Jesus’ Prayer for His Disciples

January 11, 2015 Background Scripture: John 17:1 – 26 Lesson Passage: John 17:6 – 21 I cannot think of too many things more comforting than to know that Jesus prayed for me. That’s right. The creator and Lord of everything prayed for me. The words of the prayer were recorded and in those words is a specific request for me. Well, actually he prayed for all who would believe on him because of the testimony of his disciples. Of course, I am included in that number, as are all Christians. Now that should be enough to make you want to read the entire prayer. The prayer of Jesus recorded in John 17 is sometimes referred to as his high priestly prayer. In this prayer, Jesus prayed as a priest would pray for the people of God. Although the bible records that there were times when Jesus prayed all night, this is the longest recorded prayer of Jesus in the bible. In this prayer, we begin to understand more about the close personal relationship Jesus has with the Father and Jesus’ desire for his followers to develop the same closeness with them. Jesus prayed for his followers as only the Good Shepherd could. This prayer was prayed prior to his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane. Whenever a Christian is unsure of Jesus’ love for them, the words of this prayer should quickly banish that thought. Jesus began this prayer obviously reflecting on his eternal past. He petitioned the Father with the request to be glorified as he was in the beginning with the Father. When the eternal Word emptied himself to be born into the world in human flesh, he set aside the glory he had always had from eternity past to take on the form of humanity. He humbly accepted this responsibility to redeem mankind back to the Father. Later that night, he prayed that if there were another way other than becoming sin and dying in the flesh to redeem man, that the Father would manifest this possibility. Jesus knew that when he became sin, he would be separated from the holiness of his Father. He accepted that his glory would be restored after his death and resurrection. The beginning of this prayer makes it clear that he desired to again be glorified. Secondly, Jesus prayed for the disciples because he would soon be leaving them in the world. He knew that only the Father was able to keep them safe from the evils of the world. He acknowledged his role as Shepherd and not as owner—for the Father is the owner of all. But now that he was about to leave them, he entrusted their care to his Father. For God, alone, is able to protect us from all dangers including demonic forces. Then Jesus’ attention turned to the rest of us, i.e., the church. This is where I began my comments. It is difficult to describe the excitement I feel in knowing that I was included in Jesus’ prayer before he suffered and died. Of all of the things to pray for when death is only hours away, I would not have expected Jesus’ prayer to focus on unborn believers. But that is exactly what he did. Jesus prayed for his disciples and then he prayed for all those that would believe on him because of the testimony of his disciples. Robert C. Hudson December 27, 2014