A prayer of Jesus
The High Priestly Prayer
Hours before His arrest, Jesus had washed His disciples' feet, shared the last supper, and spoken long words of comfort in the upper room. Now, likely as they rose to leave for the garden across the Kidron, He lifted His eyes to heaven and prayed aloud in their hearing. Judas had already gone into the night. This is the longest recorded prayer of Jesus, spoken not in private but for His friends to overhear, so that His joy might be fulfilled in them.
“Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;”John 17:20
What he prayed
He prayed in widening circles. First for Himself, that the Father would glorify the Son so the Son might glorify the Father, having finished the work given Him and earned authority to give eternal life, which He defined as knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He sent. Then He prayed for the disciples with Him, asking not that they be taken out of the world but kept from the evil one, sanctified in truth, guarded in the Father's name. Finally He prayed for all who would believe through their word, for us, that we would be one as He and the Father are one, and that we would be with Him to behold His glory. Throughout He addressed God as Father, as Holy Father, and as Righteous Father.
What it teaches us about prayer
This prayer lets us listen in on the Son speaking to the Father, and it shows us what fills His heart on the edge of death. He thinks of us. He does not ask escape for His own, but protection, holiness, and unity for them. He prays that our joy be full, that we be kept, that we be one. It teaches us that intercession is love made audible, carrying others by name into God's presence. It also reframes eternal life not as endless time but as knowing God. And it assures us that before we ever prayed for ourselves, He was already praying for us, naming believers not yet born as the object of His love.
What it reveals about Jesus
Here Jesus speaks as the eternal Son, recalling the glory He shared with the Father before the world was. No mere prophet prays like this. He claims to give eternal life, to have kept those entrusted to Him, to be the one through whom the Father is known. He speaks of a love between Father and Son that predates creation, and He opens that love to us, asking that it dwell in us. This is the beating heart of the gospel, that the Son was sent by love, finished His work, and prayed us into the very fellowship He has always enjoyed. His high priestly prayer still rises, for He ever lives to intercede for His own.
Questions people ask
Why is John 17 called the High Priestly Prayer?
Because in it Jesus does what a high priest does, He intercedes for His people before God, only here the priest is also the sacrifice about to be offered. On the night before the cross He carried His disciples and all future believers into the Father's presence by name. The title, which came later from teachers of the church, captures that He prayed as the mediator who stands between God and us.
What does Jesus mean by asking that believers be one?
He asks for a unity that mirrors the oneness of the Father and the Son, a shared life and love, not mere organizational sameness. He ties it to witness, saying the world will believe when it sees such unity. This is not achieved by our effort alone but given as we abide in Him and in the Father's love. It remains His prayer for a divided church to grow into.