After Jesus had said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed.

These words are a prelude to what Archbishop William Temple described many years ago as perhaps the most sacred passage in the four gospels, Jesus’ prayer for himself, for his disciples, and for his church still to come, offered to his heavenly father after his last supper with his disciples.

Jesus is praying!

The gospels tell us that he prayed often in all sorts of situations, but they hardly ever record the words he prayed. There are just a few sentences here and there, and, of course, the prayer he taught us as the pattern for all our prayers.

So, with his disciples listening and watching, Jesus prays, first for himself, his words lovingly remembered and faithfully recorded later by John in his gospel.

Everything he says embodies the loving relationship he has with his heavenly father. even his first word, “Abba, Father,” is the endearment a little child would

use: “Daddy.”

“Abba, the time has come”.

The shadow of the cross is lying heavily on him as he awaits the pain and horror of the next day, yet his deepest concern is for the glory and honour of his father.

Jesus prays, “Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.”

It is out of love for the world that the Father has sent his Son. The Son will soon lay down his life and both will be glorified together.

Jesus will be exalted, lifted to that position alongside the Father that the Messiah was entitled to attain. Mystery above all mysteries.

Jesus goes on, still speaking of himself in the third person: “You granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to those you have given him.

Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (17. 2-3)

The sacrifice of Jesus’ death on the cross which glorifies both Father and Son also brings eternal life to lost sinners, not after their death, but at the very moment they acknowledge and know the Father as the one true God and Jesus, the Son, as their Saviour. To receive the eternal life Jesus speaks of here is not the end of our journey. For us it is only the beginning. The rest of our lives as the friends of Jesus is part of the answer to the prayer he taught us himself:

“Your kingdom come! Your will be done~ on earth as in heaven!”

There’s an energy, drive and purpose in these words, an intense desire to be part of the bringing in of God’s kingdom on earth. The Christian writer, Evelyn Underhill, early last century, put it this way:

“These words are not the limp resignation that lies devoutly in the road, waiting for the steamroller; but a total concentration on the total interests of God,

which must be expressed in action!” Jesus concludes this prayer for himself with celebration of a job well done:

“I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.

And now, Father, glorify me in your presence     with the glory I had with you before the world began.” (17.5)

Yes, there is the huge and terrible task of Calvary still awaiting him the next day, but just for a moment, Jesus looks back over his shoulder at the years of his ministry:

“Father, I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.”

There were many limitations in the life of Jesus. His whole ministry was confined within the narrow bounds of central Palestine. Even when he was teaching,

there were crowds who didn’t hear his voice, and others who heard, but didn’t heed his message. There were multitudes of sick people who never felt his healing touch.

Yet he had completed everything the Father had given him to do within the compass

of the brief three years of his ministry, bringing eternal life, the kingdom of God, to those who heard and heeded. Jesus rejoiced in it, because it brought glory to his Father in heaven.

We as the followers of Jesus are living in his kingdom right now, called to live the eternal life he offers each day, doing what he did, completing the work he has given each of us to do in our time and place, each of us. bringing glory to the Father’s name. We, too, are not called to reach the whole world, or to minister to every need we see. It simply can’t be done. Discernment is needed. We are simply to follow the example of Jesus, seeking our guidance in frequent quiet prayer. The pattern here that Jesus has given us is pray first, listen patiently for the answer, then begin.

The gospels record many significant times in Jesus’ ministry  when he withdrew into solitude to be alone in communion with his Father:

before choosing the 12 apostles                                         (Luke 6.12)

before his transfiguration                                                   (Luke 9.28)

before teaching his own prayer to his disciples              (Luke 11.1)

following the feeding of the 5000                                      (Mark 6.46)

and, of course, Matthew’s account of Jesus’ 40 days alone in the wilderness,

culminating in his temptation by the devil and the beginning of his public ministry. (Matthew 4.4)

God has a plan for your life and mine.

There are particular works God has for each of us to do throughout our lives,

whatever our age or circumstance. In discovering God’s will and purpose for us each day, whether the task seems mundane and transitory, or, on the other hand, the beginning of a life-changing, lifetime commitment, in answering this call to the best of our ability our fulfilment and our peace are found

Our joy lies in the completion of the task.

Here on earth, God’s glory, God’s honour is bound up not only with our eager beginning of a task, but with our faithful completion of it.

“Father, I have brought you glory on earth, by completing the work you gave me to do.” What joy there is in those words of Jesus!

We can hear this same joy in Paul’s second letter to Timothy, as he looks back on his many years of service to the Lord:

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge will award to me on that day. And not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.  (2 Tim. 4.6-8)

As we reflect on the depth and beauty of Jesus’ prayer for himself at the last supper it’s easy for us to forget the presence of the disciples in the room with him.

They are not just passive listeners. They know from all that had happened

earlier in the week that Jesus is in great danger. He has been preaching openly each day on the steps of the Temple, calling out the self-serving hypocrisy and heartlessness of the Scribes, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, and warning them of God’s judgement.

Jesus is marked for execution. His time has come.

Jesus tells His disciples again that he will be leaving them behind. How are they going to manage without him? Jesus loves his friends and understands them.

They’ve learnt so little, understood even less, of what their Master has been doing and saying amongst them over those precious three years.

Throughout the evening Jesus speaks of things he knows they need to hear one last time before he leaves them

First, he washes their feet in a final lesson of love.

Judas goes into the night, on his way to betray Jesus to the authorities.

What follows is a reminder from Jesus of all he has sought to teach them from the beginning to prepare them for the task ahead, without him. Jesus begins with the words of comfort they need so badly:

“Do not let your hearts be troubled; trust in God, trust also in me.  (14.1)

I am going to prepare a place for you. I am the way, the truth and the life.

But in the meantime, you have a task before you. Love one another as I have loved you. You will not be alone. I will ask the Father and he will give you another Counsellor.to be with you forever, the Spirit of truth.”

Jesus makes a promise that his Holy Spirit will empower them for his service, to do even great things than he did in his time with them. He speaks of himself as the vine and of them as the branches. He warns them that they will be hated by the world, but that they were not to fear, and that their grief will be turned into joy.

Jesus concludes with a prophecy and a promise:

“I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble, but take heart! I have overcome the world.” (16.33)

Jesus has prayed for himself; now he prays for his disciples. Through this passage we feel again the love between the Father and the Son, and Jesus’ yearning for his disciples to be drawn into that relationship of love, and to rest in it.

“Abba, they were yours and you gave them to me. They know that everything I have given them comes from you.”

He prays for their protection from the evil one as they continue his work in the world, and that they will remember his command to love one another as a witness to the love that he and his Father have for them. Then Jesus, in this holy moment, entrusts his disciples to the Father, knowing that what he has begun in their lives his Father will complete gloriously in their future.

I would like to finish by reading the conclusion of this beautiful prayer of Jesus, because it’s about us… you and me.

The final words of Jesus before leaving that last supper with his friends for the Garden of Gethsemane were a prayer for the millions who would love and serve him in the world until he returns in his glory, and we are among them! What a miracle of Grace!

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The Prayer of Jesus:

My prayer is not for them (the disciples), alone. My prayer is for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.

May they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one:

I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity, to let the world know that you sent me, and have loved them even as you have loved me.

Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me.

I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them, and that I myself may be in them.”                                                                                              John 17. 20-25

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Our Prayer:

Dear Jesus,

Thank you for loving us;

thank you for dying for us;

thank you for your prayer for us.

Give us grace to listen to your prompting in our quiet times of prayer, to be sensitive to you leading as we, too, live and work for the bringing in of your kingdom;

to be faithful in the completion of the tasks you give us to do, and to remember always your command to love one another just as you love us.

Help us to see you more clearly, follow you more nearly and love you more dearly every day of our lives. Amen

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