John 17 - Introduction

The chapter on which we now enter contains what is generally known as our Lord's High-priestly Prayer. Such a name is appropriately given it; partly, because it is the longest and most solemn utterance recorded of the intercessions with which Jesus approached the throne of His heavenly Father on His people's behalf; partly, because He was at this moment standing on the threshold of His especial work as their great High Priest. No attempt to describe the prayer can give a just idea of its sublimity, its pathos, its touching yet exalted character, its tone at once of tenderness and triumphant expectation. We are apt to read it as if it were full of sorrow; but that is only our own feeling reflected back upon what we suppose to have been the feelings of the Man of Sorrows. In the prayer itself sorrow has no place; and to think that it was uttered in a tone of sadness is entirely to mistake what must have been the spirit of Jesus at the time. It speaks throughout of work accomplished, of victory gained, of the immediate expectation of glorious reward. It tells, not of sorrow, but of ‘joy,' joy now possessing His own soul, and about to be ‘fulfilled' in His disciples (John 17:13). It anticipates with perfect confidence the realisation of the grand object of His coming, the salvation of all that have been given Him (John 17:12), their union to Himself and the Father (John 17:21), their security amidst the evils of this world while they execute in it a mission similar to His (John 17:11; John 17:15; John 17:18), and, finally, their glorification with His own glory (John 17:24). The prayer, in fact, corresponds closely with the words of its Utterer immediately preceding it, ‘Be of good courage, I have overcome the world' (chap. John 16:33). It is nothing less than a prolonged anticipation of the shout of triumph on the cross, ‘It is finished' (chap. John 19:30).

The prayer divides itself naturally into three parts, in the first of which Jesus prays for Himself, in the second for His immediate disciples, in the third for all who, in every age, shall believe in Him. But the three parts are pervaded by one thought the glorification of the Father in those successively prayed for, by the accomplishment in each of the Father's purpose, and the union of all in the perfect, the spiritual, the eternal bond of love. The subordinate parts of the chapter are thus (1) John 17:1-5; (2) John 17:6-19; (3) John 17:20-26.