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§42 Jesus Prays for His Disciples (John 17:1–26)

If chapters 15–17 are viewed as an expansion in reverse order of the three pronouncements found in 13:31–35, then chapter 17 is built on Jesus’ solemn reference to glorification in 13:31–32. Glorification is at any rate the theme of verses 1–5. In verse 1, Jesus prays, Father, … Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. In verse 5, he prays again, And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. Superficially, it appears that these two petitions frame the first major division of the prayer. On this assumption, many commentators divide the prayer into four parts: Jesus’ petition for his own glorification (vv. 1–5), his petitions for his disciples gathered around him to hear his last words (vv. 6–19), his petitions for later generations of believers (vv. 20–23), and his concluding petitions for a final reunion with his loved ones (vv. 24–26).

There are, however, significant breaks in thought after verses 3 and 8 that call such an outline into question. Between verses 3 and 4, Jesus’ solemn references to himself in the third person—your Son (twice in verse 1), and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent (verse 3)—abruptly give way to a more direct first person: I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do (v. 4). There is also a temporal shift: Verses 1–3 are oriented toward the future, while verses 4–8 are oriented, for the most part, toward the past. Jesus’ opening petition, Glorify your Son (v. 1), clearly points to his impending death (cf. 12:23, 27–28; 13:1, 31–32), whereas the next clause that your Son may glorify you looks still further into the future.

To what is Jesus referring when he speaks of the Son glorifying the Father? The explanation is given in verse 2. The purpose clause,

that your Son may glorify you (v. 1b), is made specific by a second purpose clause, structured identically:

that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him (v. 2b).

The Son will give glory to the Father after his death on the cross, and this glorification is defined as the giving of eternal life. Eternal life, in turn, is defined as the knowledge of God, and the definition is skillfully woven into the petition itself. Eternal life means to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent (v. 3). The Son will give glory to the Father, then, by making him known in the world. He will be able to do this because the Father has given him authority over all people (v. 2a; cf. Matt. 28:18). Jesus has in view in these opening verses the world mission to be carried out by his disciples after his death. Through their testimony, the Son will give glory to the Father by granting life and knowledge to all who believe (i.e., to all those you have given him, v. 2). Verses 1–3 set the tone for the entire prayer, and their scope is universal. They (and not vv. 1–5) mark the prayer’s first major division.

Verses 4–8 (with the exception of v. 5) are not petitions at all. They are, instead, a kind of last report to the Father of what Jesus has done on earth in the course of his ministry. On the basis of what he has accomplished, he renews his prayer for glorification (v. 5; cf. v. 1), but the emphasis of the section as a whole is on the résumé that undergirds the petition more than on the petition itself. Verse 5, in fact, is almost parenthetical, coming as it does between two parallel descriptions of Jesus’ accomplishments so far:

I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do (v. 4);

I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world (v. 6).

Just as in verses 1–3, the Son’s work of “glorifying” the Father is defined as revealing or making the Father known, but in this case the revealing is to the specific group of disciples gathered to hear Jesus’ last instructions. The phrase those whom you gave me focuses on this limited group in contrast to all those you have given him (out of all people) in verse 2. Such phrases as they have obeyed (v. 6), now they know (v. 7), they accepted, they knew, they believed (v. 8) are Jesus’ testimony to the Father that the revelation has taken place; his work is indeed finished. He bases his testimony explicitly on the disciples’ confession in 16:30, enlarging on his exclamation in 16:31, “You believe at last!” The disciples are the living trophies of Jesus’ mission on earth. As he reiterates his plea to glorify me in your presence (v. 5), he presents them to the Father with the acknowledgment that they were yours; you gave them to me (v. 6)—as tangible evidence that his work is done.

With this, the intercession begins: Jesus prays in verses 9–19 for the original disciples, while in verses 20–23 he turns his attention to those who will believe in me through their message. The latter section is short because the petitions of verses 9–19 are assumed to apply to the larger group as well. Verses 20–23 simply make the extension explicit and bring to particular focus for the church the themes of unity and mission. The transition from the disciples to the later church is made inevitable by the fact that the prayer stands within a Gospel. Its primary theme must be Jesus and the disciples as they appeared on the stage of history, yet at the same time there must be bridges from this past history to the Gospel writer’s own day and his own churches. Usually these bridges are simply taken for granted; the reader is expected to know that Jesus’ instructions to his immediate disciples were meant to apply to the contemporary church as well. But occasionally the bridges become visible—for example, in Mark 13:37 (“What I say to you I say to everyone: ‘Watch’!”) and Luke 12:41 (“Peter asked, ‘Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everyone?’ ”). In the present instance, a visible bridge is appropriate because of the universal scope of verses 1–3; with the explicit notice of verse 20, Jesus is returning to horizons already set at the beginning of the chapter. The point of the transition is not to distinguish between the two groups in any sharp way or to assert specific things about one that are not true of the other. On the contrary, the purpose of verses 20–23 is to affirm continuity from one generation of disciples to the next. In general, it makes little difference whether any particular statement appears before or after verse 20.

If there is a development in the petition, it has to do with the relationship of Jesus’ disciples to the world. The same ambiguity that characterized chapter 16 is present here as well. The world is the enemy, the source of persecution, yet before the prayer is over, it becomes the object of a loving purpose expressed in mission. As for the disciples, they are seen in verses 9–13 as persecuted and in need of the Father’s protection; in verses 14–19 (introduced by the words, I have given them your word) they are seen as carrying out a mission, though still persecuted and still in need of the Father’s protection; in verses 20–23, those who will believe … through their message are seen as fulfilling their mission, and persecution is no longer part of the picture. The disciples’ unity is seen in verse 11 as a corollary of being kept safe by the power of God, while in verses 21–23 it is the means by which the world will come to believe and know what Jesus wants it to know. The disciples’ stance in the world, passive at the beginning of the long petition, becomes more and more active as Jesus moves toward his conclusion. The petition that began with the disclaimer, I am not praying for the world (v. 9), ends with the expressed intent that the world may believe [or “know”] that you have sent me (vv. 21, 23).

Jesus’ delight in these followers whom God has given him is carried over from verses 4–8. His acknowledgment to the Father that they are yours (v. 9) recalls verse 6, while the claim that glory has come to me through them (v. 10) further explains I have brought you glory on earth (v. 4)—thereby reinforcing the explanation already provided in verses 4–8. The dividing line, in fact, between report or presentation (vv. 4–8) and petition (vv. 9–23) is not hard and fast. Woven into the petition are further statements looking back at Jesus’ ministry: while I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe … none has been lost (v. 12; cf. 6:39, 10:28).… I have given them your word and the world has hated them (v. 14). At every point, Jesus’ past activity undergirds his future-directed request: He kept the disciples safe (v. 12), and now he asks the Father to keep them safe when he is gone (vv. 11, 15); he gave them God’s message (v. 14), and now he asks the Father to sanctify them by the truth; your word [i.e., “your message”] is truth (v. 17). In short, Jesus called them out of the world (cf. 15:19). They no more belong to the world than he himself does (vv. 14, 16), yet he recognizes that they will still be physically present there even when he is not. If they are in the world without belonging to it, they are there as those who have been sent (v. 18). They are there in the same way that Jesus was (cf. 1 John 4:17), sent to their own home as strangers (cf. 1:10–11). They cannot withdraw from the world any more than he did. Jesus did not leave the world until his work was finished, and when he left, his departure was not a withdrawal but a victory. Therefore he does not ask the Father to take them out of the world but … protect them from the evil one (v. 15; cf. v. 11, also the last petition of the Lord’s Prayer: “Deliver us from the evil one,” Matt. 6:13).

To live in the world and carry the Father’s message, the disciples must be sanctified or “consecrated” (RSV; Gr.: hagiazein, lit., “to make holy,” vv. 17, 19). If they are sent as Jesus was sent (v. 18), they are set apart for their mission just as he was in the beginning (cf. 10:36, where NIV renders hagiazein as “set apart”). But their sending, and their consecration, has a new basis as well. Jesus does not say to the Father, as 10:36 might lead us to expect, “As you sanctified me (when you sent me into the world), so I sanctify them,” but rather, I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified (v. 19). The word sanctify takes on a different meaning than was apparent in verse 17 or in 10:36. How does Jesus sanctify himself? Simply by making a strong commitment in his heart to fulfill his mission? In a sense, yes, but his mission on earth is already complete—except for his redemptive death. Therefore, I sanctify myself can only mean consecration to death. Jesus sanctifies or consecrates himself as a priest would consecrate a sacrifice! He is priest and sacrificial victim at the same time (cf. Heb. 9:12). It is solely on the basis of the one word sanctify or “consecrate” in verse 19 that the traditional designation of chapter 17 as Jesus’ “high-priestly prayer” is justified. His self-consecration to the Father benefits the disciples. It is for them (Gr.: hyper autōn, v. 19) just as the Good Shepherd’s death is “for the sheep” in 10:11, 15 or as Caiaphas prophesies Jesus’ death “for the Jewish nation” in 11:50–52 or as Jesus speaks of giving his life “for his friends” in 15:13.

But what exactly are the benefits of Jesus’ dedication of himself to death? What does his death accomplish for the disciples? The answer is given in a series of four purpose clauses (introduced in Greek by the conjunction hina) referring to the disciples (vv.19, 21a, 22b, 23a); these are interspersed with two more purpose clauses (also with hina) referring to the world (vv. 21b, 23b). The four purpose clauses referring to the disciples span the division in the prayer at verse 20 and link Jesus’ intent for his immediate disciples with his intent for the subsequent generations:

that they too may be truly sanctified (v. 19)

that all of them may be one … just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us (v. 21a)

that they may be one as we are one (v. 22b)

“that they may be perfected into one” (NIV: may they, v. 23a)

It is not sufficient to say merely that the disciples are “saved” or receive “eternal life” through Jesus’ death—although that is true. Their salvation is described here in a particular way. They are not only a “saved” but a “saving” community. Jesus’ death has implications for them on at least three levels:

First, the intent that the disciples be truly sanctified to the Father (v. 19) reinforces Jesus’ prayer for their consecration in verse 17, along with the accompanying statement that as you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world (v. 18). This means that Jesus’ death is the key to the mission of which he has been speaking since the beginning of verse 14 (with the words, “I have given them your word …”). The notion that the death of Jesus is the only thing that makes a world mission possible for his disciples is already familiar to the reader of this Gospel from 10:15–16 (“I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep.… I must bring them also”), 12:24 (“unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed”), and 12:32 (“I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself”).

Second, the description of the disciples as truly sanctified (v. 19b) also follows closely in the wake of Jesus’ pronouncement, I sanctify myself, in verse 19a. If Jesus’ self-consecration to the Father implies his death, does the consecration of the disciples hold open the possibility of their deaths as well? If “eating the flesh” and “drinking the blood” of Jesus implied following him in the way of discipleship and mission even to death (cf. 6:53–58), and if the principle that a grain of wheat must “die” in order to reproduce itself was applied to the disciples as well as to Jesus (cf. 12:25–26), it appears that here, too, martyrdom is within the scope of Jesus’ vision. If the world hates the disciples as it hated Jesus (v. 14; cf. 15:18–21; 16:1–4), there is no guarantee that their lives will end differently from his own. The earlier petition that they be protected (vv. 11, 15) should not be understood as referring to sheer physical survival (despite 18:8–9!) but probably to remaining spiritually united to Jesus and one another (cf. 15:1–8) in the completion of their mission on earth, no matter what the cost.

Third, the petitions for oneness (vv. 21a, 22b, 23a; cf. v. 11b) must be understood against this background of mission and discipleship. The spiritual unity of which Jesus speaks is not an abstraction. For his disciples and for all subsequent believers, to be truly sanctified to the Father is to become one, and to become one in the Father and the Son is to be truly sanctified to God for the task of bringing Jesus’ message to the whole world. Unity and mission are inseparable in this Gospel. Unity is sought not for itself, but for the sake of mission, whereas mission has unity as both its presupposition and its goal.

Earlier, Jesus stated his desire to bring all his sheep into “one flock with one shepherd” (10:16), and in the next chapter the narrator commented that Jesus’ death would be for “the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one” (11:52). Here, the unity of the disciples serves a still wider purpose, expressed in the two additional purpose clauses referring to the world:

so that the world may believe that you have sent me (v. 21b)

to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them [i.e., believers in Jesus] even as you have loved me (v. 23b; cf. 13:35).

None of these purposes, either for the disciples or for the world, should be regarded as already realized from the narrator’s standpoint. Though the unity of believers with (and in) the Father and the Son is accomplished in principle by Jesus’ resurrection from the dead (cf. 14:20), it is not accomplished concretely apart from the completion of the disciples’ mission. The unity of Jesus’ followers challenges the world to believe and to recognize the love of God displayed in Jesus, but the world’s actual response remains undecided. The narrator’s verdict on Jesus’ earthly ministry is largely negative; only a remnant believed (cf. 1:10–12; 3:19–21; 12:37–43). But one way or another, Jesus will realize his intention: Either the world will believe and know the truth redemptively as the disciples have done already (and in this way cease to be the world), or it will be brought unwillingly to the recognition that it is in the wrong and that Jesus and his disciples are the true messengers of God (cf. 16:8–11). In the latter case, the world is simply a theater for the vindication of Jesus’ followers as those beloved of God. Both possibilities are held open, but the accent throughout the prayer is more on the believers and their vindication than on settling in advance the fate of the world.

This is clearly seen in the prayer’s conclusion (vv. 24–26). In verse 24, petition gives way to a straightforward declaration of intent: I want those you have given me to be with me where I am (cf. 12:26; 14:3). Jesus desires for his disciples a vision of his own glory, the glory you have given me … before the creation of the world (cf. v. 5). The glory that Jesus and his loved ones share is rooted in the Father’s love for Jesus; it antedates the world and will outlast the world (v. 24). This glory will be seen at Jesus’ coming, when he raises his own to new life at the last day (5:25; 6:39–40). Verse 24 and verses 25–26 are set off from each other and from the rest of the prayer by the repetition of the address Father and Righteous Father in verses 24 and 25. Verses 25–26 bring the prayer to a close, not with a request, but with a concise summary of the entire prayer in the setting of the farewell discourses. Despite the larger intent to let the world know (v. 23), the present fact is still that the world does not know God (v. 25). With the confession of 16:30 still in mind, Jesus points yet again to his disciples who know that you have sent me (cf. vv. 6–8). And the same balance between past and future that shaped his language at other points in the prayer (e.g., vv. 4–5, I have brought you glory, … glorify me; vv. 11–12, Protect them … I protected them) is functioning here as well: I have made you known to them … and will continue to make you known (v. 26). Though the “Counselor,” or “Spirit of truth,” is not mentioned explicitly in Jesus’ prayer, it is surely the Spirit whom Jesus has in mind. Jesus will continue to make the Father known in the world through the Spirit and, in turn, through the disciples (cf. 15:26–27).

The last three divisions of the prayer (after vv. 23, 24, and 26) are also linked appropriately by the theme of God’s love. The triangular pattern introduced with the sign of the footwashing controls the farewell discourses to the very end:

that you … have loved them even as you have loved me (v. 23)

because you loved me before the creation of the world (v. 24)

that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them (v. 26)

Jesus’ prayer for his disciples (and all subsequent believers) reinforces and displays his love for them (cf. 13:1), now clearly articulated as God’s unique love for his Son extended to a whole people, a new community of faith. All that remains is the final outpouring of that love in Jesus’ death on the cross.