Father, the Hour Has Come
17 1 When Jesus had said these things, he lifted his eyes to heaven and said: "Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you, a a v1 John 17 is Jesus's longest recorded prayer to the Father — spoken the night before the cross, opening his heart to the One he calls Father, Holy Father, and righteous Father. 2 since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true Father, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on the earth, having finished the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory I had with you before the world existed.
6 I have revealed your name to the people you gave me out of the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me is from you, 8 for I have given them the words you gave me, and they received them and truly knew that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All that is mine is yours, and what is yours is mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the son of destruction, so that the Scripture might be fulfilled. b b v12 "The son of destruction" is a title for Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed Jesus. 13 But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my complete joy in them. 14 I have given them your word, and the world hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I sanctify myself, that they too may be sanctified in truth.
20 I am not praying for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. 22 The glory you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are one 23 —I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to complete unity, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 24 Father, I desire that those you have given me may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me, because you loved me before the world was made. 25 Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you sent me. 26 I have made your name known to them, and I will continue to make it known, so that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them.