The Farewell Prayer of Jesus (1/2)

In this week's devotional reading, John records the detailed events right after the Lord's supper on the night before the crucifixion of Jesus. As I read through this passage, I was overwhelmed with the passion of Jesus Christ. He knew exactly what was coming...the betrayal, the trial, and the cross...but rather than thinking about the tragedy before Him, Jesus comforts His disciples. Some scholars have called this the "Farewell Discourse" where Jesus is giving His last words to His disciples right before the start of His passion. Bible scholars have also highlighted four key parts of this portion of Scripture:

The first discourse is found in Chapter 14 where Jesus begins encouraging His disciples that though He will depart soon...He promises to send a helper - the Holy Spirit. I shared about the second discourse in my previous post about Jesus as the Vine and we as the Branches...how Jesus is the source of life for the church in Chapter 15:1-17. In the third discourse between Chapter 15:18-Chapter 16:33, Jesus prepares His disciples that the world will hate them but that the Father will always care for them. In addition, Jesus again promises that the Spirit of truth will guide them into all truth. Finally, in chapter 17:1-26, Jesus ends with a prayer! This is what I would us to meditate on today. In today's post, we will look at John 17:1-12.

After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:

“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

“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. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.

This week, I have been preparing the Praise Team with a lesson on "Living for God's glory, not our own" and John 17 actually deals directly with that theme! The first part of the prayer might seems to some that Jesus is focusing on himself, but I find the subtitle for this portion a bit misleading. I think a better subtitle would be "Jesus prays for God's glory to be revealed through Him." Let's remember that Jesus is the Son of God! He has every right to be praying for himself so to speak...in fact, Jesus in one sense is always in communion/prayer with God. However, I believe the beginning of Jesus' prayer teaches us the important of giving God the glory and living our lives for Him! In the next post, we will look at John 17:13-26 and discuss more the Farewell Prayer of Jesus.