Joh 17:2 | KingComments | STEP | This chapter is unparalleled in depth and range of vision. It breathes perfect holiness, devotion and love. We may listen to the Son opening His heart to the Father at the moment He is about to die and leave His own, to go to Heaven. Because we hear the Son speaking to the Father, we cannot speak of a ‘high priestly prayer’, because then we would hear Him speaking as Man to God. If we can speak of a prayer, it is in the sense of a confidential asking of the Son to the Father and not begging the Father for anything. We hear the Son asking the Father to glorify Him, then to care for His disciples when He will no longer be with them, and finally to give the disciples a place with Him in glory. These are questions that are not really a request, but a sharing with the Father of things that live in the heart of the Father in exactly the same way. The Lord knows all that, but He wants us to know that He intercedes for us with the Father. This prayer shows us how He is Helper. In His prayer, which forms a beautiful unity, we can roughly distinguish two sections: 1. In the first section, , the Lord speaks to the Father in view of His glorification and His connection with His disciples. 2. In the second section, , the disciples are the subject, in which He clearly distinguishes them from the world. We can also make a somewhat finer division into seven parts: 1. In the Lord Jesus asks the Father for His glorification as Man on the basis of the work accomplished by Him. 2. In He speaks to the Father about what the disciples mean to Him. 3. In He asks His Father to keep His disciples in unity. 4. In He entrusts His disciples to His Father in order to keep them in the world. 5. In He extends His prayer and asks the Father for the unity of all the believers on earth. 6. In it is about a unity that still lies in the future and that will become visible at His revelation. 7. In it is about being with the Son in the Father’s house. After these introductory words we now want to focus on the prayer. I will express myself as limited as possible because speaking about this prayer makes you feel as if you want to illuminate the sun with a flashlight. When reading this chapter it is especially important that the Holy Spirit can work in each reader the feelings appropriate to this chapter. I hope that this is the case with me and that I can pass something of it in this explanation. I myself have also been helped by what others have discovered of beauty in this prayer. When the Lord addresses Himself to the Father in His prayer, He does so while lifting up His eyes to heaven. Similarly, He raised His eyes at the tomb of Lazarus ( ). There He asked the Father for the resurrection of Lazarus. Here He does not ask for the resurrection, here He asks for the glorification of Himself. Yet the question of His glorification is not about Himself. He immediately adds that with His question He is aiming at the glorification of the Father. With this question the Lord places Himself behind the work as accomplished by Him. That is why He says that “the hour has come”. By this He means the hour that He will go back to the Father. When He asks for His glorification by the Father, it means that He asks this question as a result of the work He has accomplished. And when He asks for His own glorification with a view to the glorification of the Father, it means that He continues to glorify the Father after He is glorified in heaven. He has glorified the Father both on earth and on the cross and He does the same in heaven. He does this glorification of the Father in connection with the power over all flesh that He has received from the Father based on His work. He always remains faithful to the place He has taken and does not exercise power according to His own right. He will exercise the power over all flesh when He returns to judge Israel and the world. In the present time He uses this power to give eternal life to all He has received from the Father. Now that the Son is in heaven, He glorifies His Father by giving eternal life to those He receives from the Father. He still glorifies the Father every day in every sinner who comes to faith.

‏ John 17:2

The Glorification of the Son

This chapter is unparalleled in depth and range of vision. It breathes perfect holiness, devotion and love. We may listen to the Son opening His heart to the Father at the moment He is about to die and leave His own, to go to Heaven.

Because we hear the Son speaking to the Father, we cannot speak of a ‘high priestly prayer’, because then we would hear Him speaking as Man to God. If we can speak of a prayer, it is in the sense of a confidential asking of the Son to the Father and not begging the Father for anything.

We hear the Son asking the Father to glorify Him, then to care for His disciples when He will no longer be with them, and finally to give the disciples a place with Him in glory. These are questions that are not really a request, but a sharing with the Father of things that live in the heart of the Father in exactly the same way. The Lord knows all that, but He wants us to know that He intercedes for us with the Father. This prayer shows us how He is Helper.

In His prayer, which forms a beautiful unity, we can roughly distinguish two sections:

1. In the first section, Jn 17:1-8, the Lord speaks to the Father in view of His glorification and His connection with His disciples.

2. In the second section, Jn 17:9-26, the disciples are the subject, in which He clearly distinguishes them from the world.

We can also make a somewhat finer division into seven parts:

1. In Jn 17:1-5 the Lord Jesus asks the Father for His glorification as Man on the basis of the work accomplished by Him.

2. In Jn 17:6-8 He speaks to the Father about what the disciples mean to Him.

3. In Jn 17:9-12 He asks His Father to keep His disciples in unity.

4. In Jn 17:13-19 He entrusts His disciples to His Father in order to keep them in the world.

5. In Jn 17:20-21 He extends His prayer and asks the Father for the unity of all the believers on earth.

6. In Jn 17:22-23 it is about a unity that still lies in the future and that will become visible at His revelation.

7. In Jn 17:24-26 it is about being with the Son in the Father’s house.

After these introductory words we now want to focus on the prayer. I will express myself as limited as possible because speaking about this prayer makes you feel as if you want to illuminate the sun with a flashlight. When reading this chapter it is especially important that the Holy Spirit can work in each reader the feelings appropriate to this chapter. I hope that this is the case with me and that I can pass something of it in this explanation. I myself have also been helped by what others have discovered of beauty in this prayer.

When the Lord addresses Himself to the Father in His prayer, He does so while lifting up His eyes to heaven. Similarly, He raised His eyes at the tomb of Lazarus (Jn 11:41). There He asked the Father for the resurrection of Lazarus. Here He does not ask for the resurrection, here He asks for the glorification of Himself. Yet the question of His glorification is not about Himself. He immediately adds that with His question He is aiming at the glorification of the Father.

With this question the Lord places Himself behind the work as accomplished by Him. That is why He says that “the hour has come”. By this He means the hour that He will go back to the Father. When He asks for His glorification by the Father, it means that He asks this question as a result of the work He has accomplished. And when He asks for His own glorification with a view to the glorification of the Father, it means that He continues to glorify the Father after He is glorified in heaven. He has glorified the Father both on earth and on the cross and He does the same in heaven.

He does this glorification of the Father in connection with the power over all flesh that He has received from the Father based on His work. He always remains faithful to the place He has taken and does not exercise power according to His own right. He will exercise the power over all flesh when He returns to judge Israel and the world. In the present time He uses this power to give eternal life to all He has received from the Father. Now that the Son is in heaven, He glorifies His Father by giving eternal life to those He receives from the Father. He still glorifies the Father every day in every sinner who comes to faith.