1 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
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. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 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. 9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11 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. 12 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.
13 “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that 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.
24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
25 “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
Jesus' life was centered around His Father...St. John, in these verses focuses on three of Jesus' prayers...It would be an understatement to say that Jesus knew how to pray while He was on earth...So we learn much from these verses not only about Jesus, and His Father, but how He goes about praying...Let us remember in these prayers, He is constantly giving credit and glory to His Father in heaven...Jesus gives glory to His Father throughout these three prayers...
His first prayer is a prayer for Himself...His prayer is focused on wanting us to know that it is His Father who deserves glory...He asks that He be glorified, so that when He was and will be glorified, people would know more about His Father...And when people know more about The Son, we know more about His Father, who deserves glory and worship...His three year ministry was coming to a glorious close...Jesus wants us to recognized that His arrest, trial, torture, His death on the cross, and then His ascension would complete His work on earth and show the glory of His Father...
His second prayer is for His disciples...His disciples were from His Father, and God has given the Twelve to His Son...He has taught the Twelve what they know, and everything He has taught them, has came from His Father...Jesus says it this way, "Now they know that everything You have given Me comes from You."...In this prayer He does not, for some reason, pray for the world...In fact, He says, "I AM not praying for the world, but for those You have given Me, for they are Yours."...Jesus is focused on His near term tasks at hand, and knows that His disciples will soon need His Father and His help...Jesus asks His Father, and calls Him "Holy Father" to protect His disciples by the very power of His Father's name (there is power in the name of God), so that they may be as one as Jesus and His Father are One...His Father is a part of His Son...He is in His Father and His Father is in Him...And Jesus knowing that His disciples after His death would have a tremendous task to spread His gospel to the world, is praying to His Father for His help and assistance with the spreading of this new gospel...He would soon be leaving His disciples and knew they would need His Father's protection in their upcoming persecutions, tribulations, and trials in spreading this news about Him...They would need the type of protection and help that only He can provide...
In His next prayer Jesus prays for all believers...He prays for a type of unity that just as Him and His Father are One, that all believers be united as one...Jesus, in His prayers for all believers, wants us connected and linked through and to Him...The Holy Spirit and His Father's LOVE connect us all...He wants His followers to have this Spiritual Oneness as Him and His Father has...When and if the whole world are one as He is praying for, then we will have more love and peace and forgiveness on earth...The world would be and will be much better with this unity...Jesus finishes praying and telling His Father (and us) that we do not know His Father, but only He does...He tells His Father and us that the LOVE His Father has for Him may reside in all believers and that He too may be in His followers...This LOVE, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus in us has the power to make us connected and united...
And as we read through and study these prayers, it is important we see how Jesus is having this intimate prayer and conversation with His Father...Jesus is saying more than God give My disciples this and that...He is saying more than give My believers this and that...It is like His Father is sitting with Him and they are talking and His Father is intently listening to Him...These prayers show the relationship He has with His Father, in the way He is talking to Him...They are together -they are One...This very relationship of Jesus with His Father is who Jesus is...We can learn from not only what He prayed to His Father from these prayers, but also how His Son prays to His Father...
Jesus has made it known to all believers that He was sent by His Father and because of what He has done the evidence is clear that He knows God and that it is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who has sent Him...Those who believe that God sent His Son to earth can see that Jesus is His Son...What He teaches and what He did on earth would be things that God would do...One might even conclude that if God were a human or were to become flesh, this is how He would teach, act, and be...God would send to earth One who would be Absolute Truth and Absolute LOVE, and that ultimate expression takes place on the cross as God gives His Son's life to us and for us...