Do you know what Jesus was thinking about moments before He was betrayed, severely beaten, and crucified? He was thinking of you and me! He was also modeling how to pray so that in times of trouble we can have the comfort of God. What a powerful reminder that we matter to God. He has always loved us and will always love us so much more deeply than we can ever understand. Our God, of course, was by no means held down in death. He rose again. I momentarily digress, in awe of our Awesome God, but as I was saying, Jesus was the consummate teacher while He was on earth with us. He was always providing instruction to us, primarily through example, allowing much of His life to be recorded so that we—the Church throughout all generations—might continue learning from him until the end of the age, when, as you may already know, He returns! The evidence of this instructional purpose is found in the comments made at the end of John in verses 21:25, which states, “…even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written” about what Jesus did here on earth. I love this section of the book of John. It’s not the particular focus of this writing, but it certainly illustrates how much a purpose-driven life can accomplish in a short amount of time.
This study today highlights John chapter 17. These verses illustrate how the Son of God spoke to the Heavenly Father. In these verses, Jesus prays for Himself, for His disciples, and for all believers across time—reflected in the natural divisions of this chapter. Using His prayers as a model for our own, this analysis will quantify and visualize His words to explore how much He prayed for each group. By measuring the word count devoted to Himself, His closest followers, and to all who believe in Him as the Son of the Living God, this study seeks to reveal the balance and focus within Jesus’s prayers. Through these numerical and visual comparisons, we hope to gain a deeper understanding of how we might shape and prioritize our own prayer lives.
John Chapter 17 Verses 1-5
Jesus’ Prayer for Himself. This is the Header for this section. In this section, Jesus does just that He takes time to pray for Himself. He only used 112 words.
These words spake Jesus, and lifted his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:
As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.
And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.
And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
John Chapter 17 Verses 6-19
Jesus’ Prayer for His Disciples. This is the heading for this section. In this section, He used 326 words to pray for His closest friends.
I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.
Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.
For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.
I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.
And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.
And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.
While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.
And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.
And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
John Chapter 17 Verses 20-26
Jesus’ Prayer for Believers. This is the final section of Chapter 17. In this section, He prays for you and me and all other believers in Him throughout all of history. This section used 197 words.
Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.
O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.
Visualizing the content in John Chapter 17 for its themes helps highlight the concerns Jesus placed on these topics. We primarily learn that to care for oneself, you must place your needs below those of others. This is the ultimate flipped understanding of self-care. It is the example Jesus provided.
The pattern of praying found in these verses shows it is okay to pray for yourself in times of extreme peril. This is acceptable; however, it should be only a fraction of how much you pray for your friends. In prayer, we should also make time to consider our brothers and sisters that we don’t know personally, people who live perhaps in hard-to-reach regions of the earth. The people in Nigeria afflicted by genocide, our Chinese brothers and sisters in Christ, or those persecuted in the Middle East, are great starting places for our prayer for others that we do not know personally. We can also leave room for future people, like Christ’s example gives us, praying for our children’s children. Praying for those we do not know personally, while leaving room to be contemplative of those the Lord brings to mind. The example provided by Christ gives us the right mindset to ready ourselves spiritually for the mental awakening we can expect when we are deeply resolved to meet with the Lord in prayer. Prayer is a great meeting between ourselves and the Creator God (Fosdick, 1915). Our Father in Heaven wants to meet with us, and He wants us to want to meet with Him, because He loves us and seeks a relationship.
I will close with these lasting words by Harry Emmerson Fosdick, “God is a Father, and the essence of fatherhood is individual care for the children. For all there are so many of us, as St. Augustine said, ‘He loves us every one as though there were but one of us to love’” (p. 47). And another great quote from his book, which includes, “…the soul of every forced laborer on the Amazon is of more value than all the mines of Johannesburg, all the diamonds of Kimberly, all the millions of all the magnates of America. It affirms that in God’s sight all the suns and stars that people infinite space, are of inferior worth to one human spirit dwelling, it may be, in the degraded body of some victim of drink, or lust, some member of the gutter population of a great city who has descended to his doom by means of the multiplied temptations with which our so-called society environs him. It is a romantic creed. But if it is not true, Christianity itself is false” (p. 43).
All verses have been provided by the King James Bible.
Reference:
Fosdick, H. E. (1915). The meaning of prayer. Association Press.
