After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you,  since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.  And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.  I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do.  So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.  "I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.  Now they know that everything you have given me is from you;  for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.  I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours.  All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been 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, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.  While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled.  But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things 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 do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.  I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one.  They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.  Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.  As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.  And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.  "I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word,  that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one,  I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.  Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.  "Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me.  I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."

Jesus prays for his disciples.  Can we doubt that his prayer is heard eternally, for all ages, by the Father and answered on our behalf?

“You have given your Son authority over all people” (v 2a)

The Son has authority over us.  Yet we have a part to play.  We must submit to his will.  Paradoxically, our greatest freedom and joy come when we submit completely to him.  “Take my yolk upon your shoulders and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”  He tells us how to find what we most crave.

“to give eternal life to all whom you have given him” (v 2b)

The Father has given us to the Son.  “They were yours and you gave them to me” (v 6)  He also gave the Son the authority to give us eternal life.

“And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (v 3)

What is heaven?  Knowing God.  And all love, peace and joy ushers forth endlessly and in infinite variety from this knowledge.  “I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves.  I have given them your word.” (v 13,14)  Jesus says “in the world,” meaning, simply, spoken with his own human lips while walking among us.  He spoke his words to us so that we could have the very joy of Christ himself within us – in its fullness – if we but listen to him and obey him.  That is how I can boldly promise that anyone who devotes their life to constant praying with the scriptures will find their lives utterly transformed – Christ said so.  “We declare to you what we have touched with our hands and heard with our ears – the word of life.  Revealed so that we could see it and declare to you what we’ve heard, so that our joy may be complete.” (1 John 1.1-4)

“Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” (v 17)

To sanctify means to make holy, to free from sin, to set aside for special use.  Jesus is praying to the Father to sanctify us “in the truth.”  “What is truth?” asked Pilate (John 18.38)  His word is truth.  The word of God, the Word.  So if we submit so that Christ’s prayers to the Father may be fully answered, we will be made holy through the word, in Christ himself.  And Christ wasn’t just praying for the apostles, but for us too: “I ask on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word.” (v 20)

“I in them, you in me, that they may be one, completely one” (v 23)

The depth of communion that Christ wishes for us is beyond anything we can conceive.  He gives us his very flesh to eat in the Eucharist, a union so deep and profound that many cannot accept it and even among believers are those who will see it as symbol only (John 6).  A unity among believers is our destiny; a union so deep that the only adequate expression in the physical world is sexual union between man and wife, the furnace out of which new souls are born.

“Father, I desire that these believers be with me where I am, so they can see the glory you have given me.” (v 24)

Jesus longs to show us the glory the Father has given him!  When a lover receives a gift out of pure love from another, that person wants everyone to see and share in what they have received.  It is the most ancient story ever told, and its truths are from the foundation of time.  We were meant to be the Father’s gift to the Son from the beginning.  Because our love had to be pure and precious, it had to be freely offered – not instinctive, like the animals.  But we misused that free will, bringing the law of death into the world.  To overcome death the Son had to take on our form so he could die.  But as God he rose again.

And he is preparing his return.  The Bridegroom, the Lamb, is preparing the wedding feast for his Bride, the Church.  But he must slay the dragon forever and win his Bride:

“Then I saw heaven opened, and there was a white horse!  Its rider is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.  His eyes are like a flame of fire.  He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called The Word of God.” (Revelation 19.11-13)

At the end of the ages we will see the full manifestation of the Word of God, the Ancient One.  It has already begun.