Prayer 16: The Farewell Prayer of Jesus

Many thanks to Kiran for recording this session in the transcriptionist’s absence. The latter retains responsibility for any errors in transcription.

Don: The prayer of Jesus found in John 17 is by far the longest prayer by Jesus recorded in the gospels. It is sometimes called the “High Priestly Prayer” or the “Farewell Prayer” of Jesus. It could in fact be called the “Lord’s Prayer,” in the sense that it was his own personal prayer to god, unlike the prayer we know as the Lord’s Prayer, the “Our Father,” the “Pater Noster,” given in Matthew 6, which was the prayer Jesus taught us we ourselves should pray to god.

The prayer is delivered following what is generally considered to be Jesus’ farewell discourse, the summary wrap-up of his ministry, given to prepare his disciples for his exit and for the entry of the holy spirit , telling them of the meaning of his ministry, and giving them some guidance as to how the ministry should unfold after he leaves.

The core theme running through this final discourse was that his disciples should love others as he had loved his disciples. Two major themes then arise in the prayer itself: The first is that his work had succeeded and had brought glory to god; the second is a petition to god to underwrite unity amongst his disciples and followers, with his love.

Here is the prayer in full:

John 17 (New American Standard Bible)

The High Priestly Prayer
Jesus spoke these things [the preceding chapters in John]; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.

“I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You; for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me. I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours; and all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I have been glorified in them. I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are. While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.

The Disciples in the World
But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.

“I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even 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 sent Me.

Their Future Glory
The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

“O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

One of the questions that arises out of this prayer is what is the nature of the “unity” Jesus calls for? Its end product is that the world will know that god sent Jesus, so it has a utilitarian, evangelistic purpose. It is a unity that exists in the godhead and is extended to the followers of god, and god is glorified as a result.

What does this prayer teach us about our own prayer? It is not a prayer asking for personal things in the manner of the prayers of Job or Jonah or Hannah. Jesus simply asks that his disciples be helped to recognize and demonstrate unity.

Harry: I think it shows that Jesus would support what today we call social welfare. The “comm-unity” of Jesus works because it unites through love of one’s fellow human being. Clearly, community through, or of, belief is impossible and has totally escaped us, with our Christians and Moslems and Hindus and Buddhists, and our Protestants and Catholics and Sunni and Shia and…. Our belief system ought to be inconsequential, compared to our humanity.

Don: John 13:35 supports that idea: “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” Some kind of universal love is prerequisite for the kind of unity Jesus prayed for.

Michael: As I look around at the world, at nature, I look for love in everything. I find it hardest to find in humans!

Eb: John was very much self centered in his youth. He asked Jesus for a special place when Jesus establishes his kingdom, and he asked his mother to ask on his behalf also. But he ended his gospel thus (John 21:24): “This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true.” He does not even mention his own name. What had changed him? He had learned what true service is, and was not concerned about himself. There is no “About the Author” addendum to his gospel.

In Hebrews 12:2, the apostle Paul says: “…fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” When we fix our eyes on Jesus, we forget about self.

We have the same problem as Lucifer: We want to see our name in lights. But Jesus said think only of others. We may talk this talk of loving others, but we don’t walk the walk. Jesus wanted one brotherhood of man, but look at the divisions man has created! The only way to unity is by focusing on Jesus, not on “I”. This is the crux of the matter. It takes effort, in the form of prayer without ceasing.

Don: In some of the great prayers of scripture, the “I” is paramount. They are all self-centered, and god’s response is invariably to deflect attention away from what the supplicant wants and to focus it instead on god’s own will.

Jay: This Prayer of Jesus seems a little exclusionary. He is praying for his “in” people, especially the disciples, but not for the “out” people who are “of this world.” What can save them is the transmission to them of god’s love through the disciples. It seems that god does not love everyone directly, but does so indirectly through his love for his chosen people.  [Jason I may be misinterpreting you here..?]

Robin: What did Jesus mean when he said (in the prayer): “I am no longer in the world”?

Jay: I think he meant that his death was so imminent he was already effectively gone from, or certainly was well on his way out of, this world.

Don: Yes, the context for the prayer was that his work was done here, and the focus had to turn to his disciples.

Robin: In declaring the name “Holy Father,” he seems to be reflecting on the character of god.

Jay: The Gethsemane Prayer is very different from this one. It is focused on Jesus himself—it is very much self-centered, in contrast to this one.

Kiran: Jesus redefined love as something that is unselfish, and—in community—contagious. In this prayer, Jesus has no problem with free will—it is a “Thy will be done” prayer. It also has a salutary effect on me in challenging the arrogance that tends to creep in from a sense of superiority in being a Seventh Day Adventist.

Ada: We have been discussing that very issue this week in my [Catholic] church. It is a simple matter to appreciate the things we have in common with others, but we have difficulty appreciating that Christ, who loves us all, is also within others whose belief system is different from ours.

Harry: Mother Theresa exemplifies the fact that theology will never unite us, but love of our fellow human being does. She is loved universally for her selfless charity, not for her religion. Religions are preoccupied with “Truth” rather than with Love. To me, Mother Theresa is the ideal Jesus was asking god for in this prayer.

Don: Next week, we will talk about the Gethsemane Prayer, and compare it to the prayer we have discussed today, which I think is a strong call for us to refocus what it is that makes us who we are as children of god. As Robin said, the prayer is at pains to declare that god is our father, which makes us all brothers and sisters. But there does seem to be a measure of divisiveness—of “in: and “out” people as Jason pointed out—in the prayer. We’ll discuss this next week.