Jesus continues praying aloud for His disciples as they make their way past the Temple plaza.
As Jesus prepares to return to His Father’s throne, He asks that His Father watch over them as they continue His ministry. They are a part of His divine inheritance and Hes asks that they remain united in the Spirit. Jesus kept guard over them during His ministry and managed to preserve all but Judas, just as was prophesied in the Scriptures. He notes that He prays out loud so that they will remember all of this later, and their joy will be completely filled up.
Jesus delivered to them the Word of divine revelation. This makes them otherworldly, and the world hates them, just as it hated Him. But instead of taking them Home to safety right away, Jesus prays that the Father would keep them from slipping back into the wickedness of the world. They don’t belong to the world any more than Jesus did.
Rather, let them be purified by divine revelation as they live in this fallen world. The Father sent Jesus into the world to be a living truth; now He sends them to the same work. For their sake, He was committing Himself fully to that same truth, at the cost of His life, so that they would be able to hold the same commitment.
And it’s not just these men alone, but Jesus prayed for those who would be moved by their preaching to also commit to the Son. Let them all commune in the same Holy Spirit shared by the Father and the Son. He wanted the same divine glory He bore to shine through them, as well. This would be the one thing that would hold them all together. Their spiritual unity would be the full realization of the divine message, the signal proof that they belonged to Jesus, just as Jesus belonged to the Father. This is how divine favor works.
And when their work is done, Jesus wanted the Father to bring them Home to join Him in Heaven. Let them see that glory face to face, that which stood before Creation. The world never really knew its Creator, but Jesus knew Him, and these disciples were convinced that Jesus had been sent by the Father. Jesus had manifested the Father’s authority to them, and in the coming hours would continue to show that authority. This would confirm everything they could possibly know about divine truth, so that the Father’s favor for the Son would come to life in their souls.
