Jesus' Prayer

(Gospel of John 17:1 - 17:26)
After saying these things, Jesus gazed heavenward and made this prayer: "Father, the time has come to glorify your son so that he may in return glorify you.  You have given him charge of all humanity so that he might bestow life everlasting upon those whom you have given him.  And this is the path to life everlasting, to acknowledge you, the one true God, and Jesus, the Messiah you have sent down to earth.  I have brought you glory here on earth by completing the task you assigned to me.  And now, Father, glorify me with you with that glory we shared before the world began!

"I have made your name known to those of this world that you have chosen for me.  They belonged to you and you gave them to me.  And they have kept faith with you.  Now they realize that all I have been given has come from you.  The message you have given me I have taught them.  They have accepted that message and know the truth that I have come from you and believe that it is you who has sent me.

"My prayer is not for the world, but only for those you have given me, because they belong to you.  All who are mine are yours, and all who are yours are mine.  Glory has come to me because of them.  No longer will I remain in the world.  But they will do so, while I will be coming to be with you, Holy Father.  Keep those you have given me faithful to your name, so that they may be one, as we are.  While I was with them I protected in your name those you had given me, and I kept them faithful so that none of them were lost to you  -- save the one who was ordained to be lost to perdition in order that the Scriptures might be fulfilled.

"I am coming to you now, but I say these things here on earth so that they may know amongst themselves the full measure of my joy.  I have given them your message, but the world has hated them because it is not of this world, just as they hate me because I am not of this world.  I do not ask you to take them out of the world but to protect them from the evil of the world.  They do not belong to it, as I do not belong to it.  Sanctify them with the truth, for your message is the truth.  As you have sent me into the world, I have sent them out into the world.  For their sakes I sanctify myself that they may be sanctified by the truth.

"I pray not only for them, but for those who may come to believe in me through them, so that they all can be as one.  As you, Father, are in me and I in you, may they also be one with us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  The glory that you have given me, I have given to them, so that they may be as one, as we are.  May I be in them and you in me in complete unity, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them just as you have loved me.  And, Father, I want those who you have sent to me to be with me where they can witness my glory, the glory that you bestowed upon me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

"Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I do, and they know you have sent me.  I have made your name known to them and will continue to do so in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."

Notes
1.  In early religions prayer usually took place in a certain location, a temple, a shrine, before a statue or image of the god, the idea being that the spirit of the god inhabited or visited or monitored the activity at a venue sacred to him.  One went to the temple to pray to the god as one went to the palace to petition the king.  Here, Jesus does not seem to be at any particular holy place when he addresses the Father with his prayer.  There is, of course, a presumption that he has a direct pipeline to God, that whenever he calls upon him, his father, the deity will hear him.  This concept has been adopted by nearly all modern religions: prayers are thought to be heard regardless of where they are uttered or how.  This presumes an all-knowing and ever-engaged deity.  However, since the deity not only hears all, the question must be asked whether he listens only when he hears his name being specifically invoked and responds only when he is directly appealed to.  Why, in this instance, does Jesus find it necessary to make his prayer, submit his requests, when the Father, God, not only knows his heart, knows his thoughts, but is a part of him?  It makes sense only if the prayer, audible, one would think, was uttered for the benefit of the disciples, who are rather condescendingly referred to only as "they."

2.  It is clearly stated and stated several times that the disciples of Jesus were given to him by the Father.  Why Jesus was not capable of picking his own followers is unanswered.  And one wonders if this seemingly obtuse lot, so often portrayed as mere stooges, was the best the Father could muster -- but that is perhaps another point.  The number of disciples is not specified in this gospel and only a few of the traditional 12 apostles are mentioned here by name.  Those referred to are doubtless the followers who regularly traveled with him and were present at the Last Supper (during which the traitorous disciple Judas Iscariot made his mysterious exit).

3.  Jesus' major obsession, referred to here several times, is his insistence in the belief that he was sent by God.  Obviously, if this is accepted as fact, then everything Jesus says is true and everything he does is right.  Although it seems to have been a tough sale at times, the disciples have been induced (or is it conned) into believing that this is the case and, therefore, are to be sanctified for their faith (or gullibility).

4.  One of Jesus' tasks given to him by the Father was to convert and keep faithful the disciples that were chosen for him.  He was successful in doing so except in the case of the unfaithful disciple Judas -- but he didn't count, because, per Scriptural prophecy, there had to be one follower who would betray the Messiah.  The presence of the Betrayer seems to be a necessary element in the Passion drama -- and is so in similar myths.

5.  The prayer is vague and contradictory on several points.  The annoyingly repetitive declaration of everybody being "in" everyone else is ambiguous.   It is already established that Jesus was a part of God and existed before the creation of the world, but the disciples are wholly men and not gods.  How can they aspire to be equal to God?  Yet, Jesus asserts that he is "in" them.  What that means is an open question, but it is typical of the sound-good, but basically meaningless jargon commonly employed in most religious and philosophical discourse.  (Maybe it means simply that everyone is on the same page.)  Also, there is some confusion as to whether the disciples are of the world or not and what the glory so often spoken of is.  (The glory may be Jesus' transfiguration and ascent to Heaven after his crucifixion, but, at times, it seems to mean something other than that.)

6.  Jesus suggests that he is sacrificing himself, allowing himself to be crucified, in order to sanctify his disciples, whatever that may mean.  This is at odds with conventional Christian doctrine that contends that Jesus died for the atonement of mankind's sins.

7.  Jesus declares that the world does not know the God that created it.  The deity has apparently done a poor job of promoting himself.  And Jesus' coming to earth has only managed to inform a dozen or so people about him.  Yet, that seems to be hailed as a great success.  (Having said that, it must be commented that after the death and martyrdom of Jesus, evangelizing will pick up considerably.)

8.  Jesus describes his Father, God, as being righteous.  The term seems superfluous.  How can he fail to be righteous, since it is he who apparently determines what is right and what is wrong, and his actions and character define what must be regarded as “righteous”?