Happy Ones and Holy

It is particularly this middle section of John 17 that has led people to call the chapter “Jesus’ high-priestly prayer.” The name has been used since the sixteenth century, although the thought was explored by Christian writers many centuries earlier. Just as a priest was consecrated before being set apart for holy duty (Exod. 28:41), here Jesus “sanctifies” himself for the self-giving of the cross (19). Just as a Jewish high-priest would bathe for the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16:4), Jesus prepares himself to offer the greatest of all atonements. For on the cross he will be both priest and victim. When his life is sacrificed and his blood is shed, he is willingly involved in the act, deliberately committed, giving himself to God in death as he has in life.

The letter to the Hebrews contains some intriguing echoes of John’s Gospel, and this is one: the thought of Jesus as high-priest, who now represents his people before God, mediating for us in times of difficulty. Again, the account in John 17 of Jesus’ prayer for his followers and their well-being dovetails well with Hebrews’s picture of his mediation and mercy. What he prayed for then, he makes possible now.

Jesus’ prayer for his disciples has three main requests. First, he wants his friends to be safe in the world, with its miseries and malice, yet guarded from evil, so that both their individual lives and their common life will be solid and secure (11,15). Second, he wants them to be holy. The consecration to which he commits himself is to be infectious. It is for them, too (17-19). Third, he wants them to be a happy people (13). Joy is a serious part of the Gospel. Jesus left it with his friends, and he gives it still.

Think of the people you love best. What do they need most–safety, a holy life, deep happiness…? Jesus prayed for these things for his friends. Are you doing the same?