Church Fathers Commentary John 17:9-13

"I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for those whom thou hast given me; for they are thine: and all things that are mine are thine, and thine are mine: and I am glorified in them. And I am no more in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep them in thy name which thou hast given me, that they may be one, even as we [are]. While I was with them, I kept them in thy name which thou hast given me: and I guarded them, and not one of them perished, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I come to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy made full in themselves." — John 17:9-13 (ASV)

St. John Chrysostom: Since the disciples were still sad despite all our Lord’s consolations, from now on He addresses the Father to show the love He had for them. He says, I pray for them. He not only gives them what is His own but also asks another on their behalf as a further proof of His love.

St. Augustine of Hippo: When He adds, I pray not for the world, by “the world” He means those who live according to the lust of the world and have not been chosen by grace out of the world, as were those for whom He prayed. He continues, but for them whom You have given Me. It was because the Father had given them to Him that they did not belong to the world. Yet the Father, in giving them to the Son, did not lose what He had given, for Jesus says, For they are Yours.

St. John Chrysostom: He often repeats the phrase You have given Me to impress upon the disciples that everything was according to the Father’s will. He did not come to rob another but to take what was His own. Then, to show that this power was not recently received from the Father, He adds, And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine.

It is as if He were saying, “Let no one, hearing Me say, those whom You have given Me, suppose that they are separated from the Father, for what is Mine is His. Nor, because I said, They are Yours, should you suppose that they are separate from Me, for whatever is His is also Mine.”

St. Augustine of Hippo: From this, it is clear that all things the Father has, the Only-Begotten Son also has. He has them in that He is God, born from the Father and equal to the Father. This is not meant in the same way the elder son in the parable was told, All that I have is yours. In that case, “all” meant all creatures below the holy rational creature. But here, it means the rational creature itself, which is subject only to God.

Since this rational creature belongs to God the Father, it could not at the same time belong to God the Son unless the Son were equal to the Father. For it is impossible that the saints, of whom this is said, should be the property of anyone except the One who created and sanctified them.

When Jesus says elsewhere in speaking of the Holy Spirit, All that the Father has is Mine, He means all things that pertain to the divinity of the Father. For He adds, He [the Holy Spirit] shall receive of Mine, and the Holy Spirit would not receive from a creature that was subject to the Father and the Son.

St. John Chrysostom: Then He gives proof of this, saying, I am glorified in them. If they glorify Me by believing in Me and in You, it is certain that I have power over them, for no one is glorified by those over whom he has no power.

St. Augustine of Hippo: He speaks of this as already done, meaning it was predestined and certain to happen. But is this the same glorifying of which He speaks earlier: And now, O Father, glorify Me with Your own Self? If His glory is with the Father, then what does it mean here, in them? Perhaps it means that this very glory—His glory with the Father—was made known to them, and through them to all who believe.

St. John Chrysostom: And now I am no more in the world. This means that although I no longer appear in the flesh, I am glorified by those who die for Me, as they would for the Father, and who preach Me, as they would the Father.

St. Augustine of Hippo: At the time He was speaking, both He and His disciples were still in the world. Yet we must not understand the phrase I am no more in the world metaphorically, as referring to His heart and affections, for could there ever have been a time when He loved the things of the world? It must mean, therefore, that He was about to depart. Do we not say every day, when someone is about to leave or die, “that person is gone”?

This interpretation is confirmed by what follows, for He adds, And now I come to You. He then commends to His Father those whom He was about to leave: Holy Father, keep through Your own name those whom You have given Me. As a man, He prays to God for His disciples, whom He received from God. But notice what follows: that they may be one, as We are.

He does not say, “that they may be one with Us,” but that they may be one, meaning one in their nature, just as We are one in Ours. For in that He was God and man in one person, He prayed as a man; but as God, He was one with Him to whom He prayed.

He does not say, “That I and they may be one,” though He could have said this in the sense that He is the head of the Church and the Church is His body—not one thing, but one person, the head and the body being one Christ. But He is showing something else: namely, that His divinity is consubstantial with the Father. He prays that His people may be one in a similar way.

They are to be one in Christ, not only by sharing the same nature (in which mortal man is made equal to the angels) but also by sharing the same will, agreeing completely in the same mind, and being melted into one Spirit by the fire of love. This is the meaning of that they may be one as We are: just as the Father and the Son are one not only by equality of substance but also in will, so His people—for whom the Son is Mediator—may be one not only by a union of nature but also by a union of love.

St. John Chrysostom: Again, He speaks as a man: While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name—that is, by Your help. He speaks with condescension to the minds of His disciples, who thought they were safer in His physical presence.

St. Augustine of Hippo: The Son, as a man, kept His disciples in the Father’s name while He was among them in human form. The Father, in turn, kept them in the Son’s name, in that He heard those who asked in the Son’s name. But we must not take this in a fleshly way, as if the Father and Son kept us in turns. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit guard us at the same time, but Scripture does not raise us up unless it first stoops down to us.

Let us understand, then, that when our Lord says this, He is distinguishing the persons, not dividing the divine nature. It is not as though the Son kept His disciples by His bodily presence, and the Father was waiting to take over upon His departure. Rather, both kept them by spiritual power. When the Son withdrew His bodily presence, He still shared with the Father in their spiritual keeping.

For when the Son, as a man, received them into His keeping, He did not take them from the Father’s keeping. And when the Father gave them into the Son’s keeping, it was to the Son as a man, who was at the same time God. Those that You gave Me I have kept, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition—that is, the betrayer of Christ, who was predestined to perdition—that the Scripture might be fulfilled (see Psalm 109).

St. John Chrysostom: Judas was indeed the only one who perished then, but there were many after. When Jesus says, None of them is lost, He means, “as far as I am concerned,” as He says more clearly elsewhere: I will in no wise cast out. But when people cast themselves out, I will not draw them to Myself by force. He continues, And now I come to You.

Someone might ask, “Can You not keep them?” He can. Why, then, does He say this? He explains: that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. He says this so that they may not be alarmed in their still-imperfect state.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Or we could understand it this way: the joy He speaks of is the same joy mentioned before, related to the prayer that they may be one, as We are one. This joy, spoken of and bestowed by Him, is to be fulfilled in them, which is why He spoke these words while in the world. This joy is the peace and happiness of the life to come.

He says He spoke these things “in the world,” even though He had just said, I am no more in the world. This is because, inasmuch as He had not yet departed, He was still here; and inasmuch as He was about to depart, He was, in a certain sense, already not here.