Jesus' High Priestly Prayer

Did you know that John devoted one-third of his gospel to the last twenty-four hours of Jesus’ life? John recognized the importance of this period of time in the life of Jesus, but I think, more importantly, he was so greatly affected by this time, that it changed his entire life. In fact, it changed the life of all the disciples and because of them, the direction of the world.

Before this prayer, Jesus had just finished teaching His disciples. For three chapters, He explained to them about the tribulations they would face, ending with: "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

Now He comes to the point in time when there is no more to be taught. It is time to come to the Father. His prayer is an outpouring from his heart as he thinks about separating himself from his close circle of friends and followers, and walking the path of ultimate obedience 'unto death'. In the prayer He recognizes that we will be tempted and will suffer, but He also shows us by example that this is the time to leave all things and run to God.

We call this Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer because Jesus, like the priests of the OT, will offer up prayers for His people and then offer up a sacrifice – Himself. What we see most apparently in this prayer is Jesus’ selfless nature. Jesus assumes his death on the cross throughout the prayer. The prayer can be broken up into 3 parts – verses1-5 is in regards to Himself and the Father, verses 6-19 is in regards to The Apostles and verses 20-26 is in regards to The Church in general.

Let’s read verses 1-5. Note His use of the word, “Father”. Prior to Jesus, God was the Supreme Being. A Holy, sacred God, separated from us, to be feared only. However, Jesus teaches us to pray “Our Father”. He shows us that God is not only all those attributes from the Old Testament, but also a loving, merciful, forgiving and giving God. What this means to us, is that we now know we have a God who is listening to us, who treats us like our parents or the kindest guardian would. A God who loves us regardless of the things we have done.

Next, Jesus prays for the glorification of Himself, and the Father through Him. What does He mean by Glorification/Glorify? It means to give honor, praise, admiration, distinction. Jesus prays for his glorification. It may sound selfish, but it is the exact opposite. Let me explain.

Imagine you have a friend who is has a coat and he wants to go over there and help those people who need help – but they don’t have coats. He wants to be able to empathize with them and he wants to be accepted by them. So he leaves his coat with you. He goes over there and he helps them, all the while telling them about his coat. The day finally comes when he is getting ready to return. Is it wrong for him to expect that you will give him his coat back? This is what Jesus is doing here. He has left his glory in heaven to come to earth to do the work of the father. He has now completed that work and as He looks up to the cross, knowing that he is about to die, instead of running away, he walks up to the cross and says “Crucify me”. In doing so, he can now return to the Father and receive His glory again.

By doing this, he not only receives his glory, but the Father is also glorified in that His plan has been completed. He has given His children a way to return back to Him through the sacrifice of His Son. By overcoming death, Jesus has glorified the Father.

Next we read that Jesus is the giver of eternal life. And then He explains what eternal life is: It is knowing the Father (the only true God) and the Son (whom He has sent). The word “know” is the greek “ginoskosin”. This word is translated know, in a personal, relational manner. In other words, it is not knowing the Father as in knowing about gravity or the mailman. It is about knowing the Father like you know your wife or you parents or your best friend. It is coming into a relationship with Him that is personal, where you give Him all your fears and secrets and He gives you comfort and guidance. When we know the Father in this manner and the Son in this manner, when we love them like we love these others in our lives, then we have eternal life.

Verse 4, Jesus says that by completing the work that the Father gave him to do, He has glorified the Father. Do we do the work the Father has given us to do? Think about walking the desert road and listening to the Father speak to us and doing what He asks. Do we recognize here why it is important to do these things? Because our sole purpose for living is to glorify the Father and now we see that we do this by completing the work He has given us to do. Have we been giving glory to God with our lips only or do we glorify Him like Jesus did, by completing the work He has given us?

In the next section, verses 6-19, we hear Jesus’ prayer for His disciples. We read that the Father gave the disciples to Jesus. We see in Luke 6:12 that Jesus stayed up all night praying for His disciples. The Father heard His prayer and answered by giving Him these same men whom He now prayed for. And once the Father had given them to Jesus, Jesus taught them who the Father is and what He is like and who He was. Through this teaching, they became believers, except for the one who was destined to be lost.

He prays that the disciples would be protected in the world after He was gone. Jesus had just finished telling them about the suffering they would endure: the pruning they would need to go through, the hatred of the world – those who do not believe and who will treat them like they have treated Him – and they killed Him. But not only would they need protection from the world but from Satan as well. Jesus does not pray that they be taken from the world, but that they be protected. They have work to do. Jesus will tell them their final instructions after His resurrection (which is the Great Commission – to teach others who He is).

He asks the Father to sanctify them. Sanctify means to be set apart for sacred use, to make holy. Jesus was not sanctified by separation, but by dedication and obedience to the will and the work of the Father. In this case, Jesus asks for the disciples to be set apart, but not by being separated physically, but by being separated from the sinfulness of the world. And this they know and can do because they have the truth, which is the word of God. Truth is the foundation for holiness, for sanctification. Jesus then says that He has sanctified us by being sanctified himself. He has made us holy, separated us out by giving up himself, by His death on the cross. Because He has chosen to die on the cross, He can now overcome death, bring glory to the Father and Himself and by this, the disciples can see the Truth and know the Truth. That they have eternal life through Jesus and no matter what the world does to them, they can only kill the body but not their souls.

Lastly, we come to the section of the prayer where Jesus prays for the future believers, the church – for you and I. He prays for all who would hear the message through the disciples. Interestingly, every one of us can draw a line back through our spiritual birth to one of the disciples and ultimately to Jesus. Jesus taught the disciples who He was, they taught others, who taught others, until we heard it and believed. Just like we can all draw lines back to our physical births to Adam and Noah, we can draw our spiritual family lines back through the disciples and Jesus and all the way back to Abraham. This is why it is right that we call each other brothers and sisters. See Matthew 12:46-50. Jesus said the same, “Who are my mother and my brothers?”

And what does He pray for us? That we become one. One family. Who are our mother and brothers? Jesus prays for our unity, not uniformity (everybody doing the same thing or saying the same thing). Unity is being believers, one and all. And it isn’t enough that we are all united, but that we are united in our belief of who he is. Just as He and the Father are one, so are we one with Him. And He is one with us and we are one with Jesus and He is one with the Father and everyone is united together – the believers, the Son and the Father, and it is the Spirit that works to brings us to this place.

Finally, we see that Jesus desires that we be with him in heaven, where we can be where He is and we can see Him in His glory. And it is not us who wish to be with Him but He who wished to be with us. Can we understand the love that God has for us? Can we see through this prayer His selflessness, His desire for us to be with Him, for our salvation? How great is the God that has given us His truth! In this prayer we see His desire for us to have continual union with Him, to have joy from that union, that we are kept from evil, that we are in unity with each other, that we be with Him in heaven and that we know His glory.

Every request which our Lord made on our behalf in this prayer necessitated the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus on the cross of Calvary. Apart from His finished work in His death, burial and resurrection and ascension, these words are worthless.

The price He has paid for man’s salvation is one none of us could have paid. It was paid once for all, and never needs to be paid again (Hebrews 9:24-28). But there is a sense in which our prayers have a price. Can we pray that God will minister to others without a commitment to minister in any way we can?

What is the purpose of this prayer? It seeks the glory of God, even at the price of personal suffering, assured that what is for God’s glory is ultimately for our good (indeed, our best). It confidently petitions for divine protection, not from suffering, but from Satan, spiritual collapse, and opposition. It seeks a greater unity among true believers, and looks ultimately for a reunion with our Lord.

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Last modified: March 22, 2009