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“The High Priest’s Prayer: Abundant Unity”

John 17:1-11

Easter 7a

May 8, 2005

John 17:1-11

[Jn 17:1] Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, [2] even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. [3] “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. [4] “I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. [5] “Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.

[6] “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. [7] “Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You; [8] for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me. [9] “I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours; [10] and all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I have been glorified in them. [11] “I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are.”

John 17:1-2

“Glorify Your Son...”

This is known as the High Priest’s Prayer, the Priestly Prayer, the Jesus Prayer or, even the Lord’s Prayer. The circumstances of the prayer are:

1. It is at the end of Last Supper; Jesus has just told his disciples that he would be leaving them; but he would return in glory. He would; “Overcome the world [16:33].”

2. Jesus has already broken the bread and shared the wine: He has offered both his body and his blood to his followers—and he did it with gratitude.

3. Jesus has sent Judas to do his deed and told Peter that he would betray his Lord.

4. Jesus is about to go the Olive Garden where he knows Judas will turn him over to the Temple Guard.

A wanted man or a man hunted for his life does not follow standard patterns unless he wants to be discovered. Jesus did not want to be discovered but knew he must be betrayed and arrested in order to complete his sacrifice. These are the circumstances of this prayer. It is the hardest prayer offered in history—especially if we realize that it encompasses the statement in the Garden of Gethsamane: “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from me; yet not my will, Yours be done [Luke 22:42].”

Two words go side by side in this prayer: “Glory and authority.”

Glory [NT:1392 doxazo] means the highest honor, the greatest expectations, and the deepest respect. Authority [NT:1849 exousia] means the power, liberty, and ability to act. Glory and authority go hand in hand in Jesus’ prayer; he would not receive one quality without exercising the other. Our Lord is literally asking the Father for the power to exercise his authority that he might be restored to his glory.

Friends, remember what Jesus is asking for the power (authority) to do: to die on the cross! He seeks the power to sacrifice himself for us. Is this my daily prayer? “Lord, give me the power to sacrifice myself for your people that I might glorify your name.”

John 17:3

[3] “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”

“This is eternal life...”

When we are filled with God’s glory and exercising His authority; there can only be one result: Eternal Life.

Jesus tells us that knowing God is eternal life and our Lord’s sole purpose in coming to earth was to give us the power (glory and authority) to know God. But knowing God was not a head-trip. It wasn’t the accumulation of knowledge about God. The word “to know [NT:1097 ginosko]” is the most intimate word in the bible. It was used of a husband taking his wife into their honeymoon chambers; it was intimate knowledge. To know another is to know what they love, what makes them hurt, what their aspirations are, and how to bring them joy.

We can study or read about someone but we cannot know them this intimately unless we have spent time with them; unless we are in relationship with them. To be this intimate with God is to live in internal and eternal relationship with Him. In a previous study I said: “Heaven is not a place we go; it is a relationship we are in.”

The fuller translation of these words could well be: “To know God intimately is to live completely.”

We could translate eternal [NT:166 aionios] as; “beyond the boundaries of time or space.” The word “life [NT:2222 zoe]” means a “way of living.” To be in intimate relationship with God is a way of living beyond the boundaries of time and space. The physical world no longer binds us because love never ceases and has no boundaries. We can love someone and commune with them a half-a-world away because God’s very name is “I am everywhere-all-the-time.” Eternal life then is being with God and death is separation from Him.

The power and authority of Jesus had a singular purpose: To bring us out of death and into a way of living with God. Jesus came that we might have life and have it abundantly. In other words; he came to offer us a fullness and wholeness in the way that we live through an intimate relationship with God. It is a fullness and wholeness this world cannot offer except in some miscreant, debilitated form.

Is that the purpose of my life? Do all my actions, efforts, relationships and goals point towards that kind of love; that kind of life? If yes, I am living eternity by the glory and authority of God.

John 17:4-5

[4] “I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. [5] “Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.

“Having accomplished the work...”

Jesus speaks about the way in which he glorified his Father while on earth. It wasn’t just by praising God at worship, following the rituals, adhering to the Pharisaical traditions, singing His praises or preaching in synagogues. In short, it wasn’t by becoming a good, little rabbi. Jesus praised God by having “accomplished the work which You have given Me to do.”

The word used for accomplishments [NT5048 teleioo] means to bring to completion, fullness or perfection. The root of this word [NT5046 teleios] is used in the following verse from Matthew:

[Mt 5:48] “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Jesus is telling us that he glorified God by perfectly accomplishing his mission; he is also telling us that we need to glorify God by doing the same. Does it sound even remotely possible that we could achieve this? Yet, would Jesus give us an impossible task?

We would be overwhelmed by such a statement if it were not for two subtle aspects of this Good News:

1) To be perfect, in Greek, also means to be perfectly focused—telescopically focused—on our task. In our case, perfect focus is to be ever-working towards the Jubilee Day promised by our Lord; the day when prisoners will be set free, the hungry will be fed and the naked will be clothed. In Matthew 28, that is the standard of measurement used on the Day of Judgment.

2) To be perfectly focused is to realize that I can only accomplish Christ’s mission if I am in Jesus. Apart from him I can do nothing.

Jesus lays his mission clear at the beginning of his life:

Luke 4:18-19

“THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED, TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.”

How do we know if we are perfectly focused? Because the poor call us good news. The captives, blind, oppressed; all of them see us as “Proclaimers of the Favorable Year of the Lord.”

And, just what is the “Favorable Year of the Lord?” It is the year when slaves are freed, debt is cancelled and the rights of the oppressed are restored. Is that what we are working towards or do we still have Disneyland version of the Gospel where Jesus is Prince Charming and we are Snow White awaiting his kiss? Do we see heaven as a theme park where we will have all the rides and we have a VIP pass to all the lines?

Jesus describes heaven as a feast where strangers and the poor have been welcomed to the table. In that description, he defines our role as: “Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered together all they found, both evil and good; and the wedding hall was filled with dinner guests [Mt 22:10].”

Does that definition fit me? Am I glorifying God by being the slave that scours the streets and gathers all whom I can find to bring them to the banquet hall of the Lord?

This is the perfect accomplishment that glorifies the Lord. Praise, yes! Worship, yes! But the greatest praise God desires is the joy of His lost children coming home. It is not how well I praise that counts to God; it is with whom I am praising. Am I praising God in the midst of the poor, the needy, and the incarcerated?

Glory without accomplishment is an abomination before the Lord:

Amos 5:21-24

“I hate, I reject your festivals, nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; and I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings. Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”

Am I shouting “Glory!” because God’s work is being accomplished or because it makes me feel good?

Psalm 68:4-6

“Sing to God, sing praises to His name; lift up a song for Him who rides through the deserts, whose name is the LORD, and exult before Him. A father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows is God in His holy habitation. God makes a home for the lonely; He leads out the prisoners into prosperity, only the rebellious dwell in a parched land.”

“With the glory which I had with You...”

Here is a major theme of John--he doesn't want us to have any doubt--Jesus came from the Father, he was not created, his glory is the glory of God. Jesus is God's only begotten son:

John 1:14

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

He is part and parcel of the Holy Trinity, who will exist beyond time and existed “before the world was” or pro [NT4253] kosmos [NT2889] (this also means before order).

The opening theme of the book of John sets the stage for Christ’s Messianic claim:

John 1:1-4

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.

Then John shares the seven statements—the “I Am’s.” These are the seven statements that attest to the claims of Jesus.

1. “I am the Bread of Life” (6:35).

2. “I am the Light of the world” (8:12).

3. “I am the Gate for the sheep” (10:7; cf. v. 9).

4. “I am the Good Shepherd” (10:11,14).

5. “I am the Resurrection and the Life” (11:25).

6. “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life” (14:6).

7. “I am the true Vine” (15:1; cf. v. 5)

Each “I am” statement is attached to by a miracle or a sign (as John calls them) that testifies to Jesus’ claim to be Messiah:

1. The first sign is the turning of the water into wine at a marriage in Cana of Galilee (2:1-11).

2. This leads to the story of the second sign, the healing of the nobleman's son (4:46-54), notable for the fact that Jesus healed at a distance.

3. The third sign is the healing of the lame man by the pool of Bethesda (5:1-18).

4. John’s fourth sign is the one miracle (apart from the resurrection) found in all four Gospels: the feeding of the 5,000 (6:1-15).

5. It is followed by Jesus’ walking on water (vv 16-21), which seems to be meant as the fifth sign (some scholars disagree with this and that there are only six signs).

6. The sixth sign is the healing of the man born blind (ch 9).

7. The final sign is the raising of Lazarus (11:1-44), a man who had been dead for four days.

Everything that John writes points out that Jesus’ right to claim both the glory and authority of the throne of God. He is beloved of the supreme God; the way to life and the truth. Our hearts must not be in service to any other being or thing. The purpose of our lives and the direction in which we live should be based upon but one source alone: He who has the glory and authority of God. No one or no-thing other than Jesus the Christ.

John 17:6-10

“I have manifested Your name...”

Have I manifested the name of God? The term [NT5319 phaneroo] literally means to declare, make apparent, or live out; to manifest the name [NT3686 onoma] of God means that his character is revealed in my life. Jesus revealed God's character in the way that he lived his life in front of the disciples. Every action of Jesus consistently revealed the nature and purposes of his Father.

To top that off, Jesus says that his followers have kept [NT5083 tereo] his word [NT3056 logos]. The term comes from a castle keep or a soldier who keeps his watch. Logos means word, but it is more like a pledge or a promise. The disciples have kept Jesus’ promise and Jesus is the promise [logos] of God; he is God’s spoken word:

John 1:1

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

It is incredible to think that Jesus looked at this rag tag room of zealots, fishermen and tax collectors and saw in them the completion of God’s word. He knew those in that room would fail him, abandon him, disobey him and yet he still believed in them. How can this be?

It is not our perfection that Jesus sees; it is our desire. When we have “the desire” then the Holy Spirit completes our prayers, when we have the desire God hears our heart, when we have the desire God restores all things to His glory. It is not success or failure in goals or tasks that our God heralds—it is the desiring heart: The passionate follower. Thomas may be disillusioned with Jesus but at least he goes to Jerusalem to die with him. Peter may deny Jesus; but it is in the courts of Annas and Caiphas. How sad it is that Christians are wearier over what praise music to sing, what color of carpet to pick, or what ritual is proper, than what we could do to bring the peace of Christ to the most violent places in our communities.

If we fail then let’s fail boldly on behalf of justice and compassion. It is in the passion that God is made manifest. It is in the right effort that we reveal His character.

All things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine

Jesus doesn’t actually say “All things…” and thinking in this manner can be very deceptive in a consumer-oriented, materialistic culture. What Jesus says is more akin to; “What’s Yours is mine and what’s mine is Yours and I have been glorified in these people.”

Each of us is given a certain number of resources in this life (Jesus uses the story about the ten talents [Mt 18:14-30]) and every resource we are given is offered to us towards one purpose; restoring integrity to human lives including a relationship with the loving Creator of all life: to love like Jesus loved.

In the story of the talents, the characters are held responsible not only for what they do with their resources but also what they don't do with their resources. The wrath of the land owner (played by God--who really owns the property) is focused on the man who does nothing with what God has given him. God is unconcerned with the amount returned by any of the parties; He is angered at the resources unused! He wants an accounting for the unused property.

Matthew 25:24-30

[Mt 25:24] “And the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. [25] ‘And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.’

[26] “But his master answered and said to him, ‘You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed. [27] ‘Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest. [28] ‘Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents.’

[29] “For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away. [30] “Throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Two talents, five talents, or ten talents those “things” make no difference to God. The man condemned buries the talents, he hides them; he takes no risks and sees no gain.

There are times in my life where I wish I could make just the opposite statement: “Take no risks; experience no controversy.” Yet, the Christian living in an unjust society should be in constant controversy—not for the sake of controversy; but for the sake of justice. Jesus was in constant controversy; are we so risk-adverse that controversy doesn’t even enter our life, our church, or our daily life? Is our church or faith so “gated” that we have become comfortable with the injustice or poverty around us?

How deep are our talents buried? Someday God will ask us: “All I had was yours; what did you do with it?”

Let us work now so that our response is not; “I buried it.”

John 17:11

[11] “I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are.”

“That they may be one even as We are.”

“That they may be one [NT:1520 heis] even as We are.” Abundant unity; that is what Christ asks for his followers. The term means unity of purpose, direction, and beliefs; abundant unity. It is the kind of unity modeled by the Holy Spirit, yet how does one reach such a status of unity?

Unity is impossible to obtain when debating theology or carpet colors; that is why so many churches fall apart. Unity is achieved when people stand together pursuing a common cause. Jesus did not send the disciples out to debate in or with the world. He sent them out to love the world as he had loved them. He sent them out to all ethnic groups (“All nations”), the implication being beyond the Jews, beyond what was comfortable; he sent them out with a unifying challenge into a world of injustice and hopelessness. He sent them out to all cultures, all beliefs, and all social classes.

Christianity (primarily in the information society) is suffering from an inward focus; I call it; Meotheism. We try to make the gospel message about “me.” The sermon doesn’t entertain “me.” The Pastor didn’t call “me.” The church never reached out to “me.”

Leaders play into this attitude and attempt to find ways to reach out to a sea of “Wanna-Me’s” each of whom wants the gospel to bend to their own tastes or needs. This is an impossible climate for unity.

Comm-Unity is only available when our focus is off of ourselves and on the mission of Jesus Christ. Jesus was not asking God to meet the individual needs of those remaining in that room. He wasn’t praying that Peter’s fishing fleet would expand or that James and John would get their golden thrones on his right side (and both exactly equidistant from him). Our Lord was not asking that his disciples needs would be met individually; but corporately. And that the corporate needs of the budding church would be focused on “all mankind [v2].”

When I go to church—whose needs am I focused on? What is my primary purpose: “To be fed?” or, to “become broken bread?” Am I going to “get something” or to find out what I can give?

In the Lord’s high priestly prayer, Jesus prayed that the focus of the apostle’s be moved from themselves to each other and from each other to the world. How does my prayer compare to the prayer of Jesus? Is my prayer concentric to my needs—maybe occasionally including a need or two from those in my immediate circle? Or, is my prayer a reflection of the High Priest’s prayer; longing for unity; for a common purpose, direction and belief among commissioned followers?

Where’s my focus?

Copyright Notice

“Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE, (C) Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1988. Used by permission.”

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