John 17

Scripture

Jesus Prays for Himself

After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: "Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

Jesus Prays for His Disciples

"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. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 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. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 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. 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. "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. 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. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

Jesus Prays for All Believers

"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 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. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. "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. "Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 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."

Observations

Jesus is praying for himself, for the disciples, and for the people in the world. I find the trinity to be one of the hardest concepts to grasp of Christianity. I do not understand the father-son relationship of God and Jesus - I struggle with this sometimes. This verse talks about them before the creation of the world, etc. If God knows what's going to happen (Jesus' crucifiction) and why, and He has the power to stop it, etc. there seems to be something I'm missing. People try to put it terms of an earthly parent and child relationship and the sacrifice of a son by a father, it doesn't feel that way to me because they are reunited. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the horror of the crucifiction and appreciate the pain and suffering of my totally innocent savior for my sins, I just cannot relate it to a Father/Son sacrifice as much. I am learning though. I cannot imagine what God must have suffered watching Jesus suffer. I was reading the Riggs family blog today and there's a very special mother suffering tremendously watching her beautiful 5-yo daughter terribly ill with Leukemia and the side effects of her treatment. I can more readily relate to that pain - I ache for both the mother and the child, but I still think so much of the pain comes from not knowing and not having any power. Sometimes I'm so grateful that I cannot fully understand and do not have impirical evidence to support every last thing about God and Jesus - it requires me to have faith - that not by sight, but by faith, I believe.

Application

I'm not sure what to apply here - I want to work hard to be able to communicate to someone with the same objections, so as I continue through my Bible studies, I will focus to pull those thoughts together.

Prayer

Dear Lord,
Thank you for your patience with me as I struggle sometimes with some of these issues. Thank you for the Cross, for your Son, and for the sacrifice that was made for me. I am so grateful for grace made possible by that sacrifice and I accept that gift. Help me to deal appropriately with doubts and with struggles to understand certain concepts. In Jesus' name, Amen.