Having said all that needed to be said to the disciples, Jesus lifted up a prayer for them. They have yet to reach the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus will be handed over to his torturers. But the hour has come. It is now time for the Son of God to fulfill the promise made to the woman so long ago that the serpent would be crushed. The hinge upon which all of human history swings is about to be flung wide open as Jesus fulfills all righteousness upon the cross. This is a drama of cosmic significance.
The gospels record 21 prayers of Jesus. But the prayer recorded in John 17 is, by far, the longest recorded in any of the gospel accounts. It is a glorious mystery to read the words of God praying to God; the Son interceding before the Father. Little wonder why William Temple characterized this prayer as perhaps the most sacred text in the New Testament.
The entire prayer is something of a summation of the Gospel of John to this point. Its themes include Jesus’ obedience to his Father, the glorification of the Father through the death and exaltation of the Son, the revelation of God to the world and to his people through Jesus Christ, the choosing of the disciples from out of the world, the mission of the Gospel still to come as many others will be brought to faith in Christ, and the final destiny of believers to behold the glory of God and to share fellowship with the Father and the Son in heaven.