John 17:6-19 (NRSV)
Read John 17:6-19 on biblegateway.com
Verse 6"I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Verse 7Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; Verse 8for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. Verse 9I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. Verse 10All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them.
Verse 11And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. Verse 12While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. Verse 13But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. Verse 14I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Verse 15I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. Verse 16They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.
Verse 17Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. Verse 18As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. Verse 19And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.
Devotion
It had to be a confusing time for the disciples as they gathered to celebrate the festival of the Passover. Among the many things Jesus shared with them was the warning "Little children, I am with you only a little longer ... Where I am going, you cannot come" (13:33). So now as they face this uncertain future Jesus prays in their presence: "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you ... "(17:1). Imagine what it must have been like for the disciples to "listen in" on Jesus' prayer, a prayer for himself, but, primarily, a prayer for them.
St. Augustine wrote: "In this prayer, all whom He redeemed, whether then alive or thereafter to live in the flesh, were prayed for by our Redeemer ... He conjoined those who were yet to believe on Him through their word" (Tractate 108). In other words, we also are being prayed for in Jesus' intercessory prayer. So we, too, may "listen in" and meditate on his prayer as we go about our daily lives of discipleship.
Prayer
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for your prayer for all believers, then and now. Amen.