Written ~ 12-12-2023
John 17:20-23
20 “I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in Me through their message. 21 I pray that they will all be one, just as You and I are One—as You are in Me, Father, and I am in You. And may they be in Us so that the world will believe You sent Me.
22 “I have given them the glory You gave Me, so they may be one as We are One. 23 I am in them and You are in Me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that You sent Me and that You love them as much as You love Me.
Jesus and His disciples had gone up to the Garden of Gethsemane which was located in an olive grove. Jesus went up there to pray, He knew His time was near, soon He would be betrayed into the hands of His enemies and crucified. But first, He needed to pray. He prayed for His disciples, He prayed for us. He prayed for unity among His followers. Jesus wanted the world to know the Father and that He was sent by the Father and He wanted us to be glorified with Him. John’s Gospel is the only one that recorded this prayer of Jesus, in verses 17:1-25 we see Jesus lifting up His followers in prayer. It seems Jesus is quite concerned about leaving His disciples, basically to fend for themselves. In verses 17:12-13 it says, “…now protect them…during My time here, I protected them…I guarded them so that not one was lost…” Jesus wanted to make sure all believers would remain unified, even when He wasn’t walking among them.
In the Gospel’s of Matthew, Mark and Luke, they wrote about a different part of the prayer of Jesus. In Matthew 26:36-46, we see Jesus in deep anguish and distress. Verse 26:38 Jesus says to His disciples, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death…” Then He prays to the Father in verse 26:39, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from Me. Yet I want Your will to be done, not Mine.” In Mark 14:32-42, Mark also wrote about what Jesus cried out to the Father, “…I want Your will to be done, not Mine…” Then again in Luke 22:39-45, Luke records the same part of that prayer. Luke does add that Jesus was in such agony that he recorded, “…His sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood…”
So when we read chapter 17 of John… looks to me like the prayer that caused Jesus such agony, anguish and distress was when He was praying so fervently for His followers, the ones with Him and the ones to come. When you combine the recorded words from Matthew, Mark and Luke with John’s account, it could be paraphrased into something like this…
“Father, My prayer is not for the world, but for those You have given to Me, because they belong to You… Father protect them by the power of Your name… During My time here, I protected them… I guarded them so that not one was lost… I’m not asking You to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one… My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from Me. Yet, I want Your will to be done, not Mine… I give Myself as a holy sacrifice for them so they can be made holy by Your truth. I pray that they will all be one, just as You and I are One—as You are in Me, Father, and I am in You. And may they be in Us so that the world will believe You sent Me.”
Jesus was concerned about His disciples, He didn’t want any harm to come to them. One of the ways He prayed for them was that they would remain unified and as they began to spread the message of Salvation, Jesus also prayed that all those new believers would remain unified as well. That way the world would see the Lord not only in our message but also by how we stand unified in the truth of God’s Word.
Verse 17:23b says,
23b “May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that You sent Me and that You love them as much as You love Me.”
That’s why our actions are so very important! To remain in perfect unity with the message told about Jesus and the love we share, it will show the world that Jesus Christ is indeed God’s Son and was sent to earth by the Father.
All of this is what Jesus was praying about to the Father. Not only was He praying about the suffering He was going to have to endure, but He was praying for His disciples, the ones who walked with Him while He was here on earth. Plus, He was praying for the new believers that would be added to the church from those disciples directly. AND! He was praying for us believers here, today, in the 21st century and every believer in between!
During the time Jesus was on earth ministering to people He would go off and pray by Himself. It was not uncommon for the disciples to come looking for Him. But I think this time was different, when they saw Jesus praying, He was intense, praying with sweat dripping like blood from His forehead. The only way blood would be mixed with sweat is from “a condition in which capillary blood vessels that feed the sweat glands rupture, causing them to exude blood, occurring under conditions of extreme physical or emotional stress.”
This prayer from Jesus shows us how very much He loves us. He didn’t want to go to the cross and suffer that horrible death. But He did. He did it because He knew that’s what needed to be done for us to be redeemed, to be cleansed and have eternal life. He didn’t want to leave His followers, but knew He had to leave so He could rule in Heaven alongside the Father and get things prepared for us when we get there.
I have a question… If the prayers of Jesus Christ the Son of God were this intense, shouldn’t our prayers be just as intense? What do you think? Do our prayers seem at times to be a little halfhearted in comparison?
All of us have things going on in our lives that cause stress. Do we seek God in our prayers with the same intensity as Jesus did? With deep anguish and distress? In the Books of both Matthew and Mark it says that Jesus fell to the ground and with His face bowed low to the ground, He prayed. If Jesus is going to take that kind of posture in prayer, maybe we should also! Jesus prayed with such intensity that even an angel from heaven appeared and strengthened Him! (Luke 22:43)
Jesus is our example of how to live our lives as His followers. Why not follow His example in prayer? He prayed for things He deeply cared about. He discussed things with His Father. He asked questions, He cried out. But ultimately He prayed for the Father’s will to be done, not His own.
If Jesus is our example in everything we do, then the prayer of Jesus has been answered… Verse 17:21(The Message Bible),
21 “The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind—
Just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You,
So they might be one heart and mind with Us.
Then the world might believe that You, in fact, sent Me.”
Does your example of Christ Jesus help the “world” around you believe in God and also in Jesus?
Are you one heart and one mind with Christ and the Father? What a great question to ask ourselves…
~AMEN~