The big problem with praying in public is that you have two audiences. You have both the people present who hear what you say, and there is God the Father to whom our prayers should be primarily addressed. The problem usually comes when we are so taken up with impressing the people that our prayers do not engage with God at all. Jesus taught that it is far better to pray in private than for prayers to be used as a way to impress other people.

Ministers of course are expected to pray in public, and we have to endeavour to not allow the fact that other people are listening, or concern for what other people will think about our prayer to distract us from the fact that we are primarily speaking to God.

Yet there is an appropriate place for public prayer. It’s right that we do it, and its right because Jesus did it. Jesus at times prayed both to his father in heaven, but also so that people might hear what he said and be blessed and helped in their faith by what he prayed.

You find an instance in John 11. Jesus prays ‘Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said it for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you have sent me.’

Public prayer can be a means whereby those who listen can not only agree with requests, but can be built up in faith as they see prayers answered. Prayers of thanks and affirmation can also help those who hear to lean more of God’s goodness and grace and wisdom.

The prayer of Jesus that we have in John 17 is what William Temple calls the most sacred passage even in the four gospels- the record of the Lord’s prayer of self-dedication as it lived in the memory and imagination of his most intimate friend.

In the first five verses Jesus prays for himself. Martyn Lloyd-Jones calls these verses a great comprehensive prayer in which we see outlined and displayed in a sense the whole realm of Christian doctrine.

In verse 2 we learn God had granted Jesus authority. Not the authority to dominate or coerce people, simply the authority to offer people a wonderful gift. God granted Jesus the authority to offer eternal life to men and women.

Jesus defines for us eternal life. It is to know the only true God. Jesus can offer this gift because he is himself God. He has said ‘I and the Father am one’. He has said ‘He who has seen me has seen the father’. Eternal life is to be in relationship with God through his son Jesus Christ. Jesus has come and revealed God to mankind. His disciples have come to believe. He has told them to abide in him, to continue in relationship with him.

He has now completed the task that God had given him to do. People tended to clamour for more from Jesus. Some wanted more signs. Philip wanted to be able to see God. Today people are dissatisfied with what we have to offer, some want the glamorous or the spectacular, some want to be relieved of all their difficulties or responsibilities.

But Jesus has completed his task. He has done what could be done, he came as light into the world. He has revealed the truth of God and his love. He has given people the opportunity to believe and those who believe have received eternal life. His earthly ministry is completed.

Yet there is one thing still to do. He must face the cross. It is with that in mind that he makes his request to the Father. ‘Father, glorify your Son.’ That is the one request of his prayer, its in v1 and also repeated in v5.

What images come to your mind when you think of the word glory? Maybe the FA cup being held aloft. Maybe the Queen in her carriage at the state opening of parliament. Maybe the glitz and glamour of the Oscar award ceremony.

There would have been similar concepts of glory in Jesus day, the glorious Roman eagle. For the Jews there was the splendour of the temple. John was a believer and he now understood what real glory looked like. In the beginning of his gospel he says of Jesus ‘We beheld his glory’.

True glory has its source in God. Jesus had experienced glory way back in eternity, before the world was made. To an extent he had laid aside that glory and majesty when he came to earth. But now the time had come for his true glory to be revealed. When Jesus is crucified, that is his true glory.

On the cross his love, God’s love shines forth. Glory is usually linked with triumph. The cross was a triumph. The powers of selfishness and hatred had been conquered by love. Jesus had overcome the world. He prays that God will glorify him so that he may glorify God, not in being defeated by the power of hatred and death, but in obedience and love, laying down his life for his friends.

On the cross, Jesus is glorified; men and women are drawn to him in love and faith.

Then Jesus prays for his disciples. These eleven men were the ones who had been Jesus constant companions. It was to them that he had entrusted his teaching. If you want to demonstrate brute force, you can prove that to everyone. But you cannot prove the reality of love to everyone in the cynical world in which we live.

So Jesus had chosen these individuals to take into his confidence. He had built with them a relationship of trust. They had come to the point of knowing that he had come from God, and that he spoke with God’s authority. They had identified themselves with Jesus’ cause and they lived by his teachings.

They had had Jesus with them to guide and encourage them, but now he was going to leave them. They would be a vulnerable minority. Those who had rejected Jesus would reject them also.

Jesus prays for them, he prays to God on their behalf in their hearing so that they may have the full measure of his joy. Joy is so often to do with looking toward good things in the future. If the future seems completely bleak, there is little ground for joy. But if you know that good things are in store, then there are grounds for joy. Jesus prays this prayer in the presence of the disciples so that they will know something others don’t know, so that they will have grounds for joy.

Jesus prays that God will protect them from the evil one. John in his gospel is quite clear that behind human sin and hatred is the prince of this world, the evil one. Jesus prays that God will protect them by his name. There is power in the name of Jesus, a greater power than that of the evil one.

Jesus asks God not to take the disciples out of the world, but to keep them safe in the world, because he is giving them the task to spread the good news that he came to bring. Jesus was not asking for a protection that would prevent persecution, or even ensure their survival to old age, but a protection that would keep them safe in the love of God.

And Jesus asks also for something else for them. He asks that they may be one. In fact he asks the father to protect them so that they may be one. It is implicit there that he is asking for their protection from divisive arguments. Human beings are so prone to such things. The disciples were prone to arguments. The evil one gets at the church from within just as much as from without. Who is the greatest? Who wealds the power?

Jesus prays that God will sanctify them in the truth. Sanctify means to make good and pure and clean. God’s word is the truth. As God’s truth, the truth about Jesus takes hold of people, as they are drawn closer to Jesus they are drawn closer to each other. They are one in Christ. Jesus prays that this will be so for his disciples.

But then Jesus goes on to broaden the scope of his prayer. He goes on to pray for all who will believe through the message of the disciples. That includes you and me.

Notice there is no pleading with God that people will believe. Jesus knows, he is confident, that people will hear and respond in faith. If a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it will bear much fruit. Two thousand years later we see that Jesus confidence is well founded. Right across our world, millions believe. Millions will have gathered in worship this very day. And Christ prays for us.

Jesus prays that we may be one. The basis on which Jesus prays that we may be one is on the basis of us becoming one with him, and one with God, Christ dwelling in us.

Jesus also gives the reason why he prays for this. It is so that the world may believe that God sent him.

We don’t always do very well at our unity because we are not always as close to our Lord as we should or could be. But as we have reflected on Jesus words as he shared what was on his heart both with his heavenly father, and with his disciples, maybe something more of that sanctifying truth is taking root in our hearts. He has prayed that it will be so.

Amen.   

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