There is a moment, tucked between the Last Supper and the garden of Gethsemane, that most readers move past too quickly.
Jesus knows exactly what's coming. The betrayal. The arrest. The trial. The cross. And in that final window before it all begins, He doesn't spend His remaining freedom in strategy or fear. He prays. Out loud, in front of His disciples, in what has come to be known as His High Priestly Prayer.
And remarkably, near the end of that prayer, Jesus makes something explicit that changes how we should read the entire chapter:
"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message." — John 17:20
That's you. That's every believer who would come to faith through the testimony passed down across two thousand years. Jesus wasn't only praying for the eleven men in the room. He was praying, specifically and intentionally, for those who hadn't been born yet, including whoever is reading this right now.
So what did He actually ask for?
He Prayed for Your Glimpse of His Glory
The prayer opens with Jesus asking the Father to glorify Him not out of vanity, but because His glorification through the cross and resurrection was the very means by which salvation would come to everyone who would ever believe.
"Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you." — John 17:1
This matters more than it first appears. Jesus wasn't avoiding the cross or asking to be spared from it. He was asking that what was about to happen - the suffering, the death, the resurrection - would accomplish exactly what it was meant to: eternal life for everyone the Father had given Him.
"Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." — John 17:3
Notice how Jesus defines eternal life here not primarily as a future destination, but as a present relationship. Knowing God. That's what Jesus was praying into existence for you, hours before He would make it possible through His own death.
He Prayed for Your Protection
A significant portion of this prayer is dedicated to protection, with Jesus asking the Father to guard His followers in a world that would often oppose them.
"Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one." — John 17:11
Jesus knew what was coming for His followers: opposition, persecution, the pressure of living faithfully in a world hostile to the gospel. He didn't pray that His followers would be removed from that world. He prayed something more specific:
"My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one." — John 17:15
This is a crucial distinction. Jesus doesn't ask for an easy life free of difficulty. He asks for protection within difficulty: a sustaining, guarding presence that would carry believers through hardship rather than exempt them from it entirely. If you have ever wondered whether God is watching over you in a hard season, this verse answers directly: this was one of the specific things Jesus asked for on your behalf, before the cross even happened.
He Prayed for Your Unity
Twice in this prayer, Jesus asks for something that might surprise you: unity among believers, modeled after the unity within the Trinity itself.
"That all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me." — John 17:21
This is a staggering request. Jesus ties the credibility of the gospel itself to the unity of His followers. He's not asking for uniformity of opinion on every minor issue; He's asking for a deep, relational oneness that mirrors the love between Father and Son, a unity strong enough that the watching world would take notice and be drawn toward belief because of it.
This is worth sitting with honestly. Division among believers isn't just an internal inconvenience according to Jesus's own prayer; it actively works against the testimony He was praying for you to be part of.
He Prayed for Your Sanctification
Jesus also prayed specifically that His followers would be set apart, made holy, through the truth of God's word.
"Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth." — John 17:17
Sanctification isn't primarily about behavior modification through effort. It's about being progressively shaped by truth, Scripture doing its slow, transforming work in a life increasingly submitted to it. Jesus prayed that this process would happen in you specifically, through the same word that has been passed down since the apostles first proclaimed it.
He Prayed for Your Presence With Him Forever
Perhaps the most tender request in the entire prayer comes near the end:
"Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me." — John 17:24
Jesus wasn't only praying for your life here and now. He was praying for your eternity, that you would ultimately be with Him, seeing His glory fully, forever. This is a prayer that reaches past the cross, past history, past your own lifetime, into eternity itself. And it was prayed specifically with you in mind.
He Prayed for Your Experience of His Love
The prayer closes with a statement that reframes everything that came before it:
"I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them." — John 17:26
The end goal of this entire prayer wasn't merely protection, unity, or sanctification as ends in themselves. It was love the same love the Father has for the Son - now living inside every believer this prayer includes. That's the deepest purpose behind everything Jesus asked for: that you would experience, personally and really, the same love that exists eternally within the Trinity itself.
Why This Changes How You Read the Chapter
It's easy to read John 17 as a historical record, a prayer Jesus once prayed for people who lived two thousand years ago. But verse 20 makes it personal in a way that's easy to miss on a casual read. This prayer includes you by name, even though your name hadn't been written yet when Jesus spoke the words.
Before the arrest. Before the trial. Before the weight of the cross, Jesus stopped and specifically prayed for your protection, your unity with other believers, your sanctification through truth, your eternal presence with Him, and your experience of the same love shared within the Trinity.
That prayer wasn't only spoken once and left in the past. Jesus, Scripture tells us, continues this same ministry even now:
"He always lives to intercede for them." — Hebrews 7:25
The prayer of John 17 wasn't a single historical event. It's a pattern of ongoing intercession that continues on your behalf even today.
A Prayer in Response
Lord Jesus, it's humbling to know that hours before the cross, you prayed specifically for me for my protection, my unity with other believers, my growth in truth, and my future with you.
Help me live in a way that reflects the unity you prayed for. Let your word continue to sanctify me. And let me rest in the love you asked the Father to place within me, a love that was always the point of everything you prayed.
Amen.
"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message." — John 17:20
Two thousand years later, that prayer was still being prayed for you.
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