Conversation is the usual basis of relationship. The Upper Room Discourse that began with an acted parable (John 13:1-17) now ends with the Lord Jesus praying. The New Testament records that Jesus prays often and almost all are addressed to the Father: verses 1, 5, 21, and 24-″Father″; v. 11-″Holy Father″; v. 25-″Righteous Father″. This is not a communal prayer, but a prayer of God the Son to God the Father.

The theme here is glory, the word from which we get doxology. ″Glory″ appears more than 40 times in John. It means to magnify, elevate, and show forth the splendour and the true worth of God. Jesus asks the Father to glorify Him, that He may glorify the Father (v. 1). There is no rivalry or competition here between the Father and the Son.

The cross is the place where Jesus is glorified through His obedience; and the Father is glorified for His plan that the Son obeys. Jesus has authority to grant eternal life, which is to know God through His Son, to those whom the Father gave Him (vv. 2-3), and He has completed the work.

It is our greatest privilege to know God. We are God the Father's gift to the Son and the Son's gift to us is eternal life. Through faith in Christ, we can personally know the one true God and commune with Him (v. 3). All true prayer is directed to God the Father by a child of God, through the merits of the Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Jesus now prays that His pre-existent glory, which He had with the Father, and which has been veiled on earth by His humanity, may be returned to Him (v. 5), showing that He is really part of the triune and one true God.

Through the life, death, and resurrection of the Son, we by grace have been adopted into the family of the one true God. We can pray confidently to the glorious Father, in the name of His glorious Son. As God's children, our prayerful concern is His glory. We ought not seek self-glorification and ambitious self-promotion in any way; but live for the glory of the One who has done everything on our behalf. We are not to be ″parachute″ pray-ers (in an emergency only); nor ought we to be ″pretend″ pray-ers (praying only as a superstitious rite).