What is Jesus' High Priestly Prayer?

WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?

Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer in John 17 is His final, heartfelt intercession on behalf of His disciples and all future believers. In it, Jesus asks the Father to glorify Him through His death and acknowledges the completion of His earthly ministry. Jesus prays for the protection, sanctification, and guidance of His followers as they carry the gospel into the world. He emphasizes the unity of all believers and their communion with the Father and the Son. Jesus also prays that God’s love would dwell in His people so the world may know and believe in Him. The High Priestly Prayer reveals Jesus’ ongoing care for us, His desire for our spiritual growth, and His preparation for a world without His physical presence. Ultimately, it encourages believers to live in God’s truth and reflect His glory while trusting in His continual intercession and guidance.

FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT

• The high priests were the top tier religious leaders of the Israelites. God commanded them to be pure in their conduct and physically "whole" (Leviticus 21:6-8). Their duties included supervising the other priests in the running of the temple, making sacrifices, and coming before the presence of God to make atonement for the congregation's sins (Leviticus 16:14-15). Jesus imitated this kind of intercession between the people and God in His prayer.

FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

• At the end of His ministry just before His death, Jesus prayed the longest of His recorded prayers, called the High Priestly Prayer. Recorded in John 17, this prayer is named such because in it Jesus fulfills some of the duties of the high priest.
• Jesus is our High Priest (Hebrews 4:14-16). The timing of His High Priestly Prayer is fitting. As the Lamb of God (John 1:29), He was preparing for His death on the cross as the atonement for our sins.
• In Jesus' High Priestly Prayer, He asks that the Father glorify the Son in His death, that God may ultimately be glorified (John 17:1). He acknowledges that His ministry on earth is complete (John 17:4). He also tells the Father that He faithfully ministered to His disciples, giving them the Father's words and protecting them (John 17:8, 12).
• Jesus then prays for those who believed in Him in faith, including the disciples and also those who will come to believe in Him through the testimony of the disciples, meaning all believers in Jesus Christ throughout time, including those alive today (John 17:20).
• The disciples needed this prayer especially since they were soon to be given the responsibility of spreading the gospel throughout the world without Jesus there physically as a guide and example (John 17:18). Knowing this, Jesus asks that God keep them from the evil one and sanctify them in the Word (John 17:15-17). They are not of the world, but Jesus sends them into the world as the Father sent Him into the world.
• Jesus also prays for unity among believers and communion between believers and the Godhead. He says that He will continue to make known the Father's name, that God's love would reside in them, that the world would know and believe in Jesus and in the Father's love (John 17:21-23).

IMPLICATIONS FOR TODAY

Jesus' High Priestly prayer is rich in theological insights as to the relationship between the Father and the Son, the nature of salvation, Jesus' mission on earth, His relationship with people, and much more. It is worth our study theologically and to hear the Lord's heart towards His people and His concerns as He knew He was leaving earth.

It is encouraging to see what Jesus prayed for specifically: His disciples but also for us. John 17:20-26 reads:

'I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.'"

We can be encouraged to reflect Jesus to the world and live according to God’s purposes. We can be assured that we are saved and cannot lose our salvation and that we have God’s Word and Spirit to guide us. We can be comforted that Jesus prays for us. We can be challenged to live in unity with other believers. We can be reminded that we are called to live in the world as lights for God, sanctified in truth.

UNDERSTAND

• In His High Priestly Prayer, Jesus intercedes for His disciples and all future believers.
• Jesus also prayed for believers’ protection, sanctification, and unity in His High Priestly Prayer.
• Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer calls us to live in God’s truth and trust His ongoing guidance.

REFLECT

• How does knowing that Jesus prays for you shape the way you approach God?
• What stands out to you in Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer for believers including you?
• How does Jesus’ desire for unity among believers challenge you to pursue stronger relationships with other Christians?

ENGAGE

• How can we as believers live out what Jesus prayed for in John 17?
• How does Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer challenge us to pray?
• How does understanding Jesus’ intercession for all believers influence our view of His ongoing work in the world today?