Gospel of John, chapters 13: 31

1-5

THE GLORY OF THE CROSS (John 17:1-5)

The culmination of Jesus' life was the Cross. For Him the Cross was the glory of His life and the glory of eternity. He said: “The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified” (John 12:23)

. What did Jesus mean when He spoke of the Cross as His glory? There are several answers to this question.

1. History has repeatedly confirmed the fact that many great people found their glory in death. Their deaths and the way they died helped people see who they were. They may have been misunderstood, underestimated, condemned as criminals in life, but their deaths revealed their true place in history.

Abraham Lincoln had enemies during his lifetime, but even those who criticized him saw his greatness after the assassin's bullet felled him and said, “He is immortal now.” Secretary of War Stanton always considered Lincoln simple and uncouth, and never hid his contempt for him, but looking at his dead body with tears in his eyes, he said: “Here lies the greatest leader this world has ever seen.”

Joan of Arc was burned at the stake as a witch and heretic. There was one Englishman in the crowd who swore that he would add an armful of brushwood to the fire. “May my soul go,” he said, “where the soul of this woman goes.” When Montrose was executed, he was led through the streets of Edinburgh to the Mercate Cross. His enemies encouraged the crowd to abuse him and even provided them with ammunition to throw at him, but not a single voice was raised in curse and not a single hand was raised against him. He was in his festive clothes with ties on his shoes and thin white gloves on his hands. An eyewitness, one James Fraser, said: “He walked down the street solemnly, and his face expressed so much beauty, majesty and importance that everyone was surprised to look at him, and many enemies recognized him as the bravest man in the world and saw in him courage, which embraced the whole crowd." Notary John Nichol saw him more like a groom than a criminal. An English official in the crowd wrote to his superiors: “It is absolutely true that he has defeated more enemies in Scotland by his death than if he had remained alive. I confess that I have never seen more magnificent posture on a man in my entire life.”

Time and again the greatness of the martyr was revealed in his death. So it was with Jesus, and therefore the centurion at His Cross exclaimed: “Truly He was the Son of God!” (Matt. 27.54)

. The cross was the glory of Christ because He never looked more majestic than in His death. The cross was His glory because its magnetism drew people to Him in a way that even His life could not, and that power is still alive today.

THE GLORY OF THE CROSS (John 17:1-5 continued)

2. Further, the Cross was the glory of Jesus because it was the consummation of His ministry. “I have finished the work that You gave Me to do,” He says in this passage. If Jesus had not gone to the Cross, He would not have completed His work. Why is this so? Because Jesus came into the world to tell people about the love of God and show it to them. If He had not gone to the Cross, it would have turned out that God's love reaches a certain limit and no further. By going to the Cross, Jesus showed that there is nothing that God would not do to save people, and that God's love has no limits.

One famous painting from the First World War shows a signalman repairing a field telephone. He had just finished repairing the line so that an important message could be transmitted where it should be, when he was shot dead. The painting depicts him at the moment of death, and below there is only one word: “Succeeded.” He gave his life so that an important message could travel along the line to its destination. This is exactly what Christ did. He accomplished His work, brought God's love to people. To Him it meant the Cross, but the Cross was His glory because He finished the work that God gave Him to do. He convinced people forever of God's love.

3. But there is one more question: how did the Cross glorify God? God can only be glorified by obeying Him. A child honors his parents by being obedient to them. A citizen of a country honors his country by obedience to its laws. A student salutes the teacher when he obeys his instructions. Jesus brought glory and honor to the Father by His complete obedience to Him. The Gospel narrative makes it very clear that Jesus could have avoided the Cross. Humanly speaking, He could have turned back and not gone to Jerusalem at all. But looking at Jesus in His last days, I just want to say: “Look how He loved God the Father! Look to what extent His obedience went!” He glorified God on the Cross by giving Him complete obedience and complete love.

4. But that's not all. Jesus prayed to God to glorify Himself and Him. The cross was not the end. The Resurrection followed. And this was the restoration of Jesus, proof that people can do the most terrible evil, but Jesus will still triumph. It turned out as if God pointed with one hand to the Cross and said: “This is the opinion that people have of My Son,” and with the other to the Resurrection and said: “This is the opinion I hold.” The worst thing that people could do to Jesus was revealed on the Cross, but even this worst thing could not overcome Him. The glory of the Resurrection revealed the meaning of the Cross.

5. For Jesus, the Cross was a means of returning to the Father. “Glorify Me,” He prayed, “with the glory that I had with You before the world was.” He was like a knight who left the king's court to do a dangerous, terrible deed, and who, having completed it, returned home victorious to enjoy the glory of victory. Jesus came from God and returned to Him. The feat in between was the Cross. Therefore, for Him the Cross was the gateway to glory, and if He had refused to pass through this gate, there would have been no glory for Him to enter into. For Jesus, the Cross was a return to God.

ETERNAL LIFE (John 17:1-5 (continued))

There is another important idea in this passage. It contains the definition of eternal life. Eternal life is the knowledge of God and Jesus Christ whom He sent. Let us remind ourselves what the word eternal means. In Greek the word is aionis

and relates not so much to the length of life, because an endless life is undesirable for some, but to
the quality
of life. There is only one Person to whom this word applies, and that Person is God. Eternal life, therefore, is something other than the life of God. To find it, to enter into it, means already now to manifest something of its splendor, greatness and joy, peace and holiness, which characterize the life of God.

Knowing God

- This is a characteristic thought of the Old Testament.
“Wisdom is a tree of life to those who acquire it, and blessed are those who keep it” (Prov. 3:18)
.
“The righteous are saved by insight” (Proverbs 11:9)
.
Habakkuk dreamed of a Golden Age and said: “The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters fill the sea” - (Hab. 2:14)
.
Hosea hears the voice of God, which tells him: “My people will be destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hos. 4:6)
.
The rabbinic interpretation asks on what small piece of Scripture the entire essence of the law is based, and answers: “In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:6)
.
And another rabbinical interpretation says that Amos reduced the many commandments of the law to one: “Seek Me and you will live” (Amos 5:4)
, because seeking God is necessary for true life. But what does it mean to know God?

1. There is undoubtedly an element of intellectual knowledge in this. This means knowing the character of God and knowing this makes a significant difference in a person's life. Let's give two examples. Pagans in undeveloped countries believe in many gods. Every tree, stream, hill, mountain, river, stone contains for them a god with his spirit. All these spirits are hostile to man, and savages live in fear of these gods, always afraid of offending them in some way. Missionaries say it is almost impossible to fathom the wave of relief that comes over these people when they learn that there is only one God.

. This new knowledge changes everything for them. And what changes everything even more is the knowledge that this God is not strict and cruel, but that He is love.

We know this now, but we would never have known it if Jesus had not come and told us about it. We enter into a new life and share in a certain way the life of God Himself through what Jesus did: we come to know God, that is, we know what His character is.

2. But there is something else. The Old Testament also applies the word “to know” to sexual life. “And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived...” (Gen. 4:1)

. A husband and wife's knowledge of each other is the most intimate of all knowledge. Husband and wife are not two, but one flesh. The sexual act itself is not as important as the intimacy of the mind, soul and heart, which in true love precedes sexual intercourse. Consequently, to know God means not only to comprehend Him with one’s head, but it means to be in a personal, closest relationship with Him, similar to the closest and dearest union on earth. Here again, without Jesus, such a close relationship would neither be imaginable nor possible. Only Jesus revealed to people that God is not a distant, unattainable Being, but a Father whose name and whose nature is love.

To know God is to know what He is like and to be in the most intimate, personal relationship with Him. But neither one nor the other is possible without Jesus Christ.

6-8

THE WORK OF JESUS (John 17:6-8)

Jesus gives us a definition of the work He did. He says to the Father: “I have revealed Your name to men.” There are two great ideas here that should be clear to us.

1. The first idea is typical and integral to the Old Testament. name idea

.
In the Old Testament the name is used in a special way. It reflects not only the name by which a person is called, but his entire character, as far as it is possible to know it. The psalmist says: “And those who know Your name will trust in you” (Ps. 9:11)
.
This does not mean that everyone who knows the name of the Lord, that is, what His name is, will certainly trust in Him, but it does mean that those who know what God is like
, know His character and nature, will be glad to trust in Him.

Elsewhere the psalmist says: “Some in chariots, some in horses, but we glory in the name of the Lord our God” (Ps. 19:8)

.
It further says: “I will proclaim Your name to my brothers, in the midst of the congregation I will praise You” (Ps. 21:23)
.
The Jews said about this psalm that it prophesies about the Messiah and the work that He will do, and that this work will consist in the fact that the Messiah will reveal to people the name of God and the character of God. “Your people will know your name,” says the prophet Isaiah about the new age (Is. 52:6)
. This means that in the Golden Age people will truly know what God is like.

So when Jesus says, “I have made Your name known to men,” He means, “I have enabled men to see what the nature of God really is.” In fact, this is the same as what is said elsewhere: “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9)

. The greatest significance of Jesus is that in Him people see the mind, character, and heart of God.

2. The second idea is as follows. In later times, when the Jews spoke of the name of God, they had in mind the sacred four-letter symbol, the so-called Tetragrammaton, expressed approximately by the following letters - IHVH. This name was considered so sacred that it was never spoken. Only the High Priest, entering the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement, could recite it. These four letters symbolize the name Yahweh. We usually use the word Jehovah, but this change in vowels comes from the fact that the vowels in the word Jehovah are the same as in the word Adonai, which means Lord. The Hebrew alphabet had no vowels at all, and later they were added in the form of small signs above and below the consonants. Since the letters IHVH were sacred, the vowels of Adonai were placed under them, so that when the reader came to them, he could read not Yahweh, but Adonai - the Lord. This means that during the life of Jesus on earth, the name of God was so sacred that ordinary people should not have known, much less pronounced it. God was a distant, invisible King whose name was not supposed to be spoken by the common people, but Jesus said: “I have revealed to you the name of God, and that name which was so sacred that you did not dare to pronounce it can now be pronounced because I committed. I have brought the distant, invisible God so close that even the simplest person can talk to Him and pronounce His name out loud.”

Jesus claims that He revealed to men the true nature and character of God, and brought Him closer to Him so that even the humblest Christian can speak His previously unspoken name.

THE MEANING OF DISCIPLESHIP (John 17:6-8 continued)

This passage also sheds light on the meaning and significance of discipleship.

1. Discipleship is based on the knowledge that Jesus came from God. A disciple is one who has realized that Jesus Christ is the Messenger of God, and that His speech is the voice of God, and His deeds are the deeds of God. A disciple is one who sees God in Christ and understands that no one in the entire universe can be what Jesus is.

2. Discipleship is demonstrated by obedience. A disciple is one who fulfills the word of God by receiving it from the mouth of Jesus. This is the one who accepted the ministry of Jesus. As long as we are willing to do as we please, we cannot be disciples, because discipleship means obedience.

3. Apprenticeship is given for the intended purpose. Jesus' disciples were given to Him by God. They were meant to be disciples in God's plan. This does not mean that God appoints some people to be disciples and deprives others of this calling. This does not at all mean a predestination to discipleship. A parent, for example, dreams of greatness for his son, but the son may abandon his father's plan and take a different path. Likewise, a teacher may choose a huge task for his student to glorify God, but a lazy and selfish student may refuse.

If we love someone, we dream of a great future for such a person, but such a dream may remain unfulfilled. The Pharisees believed in fate, but at the same time they believed in free will. They insisted that everything was decreed by God, except the fear of God. And God has a destiny for every person, and our greatest responsibility is that we can accept destiny from God or refuse it, but we are still not in the hands of fate, but in the hands of God. Someone noted that fate is essentially a force that forces action, and fate is the action that God intended for us. No one can avoid what they are forced to do, but everyone can avoid the work ordained by God.

In this passage, as in the whole chapter, there is Jesus' confidence in the future. When he was with the disciples whom God had given Him, He thanked God for them, having no doubt that they would do the work assigned to them. Let us just remember who Jesus’ disciples were. One commentator once remarked about Jesus' disciples: “Eleven Galilean fishermen after three years of labor. But these are sufficient for Jesus, for they are the guarantee of the continuation of God’s work in the world.” When Jesus left the world, there seemed to be no reason for Him to have much hope. It seemed that he achieved little and won few followers to his side. The Orthodox religious Jews hated Him. But Jesus had divine trust in people. He was not afraid of humble beginnings. He looked optimistically into the future and seemed to say: “I have only eleven simple men, and with them I will rebuild the world.”

Jesus believed in God and trusted man. Knowing that Jesus has confidence in us is a great spiritual support for us, for we are easily discouraged. And we should not be afraid of human weakness and humble beginnings in work. We, too, should be strengthened by Christ's faith in God and trust in man. Only in this case we will not be discouraged, because this double faith opens up unlimited possibilities for us.

9-19

JESUS' PRAYER FOR THE DISCIPLES (John 17:9-19)

This passage is filled with such great truths that we can only comprehend the smallest parts of them. This speaks of the disciples of Christ.

1. Disciples were given to Jesus by God. What does it mean? This means that the Holy Spirit motivates a person to respond to the call of Jesus.

2. Jesus was glorified through the disciples. How? In the same way that a recovered patient glorifies his healer-doctor, or a successful student glorifies his diligent teacher. The bad man who became good through Jesus is the honor and glory of Jesus.

3. A disciple is a person authorized to serve. Just as God sent Jesus with a specific task, so Jesus sends the disciples with a specific task. Here the mystery of the meaning of the word peace is explained. Jesus begins by saying that He is praying for them, not for the whole world, but we already know that He came into the world because “He so loved the world.” From this Gospel we learned that the world means that society of people that organizes its life without God. It is into this society that Jesus sends His disciples, in order through them to return this society to God, to awaken its consciousness and memory of God. He prays for his disciples that they will be able to convert the world to Christ.

Later in this passage we see that Jesus offered two things to His disciples.

1. First, His complete joy. Everything He told them then should have brought them joy.

2. Secondly, He gives them a warning. He tells them that they are different from the world, and that they have nothing to expect from the world except enmity and hatred. Their moral views and standards are not consistent with those of the world, but they will find joy in conquering storms and fighting the waves. In facing the hatred of the world, we find true Christian joy.

Next, in this passage, Jesus makes one of His most powerful statements. In prayer to God He says: “All that is mine is yours and yours is mine.” The first part of this phrase is natural and easy to understand, because everything belongs to God and Jesus has already repeated this many times. But the second part of this phrase is amazing in its boldness: “And all are Yours.” Luther said this about this phrase: “No creature can say this about God.” Never before had Jesus expressed His oneness with God so clearly. He is one with God and manifests His power and right.

JESUS' PRAYER FOR THE DISCIPLES (John 17:9-19 (continued))

The most interesting thing about this passage is what Jesus asked the Father for His disciples.

1. We must emphasize that Jesus did not ask God to take them out of the world. He did not pray that they might find deliverance for themselves, but he prayed for their victory. The kind of Christianity that hides in monasteries would not be Christianity at all in the eyes of Jesus. That kind of Christianity, the essence of which some see in prayer, meditation and isolation from the world, would seem to Him a greatly reduced version of the faith for which He came to die. He argued that it was in the very hustle and bustle of life that a person should manifest his Christianity.

Of course, we also need prayer, and meditation and solitude with God, but they do not represent the goal of a Christian, but only a means to achieve this goal. The goal is to manifest Christianity in the everyday dullness of this world. Christianity was never meant to separate a person from life, but its purpose is to provide a person with the strength to fight and apply him to life in any conditions. It does not offer us deliverance from everyday problems, but it gives us the key to resolving them. It does not offer peace, but victory in the struggle; not the kind of life in which all tasks can be bypassed and all troubles avoided, but one in which difficulties are faced head-on and overcome. However, just as it is true that a Christian must be not of the world, it is equally true that he must live in the world as a Christian, that is, “live in the world, but be not of the world.” We should have no desire to leave the world, but only a desire to gain it for Christ.

2. Jesus prayed for the unity of the disciples. Where there is division and rivalry between churches, there the cause of Christ suffers, and Jesus’ prayer for unity also suffers damage. The gospel cannot be preached where there is no unity among the brothers. It is impossible to evangelize the world among divided, competing churches. Jesus prayed that the disciples would be as one as He was with His Father. But there is no prayer that is more prevented from being fulfilled than this one. Its implementation is hindered by individual believers and entire churches.

3. Jesus prayed that God would protect His disciples from the attacks of the evil one. The Bible is not a speculative book and does not go into the origin of evil, but it confidently speaks about the existence of evil in the world, and about evil forces that are hostile to God. It is a great encouragement for us that God, like a sentry, stands over us and protects us from evil, encourages and delights us. We often fall because we try to live on our own and forget about the help that God, who protects us, offers us.

4. Jesus prayed that His disciples would be sanctified by the truth. The word sanctified - hageazein

comes from the adjective
hagios
, which translates as holy or set apart, different. This word contains two ideas.

a) It means to set apart for special service. When God called Jeremiah, He said to him: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you came out of the womb, I sanctified you; I appointed you to be a prophet to the nations” (Jer. 1:5)

. Even before his birth, God placed Jeremiah in a special ministry. When God established the priesthood in Israel, He told Moses to anoint the sons of Aaron and ordain them as priests.

b) But the word is hagiazein

means not only setting aside for a special work or service, but also
equipping a person with those qualities of mind, heart and character that will be needed for that service.
In order for a person to serve God, he needs certain divine qualities, something from God’s goodness and wisdom. He who thinks to serve a holy God must himself be holy. God not only chooses a person for a special ministry and separates him from others, but also provides him with all the necessary qualities to fulfill the ministry entrusted to him.

We must always remember that God has chosen us and dedicated us to a special ministry. It is that we love Him and obey Him and bring others to Him. But God did not leave us to ourselves and our insignificant strength in the performance of His service, but in His goodness and mercy fits us for service if we surrender ourselves into His hands.

20-21

LOOKING INTO THE FUTURE (John 17:20.21)

Gradually, Jesus' prayer reached all the ends of the earth. First He prayed for Himself, since the Cross stood before Him, then He passed on to His disciples, asking God for help and protection for them, and now His prayer covers the distant future and He prays for those who in distant countries in future centuries will also accept the Christian faith .

Two characteristics of Jesus are clearly expressed here. First, we saw His complete faith and bright confidence. Despite the fact that He had few followers and the Cross awaited Him ahead, His confidence was unshakable and He prayed for those who would believe in Him in the future. This passage should be especially dear to us, for it is Jesus' prayer for us. Secondly, we saw His confidence in His disciples. He saw that they did not understand everything; He knew that they would all soon leave Him in His greatest need and trouble, but it was to them that He spoke with complete confidence so that they would spread His name throughout the world. Jesus never for a moment lost His faith in God or His trust in people.

How did He pray for the future Church? He asked that all its members be as united with each other as He is one with His Father. What kind of unity did He have in mind? This is not administrative or organizational unity, or unity based on agreement, but the unity of personal communication. We have already seen that the unity between Jesus and His Father was expressed in love and obedience. Jesus prayed for a unity of love, a unity where people love each other because they love God, a unity based solely on the relationship of heart to heart.

Christians will never organize their churches the same way, and they will never worship God in the same way, they will never even believe in exactly the same way, but Christian unity transcends all these differences and binds people together in love. Christian unity today, as throughout history, has suffered and been hindered because people loved their own church organizations, their own rules, their own rituals more than they loved each other. If we truly loved Jesus Christ and each other, no church would exclude Christ's disciples. Only the love implanted by God in the human heart can overcome the barriers that people have erected between individuals and their churches.

Further, in praying for unity, Jesus asked that it be unity that would convince the world of the truth and the position that Jesus Christ occupies. It is much more natural for people to be divided than to be united. People tend to scatter in different directions rather than merge together. True unity among Christians would be “a supernatural fact in need of a supernatural explanation.” It is a sad fact that the Church has never shown true unity before the world.

Looking at the division of Christians, the world cannot see the high value of the Christian faith. It is the duty of each of us to show unity of love with our brothers, which would be the answer to the prayer of Christ. Ordinary believers, members of churches can and are obliged to do what the “leaders” of the Church refuse to do officially.

22-26

THE GIFT AND PROMISE OF GLORY (John 17:22-26)

The famous commentator Bengel, reading this passage, exclaimed: “Oh, how great is the glory of the Christian!” And indeed it is so.

First, Jesus says that He gave His disciples the glory that the Father had given Him. We need to fully understand what this means. What was Jesus' glory? He Himself spoke about it in three ways.

a) The cross was His glory. Jesus did not say that he would be crucified, but that he would be glorified. This means that first of all and most importantly, the glory of a Christian should be the cross that he is supposed to bear. Suffering for the sake of Christ is the honor of a Christian. We do not dare to think of our cross as a punishment, but only as our glory. The more difficult the task given to the knight, the greater his glory seemed to him. The more difficult the task given to a student or an artist or a surgeon, the more honor they receive. And therefore, when it is difficult for us to be Christians, let us consider this the glory given to us by God.

b) Jesus' complete submission to the will of God was His glory. And we find our glory not in self-will, but in doing the will of God. When we do as we please, which many of us do, we find only sorrow and disaster for ourselves and for others. The true glory of life can only be found in complete obedience to the will of God. The stronger and more complete the obedience, the brighter and greater the glory.

c) The glory of Jesus was that His relationship with God could be judged by His life. People recognized in His behavior signs of a special relationship with God. They understood that no one could live the way He lived unless God were with Him. And our glory, like the glory of Jesus, should be that people see God in us, recognize by our behavior that we are in close relationship with Him.

Second, Jesus expresses his desire for the disciples to see His heavenly glory. Believers in Christ are confident that they will be partakers of the glory of Christ in heaven. If a believer shares His Cross with Christ, he will share His glory with Ninus. “This is a true saying: if we died with Him, we will also live with Him; if we endure, then we will reign with Him; if we deny, then He will deny us" (2 Tim. 2:11.12)

.
“Now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face” (1 Cor. 13:12)
. The joy that we feel here is only a foretaste of the future joy that still awaits us. Christ promised that if we share His glory and His suffering on earth, we will share with Him His triumph when earthly life comes to an end. Can anything surpass such a promise?

After this prayer, Jesus went to face betrayal, judgment and the cross. He no longer had to talk to the students. How pleasant it is to see, and how dear to our memory to remember, that before the terrible hours that lay ahead of Him, the last words of Jesus were not words of despair, but words of glory.

Gospel of John. Chapter 17

To main

All authors

Home → Bible → Gospel of John

1 After these words Jesus lifted up His eyes to heaven and said: Father! The hour has come, glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, [1] Jn. 12:23. 2 Because You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He may give eternal life to all that You have given Him.[2] Dan. 7:14. Mf. 28:18. Heb. 2:5-8.

3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.[3] In. 6:29. 1John 3:23.

4 I glorified You on earth, I completed the work that You gave Me to do.

5 And now glorify Me, O Father, with You, with the glory that I had with You before the world was.[5] Open 5:12.

6 I have made known Your name to the people whom You gave Me out of the world; They were Yours, and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.[6] In. 18:9.

7 Now they have understood that everything that You have given Me is from You, 8 for the words that You gave Me I gave to them, and they accepted, and truly understood that I came from You, and they believed that You sent Me.[8] In. 16:27.

9 I pray for them: I do not pray for the whole world, but for those whom You have given Me, because they are Yours.

10 And all that is mine is yours, and yours is mine; and I was glorified in them.[10] In. 16:15.

11 I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father! keep them in Your name, those

whom You gave Me, that they might be one, as We are.[11] In. 10:30. Eph. 4:3.

12 While I was at peace with them, I kept them in Your name; those whom You gave Me I have kept, and none of them perished except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.[12] Ps. 108:17, 8. John. 18:9.

13 Now I come to You, and I say these things in the world, so that they may have My complete joy in themselves.

14 I have given them Your word; and the world hated them, because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.[14] In. 8:23.

15 I do not pray that You take them out of the world, but that You keep them from evil.

16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

17 Sanctify them by Your truth; Your word is truth.[17] Ps. 118:142. In. 14:6.

18 Just as You sent Me into the world, so

and I sent them into the world.[18] Is. 61:1.

19 And for their sakes I consecrate Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.[19] Heb. 9:14.

20 I pray not only for them, but also for those who believe in Me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, so

and let them be one in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.[21] In. 17:11.

22 And the glory which You gave Me, I have given them: that they may be one, even as We are one.

23 I am in them, and You are in Me; will they be completed? together, so that the world may know that You sent Me and loved them as You loved Me.

24 Father! whom You have given Me, I want them to be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory, which You have given Me, because You loved Me before the foundation of the world.[24] In. 12:26.

25 Righteous Father! and the world did not know You; but I have known You, and these have known that You sent Me.

26 And I have made your name known to them, and will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them.[26] In. 15:15.

← 16 pp. Gospel of John

18 pages → Pages:
17
Total 22 pages

Chapter Seventeen

John 17:1. After these words, Jesus raised His eyes to heaven and said: Father! the hour has come, glorify Your Son, that Your Son also will glorify You,

Otherwise. These words are not prayer, but conversation with the Father. If in other cases (Matthew 26:39) He prays and kneels, then do not be surprised at this. For Christ came not only to reveal Himself to the world, but also to teach all virtue. And the teacher must teach not only with words, but also with deeds.

Wanting to show that he is going to suffer not against his will, but of his own free will, he says: “Father! the hour has come." Behold, He desires this as something pleasant, and calls the upcoming work glory, and not only His own glory, but also the Father’s. And so it was. For not only was the Son glorified, but also the Father. For before the Cross even the Jews did not know Him, as it is said: “Israel does not know Me” (Is. 1:3); and after the Cross the whole universe flowed to Him.

John 17:2. Because You gave Him power over all flesh,

He also shows what the glory of Him and the Father consists of; The glory of God is that all flesh should believe and be blessed. For grace will not be limited to the Jews alone, but will extend to the entire universe. He said this because he intended to send them to the pagans. So that they do not consider this an innovation displeasing to the Father, He declares that power over all flesh has been given to Him from the Father.

Before this, He told them: “Do not go into the way of the pagans” (Matthew 10:5). What does “over all flesh” mean? After all, not everyone believed? But Christ, for His part, tried to lead everyone to faith; if they did not listen to Him, then this is not the fault of the Teacher, but of those who do not accept Him.

When you hear “thou gavest, receivedest” (John 10:18), and the like, then understand that this is said out of condescension, as we have said many times. For, always being careful not to say anything great about Himself, He condescends to the weakness of the listeners. And just as they were tempted by hearing great things about Him, He proclaims what is available to them, just as we, when talking to children, call bread, water and everything else, just like they do.

When the evangelist speaks about the Lord (on his own behalf), listen to what he says: “all things came into being through Him” (John 1:3) and “to those who received Him He gave the power to become children of God” (John 1:12). ). If He gives such power to others, did He really not have it Himself, but received it from the Father? Then, in these very words, apparently humiliated, something lofty was inserted.

that He may give eternal life to all that You have given Him.

“Yes to everything that You have given Him” is condescension; “He will give eternal life” is the power of the Only Begotten and the Divine. For only God can give life, and eternal life at that.

John 17:3. This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.

He called the Father “the one true God” to distinguish him from the falsely named pagan gods, and not separating Himself from the Father (away with such a thought!). For He, being the true Son, cannot be a false god, but is the true God, as this same evangelist in his conciliar epistle says about the Lord: “Jesus Christ is the true God and Eternal Life” (1 John 5:20). If heretics insist that the Son is a false god, since the Father is called the one true God, then let them know that this same evangelist says about the Son: “There was the true Light” (John 1:9). Is it really possible, according to their concept, that the Father is a false Light? But no, get rid of such a thought! Therefore, when he calls the Father the true God, he calls Him so in contrast to the false gods of the pagans, just as in the words “the glory that is from the One God, you do not seek” (John 5:44), according to the concept of heretics it will come out: since the Father - there is only one God, then the Son is not God at all. But such a conclusion is truly insane.

John 17:4. I glorified You on earth, I accomplished the work that You entrusted Me with.

From here learn how the Father glorifies the Son. Without a doubt, the Son also glorifies the Father. “I,” he says, “glorified You on earth.” He rightly adds “on the ground.” For He was glorified in heaven, being worshiped by the angels, but the earth did not know Him. And since the Son announced Him to everyone, he says: “I glorified You by sowing the knowledge of God throughout the whole earth and completing the work that You entrusted to Me.” For the work of the incarnation of the Only Begotten was to sanctify our nature, to overthrow the ruler of the world, whom we had previously idolized, to implant the knowledge of God among creation.

How did He do this when He had not yet begun? “Everything,” he says, “that I needed to do, I did.” Yes, He did what was most important: He planted the root of good into us, having defeated the devil, and gave Himself over to the all-consuming beast - death, and from this root, of necessity, the fruits of the knowledge of God will come. “So,” he says, “I have done the work, because I have sowed, I have planted a root, and the fruit will grow.”

John 17:5. And now glorify Me, O Father, with You, with the glory that I had with You before the world was.

The nature of the flesh had not yet been glorified, since it had not yet been made worthy of incorruption and had not yet participated in the royal throne. That is why he says “glorify Me,” that is, My human nature, which is now not in honor, which will be crucified, and raise it to the glory that I, Your Word and Son, had with You before the world was. For He seated human nature with Himself on the royal throne, and now every creature worships Him.

John 17:6. I have revealed Your name to the people whom You gave Me out of the world;

“I have made Your name known to men.” Now he explains what the words “I have glorified You on earth” mean, namely: I have proclaimed Your name.

How did the Son proclaim? For Isaiah also said: “Swear by... the true God” (Is.65:16). But we have said many times that if the name of God was known then, it was only to the Jews, and not to everyone, and now it is said about the pagans that they will know the name of God, since Christ has already given the seeds of the knowledge of God, having cast down the devil, who introduced idolatry.

And otherwise. If they knew God, they knew it not as Father, but only as Creator; but the Son announced Him as a Father, both in words and in deeds making Himself known; and whoever proved about Himself that He is the Son of God, obviously, together with Himself, made it known about the Father.

they were Yours, and You gave them to Me,

and they have kept Your word.

“They have kept Your word” because they believed Me and did not listen to the Jews. For whoever believes in Christ preserves the word of God, that is, the Scripture, the Law. For Scripture proclaims Christ.

Even differently. Everything that the Lord said to the disciples belonged to the Father. “For I,” he says, “speak not of Myself” (John 14:10). And He said to them among other things: “Abide in Me” (John 15:4).

John 17:7. Now they have understood that everything that You have given Me is from You,

So they kept it: “Now they have understood that everything that You have given Me is from You.” Some read the Greek “understood” as “now I have known”; but such a reading is unfounded. “Now,” he says, “My disciples have learned that I have nothing special, and that I am not a stranger to You, but that everything that You have given Me (not given as a gift, as to some creature, for it was not acquired by Me ), is from You, that is, it belongs to Me, as the Son and the Person who has power over what belongs to the Father.”

How did My disciples know this?

John 17:8. For the words that You gave Me, I delivered to them, and they received, and truly understood that I came from You, and they believed that You sent Me.

“For the words that You gave Me, I gave to them,” that is, from My words, from My teaching, for I always taught them what is from the Father, and not only taught this, but also taught that I came from You, and that You sent Me. For throughout the Gospel He wanted to establish the truth that He is not an opponent of God, but fulfills the will of the Father.

John 17:9. I pray for them: I do not pray for the whole world, but for those whom You have given Me, because they are Yours.

Showing that He is telling this to the Father not for anything else, but only for their sake, so that they may know that He loves them and cares for them, He says: “I pray and ask for them, and not for the world.” For by this I, without a doubt, prove that I love them, when I not only give what I have, but also ask You to keep them. So, I do not pray to You for vicious people and worldly minded people, “but for those whom You have given Me, because they are Yours.”

John 17:10. And all that is mine is yours, and yours is mine;

So that you, constantly hearing Him say “You gave Me,” do not think that this leadership and power was given to Him recently, and while the Father had them, He (the Son) did not have them, or again now that He has , The Father has lost power over them, for this he says: “And all that is mine is yours, and yours is mine.” I did not now accept this power, but when they were Yours, they were also Mine. For everything is Yours and Mine. And now that I Myself have them, You also have them, and have not lost them, for all Mine is Yours.

and I was glorified in them.

“And I was glorified in them,” that is, having power over them, I am glorified in them as a Lord, just as the son of a king, having equal honor and kingdom with his father, is glorified by the fact that he has as much as his father.

So, if the Son were less than the Father, He would not dare to say, “all things are Mine,” for the master has everything that belongs to the slave, but the slave does not have everything that belongs to the master. Here He mutually assimilates: the Father to the Son, and the Son to the Father. So the Son is glorified in those who belong to the Father; for He has as much power over all as the Father.

John 17:11. I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to You.

Why does he constantly say this: “I am no longer at peace” and “when I was at peace with them”? Whoever understands these words simply, they will seem contradictory. For in another place He promised them: “I will be in you” (John 15:4) and “you will see Me” (John 16:17), but now, apparently, he says something else. So, it can truly be said that He says this, adapting to their concepts.

Holy Father! keep them in Your name, those

which You gave Me,

It was natural for them to be sad since they were left without an assistant. He announces to them that He entrusts them to the Father and gives Him to them as a guardian, and then says to the Father: “Since You call Me to Yourself, then keep them Yourself “in Your name,” that is, with Your help and the power that You have given To me".

so that they are one, just like We are.

What should you store it in? "So that they may be one." For if they have love for each other, and there is no division between them, then they will be invincible, and nothing will overcome them. And not just so that they were one, but because I and You had one wisdom and one desire. For unanimity is their protection.

So, to console them, He begs the Father to keep them. For if He had said, “I will keep you,” they would not have believed so deeply. And now, when He pleads with the Father for them, He gives them firm hope.

John 17:12. When I was at peace with them, I kept them in Thy name;

“I kept them in Your name,” he says this not because He could not keep them except in the name of the Father, but, as we have said many times, because His listeners were weak and did not yet imagine anything great about Him. . That is why he says: “With Your help I kept them.”

At the same time, He strengthens them in the hope that just as during My time with you you were kept by the name and help of My Father, so believe, and you will again be kept by Him; for it is His custom to keep you.

those whom You gave Me, I have preserved, and none of them perished,

except the son of perdition,

How, Lord, did You not destroy anyone when Judas died and many others went back (John 6:66)? “For My part,” he says, “I have not destroyed anyone. Whatever depended on Me, I did not leave anything unfulfilled, but I observed them, that is, I tried in every possible way to preserve them. If they fall away of their own accord, this is not at all my fault.”

let the Scripture be fulfilled.

“That the scripture may be fulfilled,” that is, every scripture that foretells concerning the son of destruction. For it is spoken of in various psalms (Ps. 109:8, 17; Ps. 69:26) and in other prophetic books.

We have said many times about the particle “yes” that Scripture is in the habit of calling the cause what happens subsequently.

John 17:13. Now I come to You, and I say this in the world, so that they may have My complete joy within themselves.

“This,” he says, “I say in the world for the peace, consolation and joy of the disciples, so that they will be inspired and not worry, since You accept them whole and will keep them, just as I kept them, and did not destroy anyone.”

John 17:14. I have given them Your word; and the world hated them, because they were not of the world,

How then does He say in another place (John 17:6): “Those whom You gave Me out of the world were Yours”? There He spoke about their nature, that they are people and part of the world, but here He speaks about thoughts and will and notes that they are not from the world.

just as I am not of the world.

Don't be embarrassed by these words. The apostles were not as holy and alien to worldly passions as the Lord: “He committed no sin, neither was flattery in His mouth” (1 Pet. 2:22), and they did not escape the weakness of human nature. So, having heard the words “just as I am not of the world,” do not take them for the perfect similarity of the apostles with the Lord; but when this “how” is spoken about the Father and Him, then only understand equality.

John 17:15. I do not pray that You take them out of the world, but that You keep them from evil.

“I do not pray that You would take them out of the world.” He said this, wanting to prove his love for them, and that He cares a lot about them when he prays for them with such zeal. For He does not teach the Father what is necessary (for this would be incongruous with anything), but, as I said, He says this to the Father in order to show that He loves the disciples very much and cares about them. I do not pray that You take them out of the world, but that while they are in the world, You keep them from evil.

John 17:16. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

Again he repeats “they are not of the world.” “They,” he says, “need strong support, for they, who have become citizens of heaven, have nothing in common with the earth. And when the whole world treats them as strangers, then You, Heavenly One, already help them as heavenly citizens.” He says this very often out loud to his disciples, so that when they hear this, they will hate the world and not be ashamed of such praise.

Keep them “from hostility”; speaks not only about delivering them from dangers, but also about remaining and strengthening in faith. Therefore he adds:

John 17:17. Sanctify them with Your truth; Your word is truth.

Make them saints through the teaching of the Spirit, keep them in the righteousness of word and dogma, and instruct them and teach them the truth. For holiness consists in maintaining right dogmas.

And what He says about dogmas is clear from the explanation: “Your word is truth,” that is, there is no lie in it. Therefore, if You give them to keep Your word and themselves to be preserved from evil, they will be sanctified by the truth.

The words “sanctify them with Thy truth” mean something else, namely: set them apart for the word and preaching and make them a sacrifice; let them serve this truth, let them devote their own lives to it.

John 17:18. Just as You sent Me into the world, so

and I sent them into the world.

John 17:19. And for them I consecrate Myself, so that they too may be sanctified by the truth.

He adds: “Just as You sent Me into the world... and for them I dedicate Myself,” that is, I sacrifice; so You sanctify them too, that is, set them apart as a sacrifice for preaching and make them witnesses of the truth, just as You sent Me as a witness of the truth and a sacrifice. For everything that is sacrificed is called holy. “So that they too,” like Me, “may be sanctified” and offered to You, God, not as sacrifices under the law, sacrificed in an image, but “in the truth.”

For the Old Testament sacrifices, for example, a lamb, doves, turtle doves, etc., were images, and everything holy in the type was dedicated to God, prefiguring something else, spiritual. The souls offered to God are in truth sanctified, set apart and dedicated to God, just as Paul says: “Present your bodies as a living, holy sacrifice” (Rom. 12:1).

So, sanctify and consecrate the souls of the disciples, and make them true offerings, or strengthen them to endure death for the truth.

John 17:20. I pray not only for them, but also for those who believe in Me through their word,

Said, “For them I dedicate Myself.” So that anyone would not think that He died only for the apostles, he adds: “Not only about them, but also about all those who believe in Me according to their word.” Here He again encouraged the souls of the apostles that they would have many disciples. And so that, hearing “I pray not only for them,” the apostles would not be tempted, as if He did not give them any advantage over others, he consoles them, declaring that for many they will be the originators of faith and salvation.

John 17:21. May they all be one

And how He betrayed them sufficiently to the Father so that He would sanctify them by faith and make a holy sacrifice for them for the truth, finally speaks again about unanimity, and where he began, that is, with love, and thus ends his speech and says: “Let them be “all are one,” that is, may they have peace and like-mindedness, and in Us, that is, by faith in Us, may they maintain complete harmony. For nothing tempts disciples more than when teachers are divided and not of the same mind.

as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, so

and let them be one in Us,

For who would want to obey those who are not of the same mind? Therefore he says: “And they may be one in faith in Us, as You, Father, are in Me and I in You.” The particle “how” again does not mean perfect equality. For it is impossible for us to unite with each other, like the Father and the Son. The particle “how” should be understood in the same way as in the words “be merciful, just as your Father is” (Luke 6:36).

that the world may believe that You have sent Me.

The unanimity of the disciples will prove that I, the Teacher, came from God. If there is discord between them, then no one will say that they are disciples of the Conciliator; and if I am not the Reconciler, then they will not recognize Me as sent from You. Do you see how He completely confirms His unanimity with the Father?

John 17:22. And the glory that You gave Me, I have given them: that they may be one, even as We are one.

What glory did He give? The glory of miracles, the dogmas of teaching and also the glory of unanimity, “that they may be one.” For this glory is greater than the glory of miracles. “As we are amazed before God, because in His nature there is no rebellion or struggle, and this is the greatest glory, so,” he says, “let them also be glorious in the same way, that is, like-mindedness.”

John 17:23. I am in them, and You are in Me; may they be perfect in one,

“I am in them, and You are in Me.” This shows that the apostles included the Father within themselves. “For I,” he says, “am in them; and I have You in Me, therefore You also are in them.”

In another place he says that the Father and He Himself will come and create a monastery (John 14:23). Here He stops the mouth of Sabellius and shows two Faces. This overthrows the fury of Arius; for he says that the Father abides in the disciples through Him.

and let the world know that You sent Me

“Let the world know that You sent Me.” He often talks about this to show that peace can attract more than a miracle. For just as enmity destroys, so harmony strengthens.

and loved them as you loved Me.

Here again understand the particle “how” to mean how much a person can be loved.

John 17:24. Father! whom You have given Me, I want them to be with Me where I am,

So, having said that they will be safe, that they will be holy, that many will believe through them, that they will receive great glory, he now speaks of the rewards and crowns that will be offered to them after their departure from here. “I want,” he says, “for them to be where I am”; and lest you, having heard this, think that they will receive the same dignity as He, he adds:

let them see My glory,

He did not say “let them receive My glory,” but “let them see,” for the greatest pleasure for man is to contemplate the Son of God. And in this is glory for all those who are worthy, just as Paul says: “But we all have open faces, beholding the glory of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:18). This shows that then they will contemplate Him not as they now see Him, not in a humiliated form, but in the glory that He had before the creation of the world.

which You gave Me, because You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

“I had this glory,” he says, “because You loved Me.” For “he loved me” is placed in the middle. As above (John 17:5) he said: “Glorify Me with the glory that I had before the world was,” so now he says that the glory of the Divine was given to Him before the foundation of the world. For truly the Father gave Him Godhead, as the Father gave to the Son by nature. Since He gave birth to Him, then, as the Author of existence, He is necessarily called the Author and Giver of glory.

John 17:25. Righteous Father! and the world did not know You; but I have known You, and these have known that You sent Me.

After such a prayer for the believers and promising them so many benefits, he finally expresses something merciful and worthy of His love for mankind. He says: “Righteous Father! I would like all people to receive the same benefits that I asked for the faithful, but they did not know You and therefore will not receive that glory and those rewards.”

“And I have come to know You.” It also hints at the Jews who said that they know God, and shows that they do not know the Father. For in many places he calls the Jews “the world.”

John 17:26. And I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.

Although the Jews say that You did not send Me; but I have made known to My disciples “And I have revealed Your name, and I will make it known.” How can I open it? He sent down the Spirit to them, who will guide them into all truth. And when they know who You are, then the love with which You loved Me will be in them, and I in them. For they will know that I am not alienated from You, but am greatly loved, that I am Your true Son and united to You. Having learned this, they will maintain faith in Me and love, and, finally, I will abide in them because they are such that they know You and honor Me as God. And they will keep their faith in Me unshakable.

After these words, Jesus raised His eyes to heaven and said: Father! The hour has come: glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee, since Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He may give eternal life to all that Thou hast given Him. This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

Having told the disciples that they will have sorrows, and having convinced them not to lose heart, the Lord also encourages them with prayer, teaching us in temptations to leave everything and run to God. Otherwise. These words are not prayer, but conversation with the Father. If in other cases (Matthew 26:39) He prays and kneels, then do not be surprised at this. For Christ came not only to reveal Himself to the world, but also to teach all virtue. And the teacher must teach not only with words, but also with deeds. Wanting to show that he is going to suffer not against his will, but of his own free will, he says: “Father, the hour has come.” Behold, He desires this as something pleasant, and calls the upcoming work glory, and not only His own glory, but also the Father’s. And so it was. For not only was the Son glorified, but also the Father. For before the Cross even the Jews did not know Him, as it is said: “Israel did not know Me” (Is. 1:3); and after the Cross the whole universe flowed to Him. He also shows what the glory of Him and the Father consists of; The glory of God is that all flesh should believe and be blessed. For grace will not be limited to the Jews alone, but will extend to the entire universe. He said this because he intended to send them to the pagans. So that they do not consider this an innovation displeasing to the Father, He declares that power over all flesh has been given to Him from the Father. Before this, He told them: “Do not go into the way of the pagans” (Matthew 10:5). What does it mean: “over all flesh”? After all, not everyone believed? But Christ, for His part, tried to lead everyone to faith; if they did not listen to Him, then this is not the fault of the Teacher, but of those who do not accept Him. When you hear: you gave, you received (John 10:18), and the like, then understand that this is said out of condescension, as we have said many times. For, always being careful not to say anything great about Himself, He condescends to the weakness of the listeners. And just as they were tempted by hearing great things about Him, He proclaims what is available to them, just as we, when talking to children, call bread, water and everything else, just like they do. When the evangelist speaks about the Lord (on his own behalf), listen to what he says: “all things came into being through Him” (John 1:3), and: “to those who received Him He gave the power to become children of God” (John 1 , 12). If He gives such power to others, did He really not have it Himself, but received it from the Father? Then, in these very words, apparently humiliated, something lofty was inserted. “Yes to everything that You have given Him,” this is condescension, “He will give eternal life,” this is the power of the Only Begotten and the Divine. For only God can give life, and eternal life at that. He called the Father “the one true God” to distinguish him from the falsely named pagan gods, and not separating Himself from the Father (away with such a thought!). For He, being the true Son, cannot be a false god, but is the true God, as this same evangelist in his conciliar epistle says about the Lord: “Jesus Christ is the true God and Eternal Life” (1 John 5:20) . If heretics insist that the Son is a false god, since the Father is called the one true God, then let them know that this same evangelist says about the Son: “there was the true Light” (John 1:9). Is it really possible, according to their concept, that the Father is a false Light? But no, get rid of such a thought! Therefore, when he calls the Father the true God, he calls Him so in contrast to the false gods of the pagans, just as in the words: “the glory that is from the one God do not seek” (John 5:44), according to the concept of heretics it will come out: since The Father is one God, but the Son is not God at all. But such a conclusion is truly insane.

I glorified You on earth, I accomplished the work that You entrusted Me with. And now glorify Me, O Father, with You, with the glory that I had with You before the world was. I have revealed Your name to the people whom You gave Me out of the world.

From here learn how the Father glorifies the Son. Without a doubt, the Son also glorifies the Father. “I,” he says, “glorified You on earth.” He rightly adds: “on earth.” For in heaven He was glorified, being worshiped by the angels, but the earth did not know Him. And since the Son announced Him to everyone, he says: I glorified You by sowing the knowledge of God throughout the whole earth and completing the work that You entrusted to Me. For the work of the incarnation of the Only Begotten was to sanctify our nature, to overthrow the ruler of the world, whom we had previously idolized, to implant the knowledge of God among creation. How did He do this when He had not yet begun? Everything he says I needed to do, I did. Yes, He did what was most important: He planted the root of good into us, having defeated the devil, and gave Himself over to the all-consuming beast - death, and from this root, of necessity, the fruits of the knowledge of God will come. So, he says, I have done the work, because I have sowed, planted a root, and the fruit will grow. “Glorify Me, O Father, with You, with the glory that I had with You before the world was.” The nature of the flesh had not yet been glorified, since it had not yet been made worthy of incorruption and had not yet participated in the royal throne. That is why he says: “glorify Me,” that is, My human nature, which is now not in honor, which will be crucified, and raise it to the glory that I, Your Word and Son, had with You before the world was. For He seated human nature with Himself on the royal throne, and now every creature worships Him. “I have made Your name known to men.” Now he explains what the words mean: I have glorified You on earth, namely: I have proclaimed Your name. How did the Son proclaim? For Isaiah also said: “Swear by the true God” (8:1). But we have said many times that if the name of God was known then, it was only to the Jews, and not to everyone, and now it is said about the pagans that they will know the name of God, since Christ has already given the seeds of the knowledge of God, having cast down the devil, who introduced idolatry. And otherwise. If they knew God, they knew it not as Father, but only as Creator; but the Son announced Him as a Father, and in words and deeds made Himself known; and whoever proved about Himself that He is the Son of God, obviously, together with Himself, made it known about the Father.

They were Yours, and You gave them to Me, and they kept Your word. Now they have understood that everything that You have given Me is from You; For the words that You gave Me, I delivered to them, and they received and understood truly that I came from You, and they believed that You sent Me.

The Lord wants to affirm two thoughts: one is that He is not an opponent of the Father, and the other is that the Father wants them to believe the Son. Therefore he says: “They were Yours, and You gave them to Me.” In the words: “You gave Me,” both are shown. I did not kidnap them, but You deigned that they should come to Me. Therefore, I do not have enmity, but you have like-mindedness and love for Me, Father. “They have kept Your word” because they believed Me and did not listen to the Jews. For whoever believes in Christ preserves the word of God, that is, the Scripture, the Law. For Scripture proclaims Christ. Even differently. Everything that the Lord said to the disciples belonged to the Father. For I, he says, do not speak from Myself (John 14:10). And He said to them among other things: “Be in Me” (John 15:4). So they kept it: “Now they have understood that everything that You have given Me is from You.” Some read the Greek “understood” as “now I have known”; but such a reading is unfounded. Now, he says, My disciples have learned that I have nothing special, and that I am not a stranger to You, but that everything that You have given Me (not given as a gift, as to some creature, for it was not acquired by Me) is from You, that is, it belongs to Me, as the Son and the Person of power over what belongs to the Father. How did My disciples know this? “For the words that You gave Me, I gave to them,” that is, from My words, from My teaching, for I always taught them what is from the Father, and not only taught this, but also taught that I came from You, and that You sent Me. For throughout the Gospel He wanted to establish the truth that He is not an opponent of God, but fulfills the will of the Father.

I pray for them, not for the whole world, but for those whom You have given Me, because they are Yours. And all Mine is Thine, and Thine is Mine, and I am glorified in them.

Showing that He is telling this to the Father not for anything else, but only for their sake, so that they know that He loves them and cares for them, He says: I pray and ask for them, and not for the world. For by this I, without a doubt, prove that I love them, when I not only give what I have, but also ask You to keep them. So, I do not pray to You for vicious people and worldly minded people, but for those whom You have given Me, because they are Yours. So that you, constantly hearing Him say: “You gave Me,” do not think that this leadership and power was given to Him recently, and while the Father had them, He (the Son) did not have them, or again now that He has, the Father has lost power over them, for this he says “and all that is mine is yours, and yours is mine.” I did not now accept this power, but when they were yours, they were also mine. For everything is Yours and Mine. And now that I Myself have them, You also have them, and have not lost them, for all Mine is Yours. “And I was glorified in them,” that is, having authority over them. I am glorified in them as the Lord, just as the son of a king, having equal honor and kingdom with his father, is glorified by the fact that he has the same amount as his father. So, if the Son were less than the Father, He would not dare to say: “all is Yours,” for the master has everything that belongs to the slave, but the slave does not have everything that belongs to the master. Here He mutually assimilates: the Father to the Son, and the Son to the Father. So the Son is glorified in those who belong to the Father; for He has as much power over all as the Father.

I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to You, Holy Father! keep them in Your name, those whom You have given Me, so that they may be one, just as We are. When I was at peace with them, I kept them in Your name.

Why does he constantly say this: “I am no longer in the world,” and: “when I was with them in the world”? Whoever understands these words simply, they will seem contradictory. For in another place He promised them: I will be with you” (John 15:4), and: “you will see Me” (John 16:17), but now, apparently, he says something else. So, it can truly be said that He says this, adapting to their concepts. It was natural for them to be sad since they were left without an assistant. He announces to them that He entrusts them to the Father and gives Him to them as a guardian, and then says to the Father: since You call Me to Yourself, then keep them Yourself “in Your name,” that is, with Your help and the power that You have given Me . What should you store it in? "So that they may be one." For if they have love for each other, and there is no division between them, then they will be invincible, and nothing will overcome them. And not just so that they were one, but because I and You had one wisdom and one desire. For unanimity is their protection. So, to console them, He begs the Father to keep them. For if He had said: “I will keep you,” they would not have believed so deeply. And now, when He pleads with the Father for them, He gives them firm hope. “I kept them in Your name,” he says this, not because He could not keep them otherwise than in the name of the Father, but, as we have said many times, because His listeners were weak and did not yet imagine anything great about Him. . For this reason he says: With Your help I have kept them. At the same time, He strengthens them in the hope that just as during My time with you you were kept by the name and help of My Father, so believe, and you will again be kept by Him; for it is His business to keep you.

Those whom You gave Me I have preserved, and none of them perished except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled (Ps. 109:17). Now I come to You, and I say this in the world, so that they may have My complete joy within themselves.

There is a lot of humiliation in these words if someone does not accept them as they should. For look what appears here. “Those whom You gave Me, I have kept.” Apparently, He commands the Father that the Father should also keep it, just as someone, transferring property for safekeeping to another, would say: look, I haven’t lost anything, so don’t you lose it either. But He says all this to console the disciples. “This,” he says, “I say in peace” for the peace, consolation and joy of the disciples, so that they will be inspired and not worry, since You accept them whole and will keep them, just as I kept them and did not destroy anyone. How, Lord, did You not destroy anyone when Judas died and many others went back (John 6:66)? For My part, he says, I have not destroyed anyone. Whatever depended on Me, I did not leave anything unfulfilled, but I observed them, that is, I tried in every possible way to preserve them. If they fall away by themselves, this is not at all my fault. “Let the scripture be fulfilled, that is, every scripture that prophesies about the son of destruction. For it is spoken of in various psalms (Ps. 108:8; 68:26) and in other prophetic books. We have said many times about the particle “yes” that Scripture is in the habit of calling the cause what happens subsequently.

I gave them Your word, and the world hated them, because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You take them out of the world, but that You keep them from evil. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

Begging the Father to help the apostles, he also expresses the reason why they are worthy of great care from the Father. Because of Your word, which I delivered to them, they hated them. Therefore, they are worthy to receive help from You, since the wise of the world hated them for Your sake. Evil people hate them because they are “not of the world,” that is, they are not tied to the world with their minds and do not exhaust their activities for it. How then does He say in another place (John 17:6): those whom You gave Me “out of the world” were Yours? There He spoke about their nature, that they are people and part of the world, but here He speaks about thoughts and will and notes that they are not from the world. “Just as I am not of the world.” Don't be embarrassed by these words. The apostles were not as holy and alien to worldly passions as the Lord: He committed no sin, and no lie was in His mouth (1 Pet. 2:22), and they did not escape the weakness of human nature. So, having heard the words: “just as I am not of the world,” do not take them for the perfect similarity of the apostles with the Lord; but when this “how” is spoken of about the Father and about Him, then only understand equality. “I do not pray that You would take them out of the world.” He said this, wanting to prove his love for them and that He cares a lot about them when he prays for them with such zeal. For He does not teach the Father what is necessary (for this would be incongruous with anything), but, as I said, He says this to the Father in order to show that He loves the disciples very much and cares about them. I do not pray that You take them out of the world, but that while they are in the world, You keep them from evil. He repeats again: “they are not of the world.” They, he says, need strong support, because they, who have become citizens of heaven, have nothing in common with the earth. And as the whole world treats them as strangers, then You, Heavenly One, already help them as heavenly citizens. He says this very often out loud to his disciples, so that when they hear this, they will hate the world and not be ashamed of such praise. Keep them “from hostility”; speaks not only about delivering them from dangers, but also about remaining and strengthening in faith. Therefore he adds:

Sanctify them with Your truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, so I sent them into the world; For them I consecrate Myself, so that they too may be sanctified by the truth.

Make them saints through the teaching of the Spirit, keep them in the righteousness of word and dogma, and instruct them and teach them the truth. For holiness consists in maintaining right dogmas. And what He says about dogmas is clear from the explanation: “Your word is truth,” that is, there is no lie in it. Therefore, if You give them to keep Your word and themselves to be preserved from evil, they will be sanctified by the truth. The words “sanctify them by Thy truth” mean something else, namely; set them apart for the word and preaching and make them a sacrifice; let them serve this truth, let them devote their own lives to it. He adds: “just as You sent Me into the world... and for them I dedicate Myself,” that is, I sacrifice; so You sanctify them too, that is, set them apart as a sacrifice for preaching and make them witnesses of the truth, just as You sent Me as a witness of the truth and a sacrifice. For everything that is sacrificed is called holy. “So that they too,” like Me, “may be sanctified” and offered to You, God, not as sacrifices under the law, sacrificed in an image, but “in the truth.” For the Old Testament sacrifices, for example, a lamb, doves, turtle doves, etc., were images, and everything holy in the type was dedicated to God, representing something else, spiritual. The souls offered to God are in truth sanctified, separated and dedicated to God, just as Paul says: “present your members as a living, holy sacrifice” (Rom. 12:1). So, sanctify and consecrate the souls of the disciples, and make them true offerings, or strengthen them to endure death for the truth.

I pray not only for them, but also for those who believe in Me according to their word, that they may all be one: as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, so may they also be one in Us, so that the world may believe that You are sent me.

Said: “For them I dedicate Myself.” So that anyone would not think that He died only for the apostles, he adds: “not only about them, but also about all those who believe in Me according to their word.” Here He again encouraged the souls of the apostles that they would have many disciples. And so that, hearing: “I pray not only for them,” the apostles would not be tempted, as if He did not give them any advantage over others, he consoles them, declaring that for many they will be the originators of faith and salvation. And how He betrayed them sufficiently to the Father so that He would sanctify them by faith and make a holy sacrifice for them for the truth, finally speaks again about unanimity, and where he began, that is, with love, and thus ends his speech and says: “let them be “all are one,” that is, may they have peace and like-mindedness, and in Us, that is, by faith in Us, may they maintain complete harmony. For nothing tempts disciples more than when teachers are divided and not of the same mind. For who would want to obey those who are not of the same mind? Therefore he says: “And they may be one,” in faith in Us, “as You, Father, are in Me and I in You.” The particle “how” again does not mean perfect equality. For it is impossible for us to unite with each other, like the Father and the Son. The particle “how” should be understood in the same way as in the words: “be merciful as your Father” (Luke 6:36). - “Let the world believe that You sent Me.” The unanimity of the disciples will prove that I, the Teacher, came from God. If there is discord between them, then no one will say that they are disciples of the Conciliator; and if I am not the Reconciler, then they will not recognize Me as sent from You. Do you see how He completely confirms His unanimity with the Father?

And the glory which You gave Me, I have given them: that they may be one, even as We are one; I am in them, and You are in Me; that they may be perfected in one, and that the world may know that You sent Me.

What glory did He give? The glory of miracles, the dogmas of teaching and also the glory of unanimity, “that they may be one.” For this glory is greater than the glory of miracles. How we are amazed before God, because in His nature there is no rebellion or struggle, and this is the greatest glory: so, he says, let them also be glorious in the same way, that is, like-mindedness. “I am in them, and You are in Me.” This shows that the apostles included the Father within themselves. For I, he says, am in them; and I have You in Me, therefore You also have You in them. In another place he says that the Father and He Himself will come and create a monastery (John 14:23). Here He stops the mouth of Sabellius and shows two Faces. This overthrows the fury of Arius; for he says that the Father abides in the disciples through Him. - “Let the world know that You sent Me.” He often talks about this to show that peace can attract more than a miracle. For just as enmity destroys, so harmony strengthens.

And he loved them as he loved me. Father! whom You have given Me, I want them to be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory, which You have given Me, because You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

Here again understand the particle “how” to mean how much a person can be loved. So, having said that they will be safe, that they will be holy, that many will believe through them, that they will receive great glory, he now speaks of the rewards and crowns that will be offered to them after their departure from here. “I want,” he says, “for them to be where I am”; and lest you, having heard this, think that they will receive the same dignity as He, he adds: “Let them see My glory.” He did not say, “Let them receive My glory,” but, “Let them see,” for the greatest pleasure for man is to contemplate the Son of God. And in this is glory for all those who are worthy, just as Paul says: “But with open face we behold the glory of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:18). This shows that then they will contemplate Him not as they now see Him, not in a humiliated form, but in the glory that He had before the creation of the world. I had, he says, this glory because You loved Me. For “he loved Me” is placed in the middle. As he said above (v. 5): glorify Me with the glory that I had before the world was, so now he says that the glory of the Divine was given to Him before the foundation of the world. For truly the Father gave Him Godhead, as the Father gave to the Son by nature. Since He gave birth to Him, then, as the Author of existence, He is necessarily called the Author and Giver of glory.

Righteous Father! and the world did not know You; but I have known You, and these have known that You sent Me; I have made Your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.

After such a prayer for the believers and promising them so many benefits, he finally expresses something merciful and worthy of His love for mankind. Says: Righteous Father! I would like all people to receive the same benefits that I asked for the faithful, but they did not know You and therefore will not receive that glory and those rewards. “And I have come to know You.” It also hints at the Jews who said that they know God, and shows that they do not know the Father. For in many places he calls the Jews “the world.” Although the Jews say that You did not send Me; but I have made known to my disciples your name, and I will make it known. How can I open it? Sending down upon them the Spirit, who will guide them into all truth. And when they know who You are, then the love with which You loved Me will be in them, and I in them. For they will know that I am not alienated from You, but am greatly loved, that I am Your true Son and united to You. Having learned this, they will maintain faith in Me and love, and, finally, I will remain in them because they are such that they know You and honor Me as God. And they will keep their faith in Me unshakable.

June 13. I pray for them: I do not pray for the whole world, but for those whom You have given Me, because they are Yours.

THE GLORY OF THE CROSS (John 17:1-5)

THE GLORY OF THE CROSS (John 17:1-5 continued)

ETERNAL LIFE (John 17:1-5 (continued))

THE WORK OF JESUS (John 17:6-8)

THE MEANING OF DISCIPLESHIP (John 17:6-8 continued)

JESUS' PRAYER FOR THE DISCIPLES (John 17:9-19)

JESUS' PRAYER FOR THE DISCIPLES (John 17:9-19 (continued))

LOOKING INTO THE FUTURE (John 17:20.21)

THE GIFT AND PROMISE OF GLORY (John 17:22-26)

Gospel of John. Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen

Menu

THE GLORY OF THE CROSS (John 17:1-5)

THE GLORY OF THE CROSS (John 17:1-5 continued)

ETERNAL LIFE (John 17:1-5 (continued))

THE WORK OF JESUS ​​(John 17:6-8)

THE MEANING OF DISCIPLESHIP (John 17:6-8 continued)

JESUS' PRAYER FOR THE DISCIPLES (John 17:9-19)

JESUS' PRAYER FOR THE DISCIPLES (John 17:9-19 (continued))

LOOKING INTO THE FUTURE (John 17:20.21)

THE GIFT AND PROMISE OF GLORY (John 17:22-26)

Gospel of John. Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen

Menu

THE WORK OF JESUS (John 17:6-8)