The Pontifical Prayer.

(John chp. 17).

According to some thinkers, immediately following the conclusion of the parting conversation and on the way to Gethsemane, the Lord and His disciples came to the stream at Hebron. It was before crossing it, that the Lord uttered out loud — before His disciples — the triumphant prayer to God the Father. This prayer is usually called Pontifical (?), because the Lord prays in it as the Great Architect to God the Father, bringing Himself as a sacrifice that has a great inexplicable meaning to the whole world.

“Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You” — it is with these words that the Lord commences His prayer. The hour of My sufferings has arrived: allow Me to demonstrate in this hour all My love for You and for the world created by You, so that through My forthcoming ordeal of redeeming mankind, Your glory will be revealed. ”As You have given Him authority over all flesh.” God had entrusted the whole human race to His Son, so that He may establish its salvation and grant eternal life to humanity. The Lord defines eternal life as knowledge of God and the Redeemer of the world that was sent here. Before God’s eyes, all His work appears as accomplished. That’s why He says: “I have glorified You on the earth…” Now, it is time to enter into Divine glory in human terms, of which He prays: “And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.” This is the first part of the Lord’s prayer about Himself (verses 1-5).

Having finished the prayer about Himself, the Lord further prays about His disciples (verses 6-19), those, to whom He had entrusted the mission of spreading and affirming His Kingdom on earth. The Lord seemingly gives an account to God the Father of what He had achieved: He revealed to His disciples, a full and correct understanding of God, and they had become God’s special chosen ones, having received Divine teachings presented to them from the Father through His Son. They also comprehended the Divine mystery of building God’s Church. The Lord further prays for His disciples, so that the Heavenly Father would take them under His special protection — after the Lord’s departure — in this world that is hostile toward them. That He preserve them pure and holy in spiritual accord and love among themselves, in unity that is akin to the unity between God the Father and God the Son. The Lord further states that He — being in the world — shielded them from falling, and “non of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled (Judas the betrayer), i.e. in accord with the prophesy in Psalm 40:10. In praying to His Father for the preservation of His disciples from all evil in this world that hates them, the Lord asks for their enlightenment with the Word of Divine truth, i.e. to convey to them special blessed gifts for their successful dissemination of truth throughout the whole world. The Lord further states that He dedicates Himself for them, — bringing Himself as a sacrifice, so that they may follow in His footsteps and become His witnesses and sacrifices for the truth.

The third part of the Lord’s prayer — for the faithful — begins from the 20^th verse. The Lord prays for them: “That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me” — the union of faithful in Christ must be similar to the union of God the Father with God the Son. Naturally, this means moral union. Such a union in love and faith of all Christians, would assist to bring the whole world into belief in Christ as the Messiah. We can see this in the first centuries of Christianity, where the Jews and heathens were captured by the elevated beauty of Christ’s teachings, becoming Christians themselves — except those that were completely blinded spiritually and hardened of heart. The Lord determines this union of all the faithful as being a union in the glory of God and Christ. In the following verses (22-24), the Lord seemingly envisages His Church in Heavenly glory and in union with God in the Messiah’s Kingdom. He states that this glory will bring even the hostile world — against its will — to realize that the Lord Jesus is the true Messiah. The words: “Father, I desire that they also whom you gave Me may be with Me where I am” is akin to the last will and testament of a Dying Man, which would undoubtedly be carried out, especially when the Son of God’s will is indivisible with that of God the Father: in giving His life for the world’s salvation, the Son of God is requesting for all the faithful from God the Father, those Heavenly habitats about which He spoke to His Apostles in the beginning of His dialogue at the Last Supper.

Verses 25 and 26 represent the conclusion of the pontifical prayer, where the Lord turns to God the Father as the All-righteous Remunerator. The Lord points out the superiority of the faithful over the rest of the world in that they have “known You,” and consequently are capable of receiving the gifts of Divine love. He asks so that God the Father distinguishes them before the world with His generosity, and makes them participants in the love that He has for His Son: “that the love with which You loved Me may be in them.” For this to be, the Lord Jesus Himself promises to “be in them,” so that the love of the Father that resided continuously in the Son, may extend from and for the sake of the Son, to those in whom the Son resides. Thus, the all-encompassing love will be all fulfilling in the eternal glory of the Kingdom of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.