John
Chapter 17
Overview
Jesus has finished speaking to his closest followers and now turns his eyes toward heaven. What follows is a prayer spoken aloud at a decisive hour. He first speaks about his relationship with the Father and the work he has completed. Then the prayer widens like circles on water: from his present followers, who will remain in a hostile world, to everyone who will later trust him through their message. Its central concerns are protection, truth, shared joy, and a unity deep enough to show the world what God’s love is like.
1After saying these things, Jesus looked up toward heaven and prayed, “Father, the time has come. Reveal your Son’s glory, so that the Son may reveal your glory.
2You gave him authority over all humanity so that he may give eternal life to everyone you have given him.
3Eternal life means knowing you, the only true God, and knowing Jesus the Messiah, the Anointed One you sent.
4I revealed your glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.
5Now, Father, reveal my glory beside you—the glory I had in your presence before the world existed.
6I made your name known—I showed who you are—to the people you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me. They have obeyed your message.
7Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you.
8I gave them the words you gave me, and they accepted them. They truly understood that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.
9I am asking on their behalf. I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those you have given me, because they belong to you.
10Everything that is mine is yours, and everything yours is mine. My glory has been revealed through them.
11I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Father, you are holy. Protect them by the authority of your name, which you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are.
12While I was with them, I protected them by the authority of your name, which you gave me. I kept them safe, and none of them was lost except the one headed for destruction, so that what the sacred writings said would come true.
13Now I am coming to you. I say these things while I am still in the world so that they may have my joy within them in all its fullness.
14I have given them your message, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.
15I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from evil.
16They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to it.
17Set them apart as people who belong to you by the truth. Your message is truth.
18Just as you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.
19For their sake I dedicate myself to you, so that they too may truly be dedicated to you.
20I am asking not only for these followers, but also for those who will believe in me through their message.
21May they all 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 sent me.
22I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one just as we are one:
23I in them and you in me, so that they may be brought into complete unity. Then the world may know that you sent me and that you loved them just as you loved me.
24Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they may see my glory—the glory you gave me because you loved me before the world was created.
25Father, you always do what is right. The world has not known you, but I know you, and these followers know that you sent me.
26I have made your name known to them—I have shown them who you are—and I will continue to do so. Then the love you have for me will be in them, and I will be in them.”