John 17 has been considered by some commentators to be the climax of John’s gospel.  Perhaps it is Jesus’ announcement in verse one that “the hour has come”.  Whether this is accurate or not, this chapter contains valuable insight into the role of Jesus as our mediator between God and man (I Tim. 2:5).  There is no doubt this is a pivotal moment.  John records Jesus repeatedly saying, “My hour has not yet come” and now he finally says “My hour has come”.  It’s D-Day, H-Hour.  This references not only his death, but all that comes with it – his atoning work on the cross, his resurrection, his ascension and his glorification.  

In this chapter, Jesus acts as our High Priest and prays for himself and for his disciples – both the immediate disciples and all those who would come later.  He prays that God would glorify the son.  It is rare that Jesus is recorded praying anything for himself, but his true focus is clear, as he says this:

Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.  John 17:1 [emphasis added]

Jesus wanted the Father’s glory, not his own.  Sometimes we become so self-absorbed in our thinking that we believe God’s whole purpose in interacting with man was simply to bring about man’s good.  The truth is that God acts to display his glory.  David recognized this when he said:

11 For the sake of your name, LORD,
forgive my iniquity, though it is great.  Ps. 25:11 [emphasis added]

God is love.  Yet, God’s redemptive plan was not primarily about loving us, but about revealing his glory to all creation.  The entire first chapter of Ephesians uses the expression, “to the praise of his glory” or references God’s glory numerous times in describing his predestination of his people.

So it is that Christ asks for glory – not for himself, but to the glory of God the Father.

In this passage, Jesus also reveals how he intercedes for us with the Father.  If we want to know exactly the kinds of things Jesus says to the Father on our behalf, here it is!

Christ prays specifically for his disciples and makes an interesting statement here:

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.

This is interesting because it causes us to ask: In what sense had they obeyed (NIV) or “kept” (KJV/ESV) God’s word?

Jesus constantly chided the disciples for not understanding him and his purpose.  On this very night at the Passover table, he had broken up a fight between the disciples about which one of them would be the greatest (see Luke 22:24) and had predicted Peter would be “sifted like wheat” by Satan and would deny him three times before the night ended.  Their doctrinal understanding was all whacked-out, they were full of envy and pride, and their faith was weak.  In what sense could Jesus say these men had “kept” or “obeyed” God’s word?

We may take great comfort in knowing these men, though they had all these problems, had placed their faith in Jesus.  They believed he was the son of God.  They relied on him for everything, and because of their faith (as weak as it might have been), they were counted as having “kept” God’s word.  Indeed, all of us are equally right with God by his grace and the perfect righteousness accounted by faith to all those who believe.  As Paul wrote,

However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.  Rom. 4:5

In this prayer, Jesus also appeals for unity among the believers – unity manifested by their love.

20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.  John 17:20-23

Jesus actually says that those who would believe in the future had already been given the glory God gave Christ.  In this way, Christ is uniting himself to all believers for all time and linking all believers to the Father.  What a wondrous thought, that before any of us were even a twinkle in our parents’ eyes, Christ had planned and granted our glorious union with God our Father!

– Based on a lesson from John Summers