The Gospel According to John Chapter 17
Originally posted Friday, April 25, 2008
John Chapter 17:1-26 Jesus Prays for the Disciples
This chapter is
entirely devoted to Jesus' prayer with his disciples, his last moments with
them before he is arrested. Although the usual printing of this chapter does
not show its arrangement, it is written in poetic form much like the Prologue.
How the verses are divided into stanzas has been the subject of debate. The
best division can be determined by finding a common introductory verse
in each stanza followed by the prayer related to the subject. Using
this approach there seems to be a natural division into three stanzas: vss. 1-8, 9-19, and 20-26. Each has a similar opening and each has a
different subject.
The common
introductory phrasing opens each stanza, at vss. 1b, 9 and 20, with a petition offered to God which includes
the subject of the prayer.
In vs.1b Jesus petitions
God that God glorify (honor) the Son so that the Son may glorify
(honor) the Father. That God should glorify the Son is first of all
because the Son's "hour" has come and Jesus has completed the work
God sent him to accomplish. By doing so he has glorified (honored) God on
earth. He has appropriately used the authority he received from God to give
eternal life to those whom God has given him. His work completed, Jesus
prays that God will invest him with the glory he had as the Word in
God's presence before creation. The completion of the work he was sent
to do on behalf of God consisted of making God known to the disciples whom
God gave to him. They know that everything Jesus has said and done is the truth
from God and that Jesus has been sent by God to bring life.
In vs. 9 Jesus
petitions God on behalf of the disciples whom God has given him. He is not
praying on behalf of the world but for those that were God's to give. That
God has given them to Jesus has glorified him (brought him honor).
The disciples are still in the world and Jesus is going to the Father.
He prays that God will protect them as he has protected and
guarded them so that none were lost except the "son of
perdition." Even though they do not belong to the world and the world
hates them Jesus does not ask that the disciples be taken out of the world
but that God keep them from the evil one (Satan). Finally Jesus asks that
God consecrate the disciples, to set them apart in the world into which Jesus
has sent them just as God has sent him into the world, (The Old Testament
understands that those who are selected to do God's work must be holy just
as the God they serve is holy.
In vs. 20 Jesus
petitions God on behalf of those who will believe in him and be in
unity one with the other because of the missionary work of the disciples.
He asks that this unity be extended to a unity with him and God as well. By
this unity the world will know God has sent Jesus and that the community will
know God loves them just as he loves Jesus. Even these who will come to
believe, Jesus asks that they will be with him and behold his glory which God
gave to him before creation.
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Chapter 17 stands as a
fitting end to what is called the Last Discourse, spanning Chapter 13:31through Chapter 17. This entire section is
written as a farewell speech. It is a major and often
repetitive summary of the teaching and preaching developed
by the evangelists of John's community in the five decades following
Jesus' death. If the Synoptic Gospels honor the message of the coming Kingdom
of God and one's readiness to enter that Kingdom as delivered by the
messenger, Jesus, then John as a whole, with this discourse in particular,
honors the messenger. It would not be inaccurate to conclude that in
John the messenger has become the message, making John unique among the
Gospel writers.
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