John 17
After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
"Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all peoples that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began."
"I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world and I am coming to you. 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. While I was with them I protected them and kept them safe by the name that you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture might be fulfilled."
"I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of this world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified."
"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all 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. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."
"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 because you loved me before the creation of the world. Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 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."
In John 17 we have the apostle John's fifth and final chapter concerning The Last Supper.
In Chapter 13, where John's account of The Last Supper begins, Christ washes the apostles' feet and explains to them, particularly Simon Peter, the necessity and importance of this action and ongoing spirit of service that it signifies.
In Chapter 14, Christ claims that "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me". He stresses the oneness of the Christ the Son and God the Father, saying that "anyone who has seen the Father has seen me". Christ also promises to send another to be with the disciples in his place, a Counselor who will be with them forever - the Spirit of Truth.
Following in Chapter 15, Christ stresses the reality of his oneness with the disciples and so in turn, their oneness with God. Christ urges the disciples to remain in Him, to remain in his love, and to love one another as he loves and has loved them. He also reminds them of the likelihood that the world will hate them just as, and because, it first hated Him.
And in Chapter 16, Christ reminds the apostles of the fact that the Spirit of Truth will be with them when he is gone, and he elaborates upon the role that the Spirit will play in the their lives and in the building of God's kingdom. Christ also comforts the apostles in regards to his pending absence from them, reassuring them that their grief will turn to joy.
And at last the apostles understand.
In much the same way as a 'Conclusion' weaves together and summarizes the preceding chapters that together compose a thesis or academic article, so John 17 summarizes and confirms Christ's purpose, his mandate if you will, in all its unfathomable redeeming essence.
As very quickly becomes obvious, John 17 is a prayer of intercession; Christ intercedes on his own behalf, on behalf of the apostles and on behalf of future believers. I think it is very important to note the following points:
" Christ prays this intercessory pray in the presence of those for whom he is interceding; i.e. the apostles
" Christ repeats himself, particularly in regards to his oneness with the Father and the apostles oneness with him, almost to the point where reading the prayer becomes a bit tedious
I don't think Christ did things by accident; 'Oh, oops; I just healed you of leprosy. What an entirely unplanned and unexpected bonus'.
I think the fact that Christ chose to say the things that he did in the presence of the apostles, and that he repeated himself as much as he did, very clearly indicates that the semantic content of this prayer was intended for the apostles benefit and for ours.
Christ prayed in front of the apostles, because he wanted them to hear the things he was praying. Christ repeated and stressed the points that he did, because he wanted the apostles to have no doubt in their minds as to who he was; because he wants us to have no doubt as to who he is.
As with most passages of Scripture, John 17 manifests numerous issues and raises a multitude of questions. The question I wish to consider this morning is this:
" How does this prayer reflect Christ's vision of what it means to be a disciple? To live as unified community of faith? To live in the world, but not be of the world?
In other words, in the light of John 17: how then shall we live?
How then shall we live?
That we might make some sort of useful attempt at answering this question, there are three verses from John 17 that I would like us to consider.
The first of these is verse 3: "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent."
John 8:32 says "Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free." To know Christ the Son is to know God the Father. To know God the Father is to know the truth. And to know the truth is to know freedom.
Freedom from the weight and guilt of our sins.
Freedom from the fears and wounds that hold us down.
Freedom from the lusts and petty jealousies that enslave us.
Freedom to see the world with new eyes; to see it as it really is.
Freedom to see others as they really are.
Freedom to see ourselves as we really are.
Freedom to live life as God intended that it be lived.
The second verse that I'd like us to consider is verse 23: "May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."
Throughout John 17, Christ emphasizes and re-emphasizes the oneness of the Father and the Son, and moreover, the oneness of other believers and the Triune God.
Earlier in John 14:8-14, the apostle Phillip says "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us."
Christ responds as follows:
"Don't you know me, Phillip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Don't you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?"
I think the seriousness and pivotal nature of this issue is made clear by Christ's his persistence in hammering the truth of this matter into the hearts and mind's of the apostles, and so ours also.
The Father is one with the Son and the Son is one with those that believe in him, so we too, as we are one with Christ, must also have oneness with one another. In his petitioning of God in John 17, Christ petitions us also, calling on us to live as a unified community of faith.
Christ doesn't call us to be unified in our individual and/or corporate doctrinal beliefs. Christ calls us to be unified in our love for one another and in our love for and participation in the loving Trinitarian community that is Father, Son and Spirit.
Again and again through chapters 13-16 of John, Christ urges the apostles to be unified in love:
"Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me." (John 14:21)
"My command to you is this: love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than he that lays his life down for his friends. You are my friends if you do as I command." (John 15:12-14)
"This is my command: love each other." (John 15:17)
But perhaps in relation to John 17: 23, the most explicit exhortation is found in John 13:34-35:
"A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
The weight of this commandment rather speaks for itself I feel.
The final verse I'd like us to consider is verse 14: "I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world."
In John 15:18-19, Christ reminds us that "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged in the world, it would have loved you as its own." And a few verses later in John 15:25, "They hated me without reason."
Christ calls us to be in the world, but not to be of the world, or as is written in Matthew 5:13-16, to be the salt and light of the world. Christ would not have commanded us to be the light of the world if the world were not a place of darkness, neither would he have commanded us to be the salt of the earth if the earth were not in serious need of preservation and flavour.
Herman Ridderbos describes 'the world' as being "the sum total of human life in its alienation from and independence of God".
So we must not be allow ourselves to be seduced into solidarity with the world, for as James 4:4 says "…don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred towards God? Anyone who chooses to become a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God."
But neither can we allow ourselves to become isolated from it. Who was it that Christ spent so much of his time with?
The Samaritans, tax collectors, the prostitutes; the sinners.
Christ did not, has not and will not abandon the world.
So we neither can we.
There is so much more that could be said, more than many books could say. But this is where I shall draw things to a close.
That we might know the only true God in all his wholeness, that we might live in loving unity with each other and with God, and that we might shine the light of love in a world though it is not our own, for a people that are as likely as not, to hate, despite all our best efforts.
All of this, so that we might show the people of this world that the God who created them loves them; even as he loves himself.
This, I believe, is the message of John 17.
Of course, we're still left with questions and fears and doubts:
" How can we do all that God commands?
" How can we put aside our petty (and not so petty) differences and live in loving unity with one another?
" How can we be in the world but not of the world?
" How can we be a people for the world, while not being a people of the world?
"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)