The Prayer Jesus Prayed for You

Before His arrest, Jesus lifts His eyes to heaven and prays — and John, unusually, gives us His exact words. He prays first for Himself, asking the Father to glorify Him with the glory He had before the world existed. Then He prays for the eleven disciples in front of Him: that the Father would keep them, protect them from the evil one, and sanctify them by truth. He states plainly what He’s already done for them — given them the Father’s word, guarded them while He was with them, lost none except the one destined for destruction. It’s an intimate, specific prayer for the specific people in the room with Him that night.

And then the prayer widens in a way that should stop you: “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word.” That’s not the eleven anymore. That’s everyone who would ever come to faith through their testimony, all the way down through two thousand years of handed-down witness — which means, if you believe in Jesus, this prayer was prayed specifically with you in mind, centuries before you existed. He prays for the unity of all believers, that the world would see it and believe. He prays that they would be with Him and behold His glory. And He closes with something almost startling in its intimacy: “that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” Not a lesser love, borrowed or diluted. The same love the Father has for the Son, given to you.