We are truly blessed that John was able to recall so much of this conversation from Jesus’ final hours with His disciples. He also recorded the audible prayer Jesus uttered in their company that night. It was important that they hear the words and how He addressed His Father. It was a High Priestly prayer offered very near the Temple grounds, yet from outside them.
None of what He says is new, but given how the disciples were still operating in their fleshly minds without the Holy Spirit, the repetition would serve the purpose of drumming into their minds the way Jesus looked upon this whole affair. It was a paradox: Both the suffering of the Cross and His Ascension to the Father were identified as His glory. And both are the glory of the Father.
Then Jesus speaks a lot about gifts. The true name of the Father was His gift to the disciples. The disciples themselves were gifts from the Father to His Son. These men had gained the awareness of all the gifts of truth the Father gave the Son, who in turn gave them to the disciples. Now, they truly believed that Jesus was the Messiah. Jesus notes that those who truly embrace Him should have special treatment from the Father. All of this was wrapped up in the glory of the Father, the greatest gift He ever gave, for it held the power of making everyone united in the purpose of living.
Jesus was about to end living on this earth. The only one of the Twelve He lost in the process was the one prophesied to betray Him. The survivors would bear His joy at the memory of this prayer. This joy and teaching had lifted them from their conformity with the world. Now they were almost like Jesus in belonging to a different realm entirely. And it was not His intent to take them out of the world, but that they should learn how to stay out of Satan’s grip over this world.
They were sent back into the world to liberate others by the same joy and teaching. Jesus was now committing Himself wholly to the task ahead, so that the truth would breathe a new life into their dead fleshly bodies.
Of course, this prayer also covered those who would eventually come to the same truth through the disciples’ message. It was that same premise: The glory and love and joy of the Creator are what hold His people together. That glory is carried into this world by the loving sacrificial commitment they shared with Christ on His way to the Cross.
Some day, they would all face death, and Jesus prayed they would all gather with Him in the afterlife. There, they would see His glory face to face, the same glory that would carry them through life and death. Glorious love was the identity of the Father and Son and His entire Kingdom. The world never knew that joy and love and glory. Yet, it should be obvious that Jesus came into this world with it, and would leave it where they could find it, in their own hearts.
Finally, He prayed that they could in no wise forget any of this, even as He faced the Cross.
