Jesus' High Priestly Prayer, Part 1
November 11, 2023
John 17:1-8 | Psalm 8
This chapter is sometimes called Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer. It is a powerful and provides some foundational understanding of who Jesus is and what Jesus does.
It’s yet another one of those passages in John that really does leave the narrative (story-like, or having a setting, etc.). It seems like Jesus would still be with the disciples in that room, but his speech alternates between the first and third person, using his own roles and name (the Son, Jesus Christ). In the end, this doesn’t really matter. We just read it and accept it, a gift.
If, at other times, Jesus’ description of people - whether the disciples or religious leaders or Israel as a whole - is of some kind of descriptive lacking, this prayer is not that. It comes with a confidence about his disciples, an assurance that we can truly belong as his through faith.
John 17:1-8
When Jesus finished saying these things, he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, so that the Son can glorify you. You gave him authority over everyone so that he could give eternal life to everyone you gave him. This is eternal life: to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you sent. I have glorified you on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. Now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I shared with you before the world was created.
“I have revealed your name to the people you gave me from this world. They were yours and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. This is because I gave them the words that you gave me, and they received them. They truly understood that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.
Psalm 8
Lord, our Lord, how majestic
is your name throughout the earth!
You made your glory higher than heaven!
From the mouths of nursing babies
you have laid a strong foundation
because of your foes,
in order to stop vengeful enemies.
When I look up at your skies,
at what your fingers made—
the moon and the stars
that you set firmly in place—
what are human beings
that you think about them;
what are human beings
that you pay attention to them?
You’ve made them only slightly less than divine,
crowning them with glory and grandeur.
You’ve let them rule over your handiwork,
putting everything under their feet—
all sheep and all cattle,
the wild animals too,
the birds in the sky,
the fish of the ocean,
everything that travels the pathways of the sea.
Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name throughout the earth!
Prayer
God,
Thank you for accepting us in and through Christ. Your adoption of us means everything. I’m not sure if you had to do it or chose to do it, but it doesn’t matter. You have received us and accepted us, by your love.
Help me face the world with the same possibilities. Give me a vision of hope, that any person is worthy of your love.
By your spirit & in Christ,
Amen.