Jesus served humanity with his Gospel and works; healing the lame, feeding the hungry, opening the eyes of the blind, and raising the dead. His love was a revelation of God’s glory amidst hatred and death.
At the start of his ministry, multitudes flocked to him. When the Jewish religious Council (made up of bigots and hypocrites) saw that the foundations of their religion and legalism was quaking, they threatened Jesus and his followers with banning and death. The enthusiasm of the crowds waned and they deserted him. Whereupon Christ and some of his loyal followers were persecuted, but he continued to love everyone.
In the end the Council’s propaganda took in one of the twelve; he prepared to betray his Master, whereas Jesus was preparing his own during the Covenant supper for their vocation as apostles. In his farewell he announced to them his oneness with the Father, and how the Comforting Spirit would establish them in the fellowship of divine love, despite the coming persecution.
But the disciples failed to grasp their Lord’s intent, because the Holy Spirit was not yet poured out into their souls. So Jesus went directly to his Father, and committed himself and his followers into the Father’s hands in this High Priestly prayer. He also made mention of those who would believe in him by the witness of those apostles.
Christ’s intercessory prayer, recorded in Chapter 17, gives us a unique insight into the manner in which the Son of God conversed with his Father, and the kind of love between the Persons of the Holy Trinity. The Spirit of Prayer is prominent here. Whoever delves deeply into this chapter, enters into God’s Temple where worship and intercession pervade.

Christ announced to his disciples that he was one with the Father. He is in the Father, and the Father in him. Whoever sees him has seen the Father. But the disciples were unable to grasp this striking revelation. Their minds boggled as they tried to grasp the presence of the divine in flesh. Jesus entrusted his weak and ignorant disciples to his Father’s care, to illumine and keep them in the fellowship of divine and holy love.
By lifting his eyes to heaven, Jesus may have surprised the disciples. How does he pray to a Father in heaven, and say at the same time that he exists in the Father and the Father in him? These unintelligible gestures baffled their minds. We know that both ideas are valid: The perfect union between Father and Son, as well as the autonomy of each Person. God is mightier than our minds, and the Holy Spirit teaches us to treat both concepts as valid. Ask God to enlighten you, if this awareness is difficult. For no one can fully grasp Father and Son, except by means of the Holy Spirit.
In this prayer Jesus called God, Father. For God is not just a holy Lord, and a severe Judge, but his merciful love covers all His other qualities. God is Himself holy Love and merciful Truth. This new concept of God as a loving Father arose when Jesus was born of the Holy Spirit a Son of God. He lived eternally with God, but became flesh to redeem us as children for the Holy One. This revelation of the name Father for God is the essence of the message presented by Jesus to the world. By this inspired truth, Jesus freed us from the fear of judgment, since the Judge is our Father, and the guarantor is our Brother, who paid our debts. If you absorb the name of Father in many of Jesus’ pronouncements into your soul and live in accord with that knowledge, you have grasped the Gospel message.
Christ acknowledged before his Father that the world’s most vital hour had struck, the hour of reconciliation between God and Man. Mankind, the angels, religions and philosophies had unknowingly awaited these hours. It had come. Christ had lifted the guilt of the world as God’s Lamb. He had been ready to die alone in the flame of God’s wrath. In these decisive moments the betrayer was approaching on the road with a company of temple police to arrest God’s Son, the meek and strong Man who was ready to die with no protection.