dying breath and He prayed after He rose from the dead. He prayed before major decisions and during dramatic miracles. He prayed spontaneously and He prayed in words prepared thousands of years before Him. He prayed short, one-sentence prayers (John 12:28), and He prayed in at least one long prayer that seemed to encompass just about everything (John 17). Jesus developed a lifestyle of prayer that was common to observant Jews, but nonetheless uncommon in its intimacy with the Father.
Jewish Lifestyle. Being born and raised in an observant and orthodox Jewish household, Jesus was immersed from Day One on earth in prayer, in the centrality of prayer to one’s life and faith. Observant Jews practiced formal prayers frequently during the day, and spontaneous prayers throughout each day. They would pray the Sh’ma twice a day, the primary statement of faith for all biblical Jews, starting with its first line, “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your might…” (Deuteronomy 6:4-9). Then there’s the Amidah, a series of 18 sacred benedictions that each Jewish father would recite at home twice a day, or perhaps each rabbi in the local synagogue. The Psalms were memorized and on the lips of all believing Jews, as were other classic prayers from the Hebrew Bible, most notably Aaron’s Priestly Blessing in Numbers 6:24-26, “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face towards you and give you peace.” But by no means were the Jews content with all those formal prayers each day. The rabbis taught each Jew to offer up sincere blessings for just about everything in the course of each day, as many as a hundred blessings, giving God praise and thanks for every common blessing enjoyed. There were blessings for practically every conceivable grace and event, from successfully going to the bathroom, to waking up each morning, to the blessing of being able to retire at the end of the day. These formal prayers and the more informal blessings developed a habit of prayer in each earnest Jewish believer, and made sure that God was seen as the main reference point all day for everyone in the faith. The Jewish prayers were constant reminders of God’s grace and goodness, and made sure that each Jewish home and synagogue were cultures of prayer. Jesus was shaped and directed and nurtured in this Jewish prayer life, and since He was a faithful Jew, prayer was certainly second nature to Him throughout His time on earth.
Inner Dialogue. Few mysteries in the faith are less likely to be understood than the union between the Father and the Son. Their level of intimate, eternal communion is well beyond our grasp. “The Father is in me, and I am in the Father.” (John 17:21). The prayer life of Jesus has everything to do with their intimacy. Somehow, the Father and the Son were inside each other in Spirit. So when Jesus prayed to the Father, He was spiritually looking inward to the Father’s presence. Jesus was speaking to the Father in a secret place within Himself where the Father dwelled. The prayer life of Christ was an inner dialogue between Father and Son, a private conversation of two divine Beings who love each other. Jesus said that He would not even take a step without the direction from the Father, He wouldn’t say a word without the Father’s approval. Jesus placed Himself completely at His Father’s disposal, such was the level of trust between the Father and the Son. Certainly, Jesus was the perfect example of one who “prayed without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:16-17). Jesus’ prayer was conscious and deliberate, and it was also subconscious and intuitive. Jesus walked prayerfully every second of every day, out of devotion to the Father.
“The secret of the whole world of humanity is the love between the Father and the Son. This is at the root of it all. Upon the love between the Son and the Father hangs the whole universe.” (George MacDonald, from his sermon, Knowing the Risen Lord).
Don’t we almost feel like we’re eavesdropping on a confidential conversation when we read this prayer of Jesus to the Father? This prayer just between the Father and the Son is too intimate to listen to for those of us who just happen to be passing by. It’s almost as if Jesus’ prayer is not intended for us to hear, but somehow John snuck into whichever private place Jesus was hiding when He spoke these words. Even though this prayer is private, and in a sense none of our business, Jesus has allowed us to have access to it. When Jesus prayed in verse 11, “Holy Father, I am about to leave this world and return to be with you,” we feel the tender love that the Son and Father have for each other. This is the only time in the Gospels that Jesus has addressed the Father in that way. This prayer of Jesus is basically a verbal love letter to the Father. Hopefully we are not expected to take in and understand the depths of this prayer.
“When Jesus had spoken these things, He lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, ‘Father, the hour is come.’” (John 17:1).
The time to complete His self-emptying has arrived. He is ready to give Himself up, for no one can take His life from Him without His permission. The time for sacrifice draws near. He has given His Farewell Discourse, His longest recorded conversation with his disciples, which included the Last Supper and the washing of feet. He closed His conversation with the triumphant declaration that He has overcome the world, He has conquered it for all believers everywhere. Jesus looked up then, He lifted His eyes, and spoke the most important word in His vocabulary… “Father.” What follows in John 17 is the true Lord’s Prayer. This prayer is the hinge between His final instructions and His Passion. His High Priestly Prayer, His longest recorded prayer, is lifted up intimately to the Father. No one has to wonder what was on the Lord’s mind just before the Passion. This prayer is what was in His heart at this defining moment. He tenderly, powerfully prayed for Himself, for His Apostles, and all believers in His future Church. Since there is such a precise recording of Jesus’ prayer, He knowingly prayed within earshot of the Disciples, or at least within the hearing of St. John, the disciple whom Jesus loved. If we needed convincing, Jesus presents Himself in His prayer as the Great Intercessor, a role He has relished and continues to practice to this day.
JESUS PRAYS FOR HIMSELF:
Father, unveil the glorious splendor of me, your Son, so that I in turn will have the privilege of magnifying your bright glory. Exalt me as I am lifted up, Father, so that I can display you in your splendor. (v. 1);
You have given me authority over all people, so that I may give the gift of eternal life to all those that you have given me. (v. 2);
And this is eternal life, that they deeply understand and personally experience you as the only true God, and that they also know me as the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One, whom you have sent into the world. (v. 3);
I have exalted and glorified you, Father, everywhere I went on this earth, by faithfully completing what you told me to do, down to the last detail. (v. 4);
So, dear Father, restore me back to the majesty and honor we enjoyed together when we were face-to-face before the world was created. (v. 5);
JESUS PRAYS FOR HIS APOSTLES;
I have revealed your Name, your true Self, to those whom you gave to me. I spelled out your character in detail to those who were yours in the first place. They have kept your Word, they have now done what you said. (v. 6);
They know now that everything I have is a gift from you and belongs to you. For the words that you spoke to me I have given to them. They have accepted your words and are convinced with absolute assurance that I came forth from your presence. (vs. 7-8);
So I am praying for my disciples right now, not for the world. I am praying for these you have given to me, who belong to you. (v. 9);
All those who belong to me now also belong to you, and all those who belong to you belong to me as well. My glory is on display through them. (v. 10);
Holy Father, I am about to leave this world to return and be with you, but they will remain here. Protect them by the power of your Name, and watch over them so that they can be united, even as we are united. (v. 11);
During my time here I have protected those you gave to me, I have kept them safe by the power of your Name. Not one of them has perished, except the one that was destined to be lost, so that the Scriptures would be fulfilled. (v. 12);
Soon I am returning to you, so I am saying these things while I am still in the world. I pray that these disciples may have my joy completed in them. I pray that they would experience my gladness and delight within them, filling their hearts to overflowing. (v. 13);
I have delivered your message to them, and this godless world has hated them because of it. They didn’t join the world’s ways, just as I didn’t join the world’s ways. They are not of this world, because I am not of this world. (v. 14);
I’m not asking that you take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the Evil One. (v. 15);
These disciples are no more defined by the world than I am defined by the world. They no longer belong to this world any more than I do. (v. 16);
Set them apart with your Truth. Sanctify them and make them holy by your Word, which is Truth. (v. 17);
In the same way that you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. You gave me a mission in the world, and I likewise send them into the world with a mission. (v. 18);
I am setting myself apart for their sakes, sanctified and dedicated to God, so that they will also be made holy in the Truth. (v. 19);
JESUS PRAYS FOR ALL BELIEVERS:
I am praying not only for the sake of my disciples here, but also for all those who will one day believe in me because of their message. (v. 20);
The goal is that all believers will be joined together as one, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you; that they may be one in us, so that the world may be convinced that you, in fact, have sent me. (v. 21);
I have given to them the same honor and glory you gave to me, so that they will be joined together as one and experience the same unity that we enjoy. (v. 22);
I am in them, and you are in me; may they have such perfect unity that the world would be convinced that you have sent me, for they will see that you love each one of them with the same passionate love that you have for me. (v. 23);
Father, I pray that these you have entrusted to me will be with me right where I am, so that they may see my full glory, the splendor you gave me, because you have loved me even before the foundation of the world. (v. 24);
O righteous Father, although the world has not known you, and has failed to recognize you, I have known you continually. And these disciples know you have sent me. (v. 25);
I have revealed your Name to them, I have made known to them your true Person, your very Self, and I will continue to make you known, so that the love you have bestowed upon me may be in them, and that I myself may be in them. (v. 26).
Once the Great Intercessor completed His prayer to the Father, Jesus and His disciples immediately walked to a regular meeting spot at the foot of the Mount of Olives, the Garden of Gethsemane. It was at this time that Jesus took Peter, James and John to a quiet place there to pray. Jesus was in agony as He contemplated what was before Him now… betrayal by one of His own, arrest, beatings, a scourging, the shameful torture of the cross, and the mystery of death. With all this weighing heavily on His spirit, Jesus pleaded for His Father to take Him away from all this suffering. An angel sent from heaven came to Jesus to minister to Him as He prayed. Jesus gathered the courage to finally say… “Not my will, Father, but yours, be done.” (Luke 22:39-46).