209. The Prayer of the Lord Saviour to God the Father. Jn. 17:1–26

After these words the Lord Jesus lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said:

Father! The hour has come: glorify Your Son, so that Your Son may glorify You, as You gave Him power over all flesh, so that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. And this is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and the One You have sent, Jesus Christ. I have glorified You on earth, having completed the work that You gave Me to do. And now, glorify Me, O Father, with Yourself, with the glory that I had with You before the world was made.

I have revealed Your name to the people whom You gave Me from the world; they were Yours, and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they understand that all things that You have given Me are from You. For the words that You gave Me I have given to them, and they have received them and truly understand that I came forth from You, and they have believed that You sent Me. I am praying for them; I am not praying for the world, but for those You have given Me, because they are Yours. And all that is Mine is Yours, and Yours is Mine, and I am glorified in them.

And now 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, as We are. When I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name; I have guarded those whom You gave Me, and none of them has been lost except the son of perdition, so that the Scripture might be fulfilled (Ps. 108:17).

But now I am coming to You, and I say these things while I am in the world, so that they may have My joy made complete in themselves. I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask 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. Sanctify them in Your truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, so also have I sent them into the world. And on behalf of them I sanctify Myself, so that they themselves also may be sanctified in the truth.

But I am not praying for them alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word, that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, so that they also may be in Us one – so that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory that You have given Me I have given to them; that they may be one, as We are one. I in them, and You in Me; that they may be perfected into one, and that the world may know that You sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me.

Father, I desire that those whom You have given Me may also 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.

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