Interpretation

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John 17
Peden Emile Harley
Interpretation 2014 68: 72
DOI: 10.1177/0020964313505974
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INT66310.1177/0020964312444250Major ReviewsInterpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology

Between Text and Sermon

John 17

Interpretation: A Journal of
Bible and Theology
2014, Vol 68(1) 7274
The Author(s) 2013
Reprints and permissions:
sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0020964313505974
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Peden Emile Harley

Winter Park Presbyterian Church, Wilmington, North Carolina

Email: emile.harley@gmail.com

Christ Prays for Us

Who is in a position to condemn?
Only Christ,
and Christ died for us,
Christ rose for us,
Christ reigns in power for us,
Christ prays for us. (Rom 8:34, Book of Common Worship, Westminster John Knox, 1993, 56)

Each week in the church of my youth, the associate pastor spoke these words from Romans as part
of the assurance of pardon following the confession. To a boy who had just pondered his transgressions, the idea that the risen Christ cared enough about us as individuals and as a community to
pray for us was indeed good news. In the midst of strife and stress, the reminder that Christ prays
for us is a treasure. It is a sign of Christs powerful love, which dwells with us and seeks us.
The 17th chapter of the Gospel of John gives us opportunity to hear Jesus pray for his disciples,
as well as for us, his disciples to come (John 17:20). The prayer comes at the conclusion of Jesus
long talk with his disciples in John 1316. The themes raised in the prayer echo those of the
preceding chapters. Jesus has spoken of the persecution and the hatred of the world that the disciples will face. He prays that God protect them: I am no longer in the world, but they are in the
world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so
that they may be one, as we are one (17:11). Having sent the disciples into the world, Jesus prays
that they be sanctified in truth (17:19).
Perhaps most importantly for the church, Jesus prays, The glory that you have given me I have
given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become
completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you
have loved me (17:2223). Jesus goes on to pray, I made your name known to them, and I will make
it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them (17:26).
This prayer echoes Jesus words, I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.
Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are

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my disciples, if you have love for one another (13:3435). Jesus commands us to love one another.
He prays that we might be loved by God and united with God and with one another. I suggest that
in praying for his disciples, Jesus models how we are to pray for one another.
A church following the Revised Common Lectionary will hear this prayer on the Seventh Sunday
of Easter. Still propelled by the good news that Christ is risen but also anticipating Pentecost, John
17 invites us to reflect upon how Christs commandment to love one another may be lived out in
the church. Through his prayer, we are given opportunity to hear of Christs abundant love for us.
A pastor preparing a sermon could reflect upon how prayers for one another, spoken and heard, are
a way in which the church lives out Christs calling to unity and love with each other and with God.
Although only a portion of the prayer is assigned each year in the lectionary (vv. 2026 in Year C),
a church might benefit from hearing the entire passage as a prayer. A liturgist could read the prayer
with the vocal cadence of one praying extemporaneously, giving congregants opportunity to hear
these words from Johns Gospel as a prayer of Jesus for them.

An Unexpected Blessing
Countless times as a student chaplain, I walked into a hospital room to greet a stranger, listen to
them, and offer to say a prayer. One time was different. I knocked on the door of the semi-private
hospital room and spent time with one patient before coming to the other. He was an older gentleman, and he was quite hard of hearing. Through a shouted conversation, I conveyed that I was a
student chaplain and training to serve as a pastor. He told me that he was the Pastor Emeritus of a
Baptist congregation. With limited ability to communicate with each other, I offered to say a prayer
with him as I would with any patient. In a moment of unexpected grace, he began to pray for me
instead. It was a prayer of blessing. He prayed for my current ministry, the training I would undergo,
and for the congregations that I would serve. I do not remember his words, but I do recall the feeling
that I had encountered an Isaac and had received a blessing that I did not deserve but greatly
needed.
How many people within our church communities have had the experience of hearing another
person or group of people pray for them in the last year? Certainly those who have been hospitalized
or faced a tragedy have heard such a prayer as their church family has sought to respond. For those
who have not faced a crisis, how many have heard such a prayer? What is at stake for the church
when we do not pray for others in such a way?

A Community of Love Bound Together By Prayer

In our relationships with spouses, children, family, and friends, expressions of love in words and
actions strengthen and reassure us in the midst of the challenges of life. Simple words and gestures
remind us that we are loved. Those gestures are not the love itself, but they are symptomatic of that
love. The love that we cannot see is made known to us by words we can hear, actions we can see,
and touch we can feel.

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Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology 68(1)

Prayer orients us toward God and toward each other. In order to pray for another, one must take
the time to listen and to understand what that person needs, what challenges they face, and what
joys they celebrate. Such knowledge may deepen relationships between people, and it may give
sisters and brothers in Christ insight into how helping hands could be given to face particular
challenges.
What role does prayer play in churches in conflict? Does the practice of prayer shape how we
disagree? Will we find it easy to break away from the person who has listened to our fears and
hopes and dreams in order to raise a voice of blessing over us?
Words spoken in prayer are not magic. A spoken prayer will not on its own forever unite two
people, but I suggest that the practice of prayer is one significant way in which a community lives
out the unity and love for which Jesus prays. There are other important ways that we might express
that unity and love, but prayer may be a starting place. Prayer may draw out our empathy for
another; it may invite Gods grace into our relationships with each other. We encounter grace and
express love both in the act of praying for another and in the experience of hearing another praying
for ourselves.
Through the practice and teachings of Jesus, the church is called to be a community bound
together in love as it worships God. The essential question is how shall we live out that calling?
The reading of John 17 is an opportunity for the preacher to invite and challenge the church to
become a community of prayer by embracing the gift of prayer. It is an invitation to move from a
place where the pastor and a few other leaders offer most of the prayers, and move toward a community where everyone prays for each other. Such prayers will be one way in which the church
lives out its calling to be a community united with each other in Gods love.

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