Jesus Prays For His Disciples

John 17:6-19

Jesus Prays for His Disciples

Verse 6 begins the second part of Jesus’ prayer after His final sermon to the 11. Jesus first prayed for Himself, that He would bear up under what was to come. But this is parayer meant to be heard by the disciples as well. The disciple when facing opposition and extreme dange needs to learn that he must pray for himself first. Then he or she will be in a position to be able to pray for others. If Jesus who was God the Son and perfect man prayed for Himself, then we being imperfect should all the more pray. Jesus also teaches His disciples when He pray for Himself. This is why He refers to Himself in the third person and uses “and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” rather than the simple “Me who You sent.” Jesus knew who He was and saying this also helped remind the disciples who He was too.

The sixth verse changes to Jesus praying for the eleven. He reminds them that the Father had chosen them and appointed the Son over them. They had come from the world, and Jesus had given them the words the father had instructed them to be taught. He tells the Father that they had accepted and kept this word. He also says that they had surely believed that Jesus had been sent by the Father.

This seems to be rather odd words for Jesus to be speaking about the disciples, particularly because they were about to utterly fail Him in His moment of crisis. And as Jesus predicted, Peter denied Him three times. These words seem too glowing for such a bunch of cowards. They were troubled and confused about what Jesus had been saying. Even we, who have the rest of the story in front of us sometimes have difficulty following what Jesus says here. So why does Jesus treat them as though they were faithful soldiers?

Perhaps one way to look at this is that Jesus does not just see us where we are. He sees us also after He has finished working with us. God calls us to be perfect like the Father in heaven is perfect. How is this possible considering that we are so prone to wander off. Perfect certainly does not describe me, at least now. But God makes everything perfect in His time as the Scripture says. The disciples would emerge from this crisis scarred, but Jesus would rise from the dead to bolster them. He and the Father would send the Holy Spirit to guide them. They would become bold witnesses who would lay down their lives for Jesus and for their brothers and sisters in Christ. So Jesus calls us what we shall become. The failures will pass. Later on, Paul could call the Corinthians “saints” even though their behavior was hardly “saintly.” This should give us hope as well. We have the promise that the One who began a good work in us will finish it in the day of Jesus Christ.” Jesus had said about Himself that His work was successfully finished, even before the cross. It was finished before it was finished. This is the way God works in us. He sees the end of our journey.

Jesus directs His prayer directly to the eleven whom the Father had called out of the world and not for the world itself. He isn’t praying directly here for us either. He will pray for those who come to believe in Jesus through their ministry later in verses 20 an following. These eleven would give both the Father and the Son glory through the ministry they were about to undertake. Jesus said that the Father was glorified by the Son. When we think that this refers to Jesus’ death on the cross bringing the Father glory through an instrument of what the world was called the deepest shame, we realize that thee eleven would glorify God through the sufferings they would undertake for the gospel.

Jesus is now overhead saying that He was about to leave this world and Jesus prays that the eleven might be kept afterwards. The eleven had been give to Him to care for, and now He returns their care back to the Father. We must note the perfect sharing between the Father and the Son. The Father’s belongs to the Son, and the Son’s belongs to the Father. This is perfect unity. This example is to be the example in the church also. We see a glimpse of this in the early church where the believers pooled their resources to help those in need out. None of them, it is said, believed that anything was exclusively their own. Barnabas became the example when he sold a field and brought the proceeds to the feet of the apostles to share. In this God was glorified. It was a spectacular witness to the unbelievers of the truth of Christianity. It reflected this sharing among the Triune God when these things are done. And even here where Jesus is praying directly for the eleven, we also get to overhear what is being said. This is to be the example in the church today as well.