June 5 - John 17:1-13 - Christ's intercession for us

IN THOSE DAYS, Jesus lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, so that the Son may glorify You, since You have given Him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom You have given Him. And this is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom You have sent. I have glorified You on earth by accomplishing the work that You gave Me to do. So now, Father, glorify Me with Yourself with the glory I had with You before the world existed. I have revealed Your Name to those whom You gave Me from the world. They were Yours, and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they know that everything You have given Me is from You. The words that You gave to Me, I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from You. And they have believed that You sent Me. I pray for them, I do not pray for the world, but for those whom You gave Me, because they are Yours. All Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, protect them in Your Name – the Name that You have given Me, so that they may be one, as We are one. While I was with them, I protected them in Your Name that You have given Me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost, except the son of destruction, so that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to You, and I speak these things in the world, so that they may have My joy made complete in themselves.”

Saint Gregory the Theologian comments on Christ's intercessory prayer,

"He always lives to make intercession for us" (Hebrews 7:25). How beautiful and mystical and kind! For to intercede is to plead for us by reason of His editorship, just as the Spirit also is said to make intercession for us. "For there is one God, there is also one mediator between God and mankind, the Man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5). He still pleads even now as man for my salvation, for He continues to wear the body which He assumed, until He will deify me by the power of His incarnation. Thus, too, we have an advocate, Jesus Christ, not indeed prostrating Himself for us before the Father, but by what He suffered as man, He as the Word and the Counselor persuades Him to be patient. I think this is the meaning of His advocacy.