John 17:9Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

To remove this wrong thought, He says, 'All Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine; and I am glorified in them' (Jn 17:10).

Do you see the equality of honor? When you hear, 'Thou hast given them to Me,' do not think they are now estranged from the Father's authority, for all that is Mine belongs to Him.

Likewise, when you hear, 'They were Thine,' do not think they were strangers to Me, for all that belongs to Him is Mine.

Thus 'Thou hast given' is said only by way of condescension. Everything the Father has belongs to the Son, and everything the Son has belongs to the Father.

This cannot be said even of the Son according to His humanity. Rather, it is said of Him because He is more than man.

Everyone knows that what belongs to the lesser belongs to the greater, but not conversely. Here the converse is also said, and this shows equality.

Christ showed the same thing elsewhere when, speaking about knowledge, He said, 'All that the Father has is Mine' (Jn 16:15).

The expressions 'Thou hast given Me' and all similar expressions show that He did not come as a stranger and draw them to Himself, but received them as His own.

Then He presents the reason and proof, saying, 'and I am glorified in them.' This means either that I have authority over them, or that they will glorify Me, believing in Thee and in Me and glorifying both equally.

If He were not glorified in them equally, then what belongs to the Father would no longer belong to Him. No one is glorified by that over which he has no authority.

At times they turned aside God's wrath for the transgressions of the Israelites and called down heavenly favor on those who were faint. At other times they prayed for them, blessed them, and offered the legal sacrifices in due order.

They also made offerings either for sins or in thanksgiving for the good things received from God.

But Christ, appearing in the last times above the types and legal images as High Priest and also Mediator, "intercedes" for us as man. As God, together with God the Father, He richly benefits us, distributing good things to the worthy.

Paul showed this to us very clearly in the words: "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Cor 1:2).

Therefore He who intercedes as man also distributes as God.

Being the holy High Priest, undefiled and sinless, He did not offer Himself for His own infirmities, as was customary for those who received the priesthood under the law (Heb 7:27).

On the contrary, He offered Himself once for the salvation of our souls and for our sins. He became an intercessor for us.

"And He is the propitiation for our sins," according to John's word, "and not for ours only, but also for the whole world" (1 Jn 2:2).

But perhaps someone will raise this objection against our reasoning. Does not what the disciple said contradict the Savior's words?

For in these words our Lord Jesus Christ seems clearly to have refused intercession for the whole world, while wise John said the very opposite.

He asserts that the Savior must be intercessor and propitiation not only for our sins, but also for the whole world.

It is not hard to state how this objection should be resolved, or how the disciple will be shown to testify in agreement with the Lord's saying.

Blessed John was a Jew and of the Jews. So that no one might think the Lord is intercessor before the Father only for the Israelites and not for the other nations scattered through all the earth, he considers it necessary to speak this way.

Those nations were also going to be glorified by faith in Him and soon called to the knowledge of salvation through Christ.

Therefore he says that the Lord is propitiation not only for the descendants of Israel, but for the whole world. This means those who would be called from every nation and tribe through faith to justification and sanctification.

But our Lord Jesus Christ separated the true believers from those of an opposite disposition, who had resolved to provoke Him by such stubborn disobedience.

He separated them from the most worthy hearers of His divine words, who had already bowed the neck of their heart and, as it were, put on the yoke of service to God.

He said that He should pray for these alone. For those whose mediator and high priest He is, He deemed it right that they alone should receive the benefits of His intercession.

Of them He says that although they have been given to Him, they also belong to the Father. For there is no other way to kinship with God except through the Son.

He Himself will teach you this in the words: "No one comes to the Father except through Me" (Jn 14:6).

Notice how the Father, by giving to His Son those of whom He speaks, acquired them for Himself. Understanding this, the greatest expert in the Sacred Scriptures speaks beautifully.

"God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself" (2 Cor 5:19). The world is reconciled to God because Christ is the Mediator, receiving those who come through faith and bringing them through Himself to the Father.

Therefore the prophet Isaiah had already earlier urged us to choose peace with God in Christ, in the words: "Let us make peace with Him; let those who come make peace" (Is 27:5-6).

Let us remove from our soul what estranges us from love for Christ. I mean defilement, inclination to sin, readiness for worldly pleasure, and, besides these, the mother and nurse of every evil: error contrary to nature.

Then we shall become Christ's own and His friends. We shall make peace with God and be united to the Father Himself through the Son.

For we have received within ourselves the Word begotten of Him, and in the Spirit we cry, "Abba, Father!" (Rom 8:15).

From this it becomes sufficiently clear how all that belongs to the Father belongs to the Only-begotten Son. It belongs to Him because He is God and, being begotten of the Father, is equal to the Father. It is not His in the way said to the elder of the two sons: "Thou art always with me, and all that is mine is thine" (Lk 15:31).

That latter saying concerns all created things beneath the holy rational creation, which are in some manner subject to the Church. In that one universal Church are understood the two sons, the elder and the younger, together with all the holy Angels. To them we shall be equal in the Kingdom of Christ and of God (cf. Mt 22:30).

Here, however, it is said: "And all Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine." This refers to the rational creation itself, which is subject to no one except God. All creatures beneath it are subject to it.

This creation would belong to God the Father and not also to the Son, if the Son were not equal to the Father. Surely this creation was meant when He said: "I pray not for the world, but for those whom Thou hast given Me, for they are Thine. And all Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine."

It is inadmissible that the saints, of whom this was said, should belong to anyone except Him by whom they were created and sanctified. Therefore all that belongs to them necessarily belongs to Him to whom they themselves belong. When they belong both to the Father and to the Son, they show the equality of Those to whom they equally belong.

As for what He said concerning the Holy Spirit, "All that the Father has is Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you" (Jn 16:15), He spoke of those things which belong to the Godhead of the Father. In these He Himself is equal to the Father, possessing all that the Father has.

For the Holy Spirit will not take from the creation subject to the Father and the Son that of which it is said, "He will take of Mine." He will take from the Father, from whom the Spirit proceeds and from whom the Son is begotten.

First, this prayer especially concerns His disciples, and He prays for them alone because they have a greater need than others for God's grace and power for the great, worldwide work of Gospel preaching.

For this reason He said, 'I do not pray for the world,' as if He were saying, 'At other times I have prayed for the whole world, and afterward I shall pray; but now I pray for these disciples of Mine alone, not for the world.'

That He prayed particularly for the Apostles alone is confirmed by the very words of Jesus Christ. After first praying for them, He then added: 'I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in Me through their word' (Jn 17:20).

Second, the name 'world' is often taken to mean impious men who never wish to repent, but always serve the devil. Thus He says, 'The prince of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me' (Jn 14:1).

It is concerning this world, or such desperate and unrepentant evildoers, that He said, 'I do not pray.' Of these the prophet testifies: 'They are estranged from the womb; they go astray from the belly, speaking lies. Their wrath is like that of a serpent, like the deaf asp that stops its ears, which will not hear the voice of charmers' (Ps 57:4-5).

After the Savior has spoken of those 'whom Thou hast given Me,' and that they are Thine, He at once gives the reason. He speaks not as man, but as God.

Foreseeing all this, Jesus knew that victory would not come easily to His disciples. Without special support from above, they could not even emerge victorious from the struggle that lay before them.

Therefore, after giving them all His last farewell instructions, He turns with supplication to His Father. He asks Him to preserve their faith from every temptation and wavering.

He asks that He sanctify them by His truth, and that, after they have completed their earthly struggle, He deem them worthy to be where He Himself, Christ, will be.

He prays that not only they, but all who believe through their word, may be united by self-sacrificing love for one another, and may remain in constant union with Him, Jesus Christ, and with the Father who sent Him.

'Father, forgive them,' He prayed even for those crucifying Him, who in this case represented the world hostile to Him and to God. Yet the basis of His prayer was not what it is here in the prayer for the disciples.

Here the basis is that they understood, accepted, and believed. There the basis is that they do not know what they are doing (Lk 23:34).

Later in this same High-Priestly Prayer, the words 'that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me' (Jn 17:21) contain a prayer for the world. Yet there again the basis is different from here, in the prayer for the disciples.

Before expressing the very subject of the prayer for the disciples, that is, what He asks for them, the Lord further indicates why He prays especially for them and not for the whole world.

First: Thou hast given them to Me; compare Jn 17:6 and parallels. Canst Thou then fail to take them under Thy special protection and care?

Second: although Thou hast given them to Me, nevertheless they are Thine, because everything with Thee and Me is one and common.

This excludes, of course, the special personal properties of the Father and the Son: the Father's unbegottenness, the Son's begottenness, and the Holy Spirit's procession from the Father.

What I have received from Thee, I received only in order to lead it back again to Thee (Jn 14:6; compare 1 Cor 15:24 and following).

They have been given to Him by the heavenly Father Himself. This means, as we have already seen (Jn 17:6), that His disciples are loved by the heavenly Father and constitute His chosen flock.

Having said that He prays for the disciples, He recalls the high moral qualities with which they are adorned, according to His testimony (Jn 17:7-8).

The world, in the eyes of God's righteousness and in the eyes of heavenly Love, is not what Christ's chosen ones are. Christ Jesus, according to the Apostle's word, is 'the Savior of all men, especially of the faithful' (1 Tim 4:10).

Could those who were to serve as the instrument of the world's own salvation, the heralds of Christ, fail to be the object of the special care of Christ Jesus, the Chief Shepherd?

So, my friends, do not forget that whatever priests and bishops may be like, as apostolic successors and shepherds of the Church, they are under the special protection of the Lord Jesus.

The intercession of the Lord Jesus before the Father serves as a faithful pledge of help prepared for them in the labors and sorrows of their ministry.

The Son of God, as Son of Man bringing righteousness to the earth, calls to Himself all who thirst for righteousness. Those who come to Him are His possession, and for them He prays to the Father, saying, 'I pray for those whom Thou hast given Me, for they are Thine.'

'Thine' here signifies the passage of mortal creatures into the infinite life of God. The chosen, by becoming the property of God the Son who appeared on earth as Son of Man, become partakers of His Godhead, for His sake and through Him.

Therefore, from the finite earthly life which the God-man took upon Himself, they pass, led by Him, to the life of God.

'All Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine; and I am glorified in them,' says the Lord. He reveals to the disciples that those who belong to God the Father also belong to Him, the Son of God.

Those who belong to Him also belong to the Father, according to the unity of the divine essence; compare Chrysostom, Homily on John 81, part 2.

By uniting the glory of God the Father with the glory of God the Son, who manifests God in the form of the God-man, the Lord also indicates how this glory will be spread on earth by His disciples, the 'witnesses of the Lord' (Jn 15:27).

'And I am glorified in them.' By the power of the Holy Spirit (Jn 15:26), they are made bearers and spreaders of the Lord's glory.

This glory is transmitted by them to the Christian churches founded by them. The churches themselves, sanctified by the Lord's presence, 'I am with you always, to the end of the age,' and by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, are the Lord's glory.

As the Apostle says to the Thessalonian church: 'We exhorted you to walk worthy of God, who calls you into His own kingdom and glory' (2 Thess 2:12).