This Sunday, the lectionary invites us to ponder John 17:20-26. The English Standard Version provides the chapter with the title, “The High Priestly Prayer.” It does not provide any within-chapter headings.
The chapter begins with Jesus looking up, addressing God as “Father,” and declaring that the hour has come.
John used “the hour” as the central theme of his gospel, somewhat like Luke organized his gospel around Jesus’ determination to go to Jerusalem – and be killed. In John, “the hour” is shorthand for the moment of death, of fulfilment of the plan of God. [1]
In the prayer, Jesus repeatedly uses the word “glory” and its derivatives. He says he’s glorified the Father by completing the work the Father gave him to do. So, the hour has come. The Father must now glorify him: by restoring to him the glory he had with the Father, from the beginning.
Don’t miss the tension, the irony, the mystery, in what Jesus says in this public prayer, designed to teach the listening disciples. Jesus, the devoted Son, co-equal with God, comforts his Father. He says, “Father, I know it hurts you. But let me die. It’s for the better.”
After the introductory words in verses 1-4, Jesus outlines what he’s done, and the results of his work. [2]
In verses 6-18, he speaks of his disciples as those whom the Father gave him. He knows they are God’s chosen ones, because they responded to the message he brought to them from the Father.
Jesus speaks not only of what he taught them. He speaks also of having protected them. He expresses concern for them because he’ll no longer be with them to protect them.
He puts his disciples on notice that because they now know what God wants them to do, they will say and do things which will challenge the status quo and cause the leaders of the world to target them as enemies.
By having them listen to his prayer, he assures them that he wants them to remain behind. He says they’re no longer of the world, just as he’s not of the world. He says this is so because they’ve been washed by the word of truth; and he asks the Father to continue washing them.
Then comes today’s passage, verses 20-26. In these words of truth, Jesus extends his prayer to those beyond the disciples whom he had cleaned from the stain of the world over three years of discipling.
Jesus extends his concern to us, who have believed through their witness. He speaks of the mission he’s given to us. He assigns to us the task of dwelling with God, of being one with God. There’s a mystical element to this, something like the longing expressed by sadhus across India, and of Muslim mystics: the longing to be one with God.
Jesus says our mission is to be one with God, so that the world may believe that he was sent by the Father. He says he’s given to us the glory which the Father had given to him.
What’s this glory he’s given to us? I think it can only be one thing: to speak and to act as he did.
Jesus spoke only words of truth. He spoke words God had given to the world in the past, words faithfully preserved in the Hebrew Bible. He spoke the words in a way which demonstrated the impossibility of ever attaining them. By doing so, he revealed their true purpose.
Over the centuries, many Christians have distilled the purpose of the law. Martin Luther [3] said the law has two equally important purposes: one is to teach us civil righteousness, meaning how to avoid hurting our neighbours; the other is to condemn us and to drive us to Christ.
In Jesus’ day, as in our own, leaders used the law to maintain the status quo; to comfort the injured in their pains; and to discourage them from challenging those who injured them. They also interpreted the law in ways which made it seem possible to actually keep all of God’s commandments.
This is why Jesus used the formula, “You have heard that it was said …,” and then followed up with “But I say …” For example, he used the formula to expand the sin of murder to include the sins of anger and insult. [4]
John began his gospel by observing that John Baptist, when he saw Jesus, recognized him to be “the lamb of God.” [5] According to ancient tradition, the Book of Revelation is also the work of John, the gospel writer. It’s no accident that the Book of Revelation often refers to Jesus as “lamb.”
The word of truth which sanctifies us is powerful because it is, in a mystical way, the blood of the Lamb of God. It cleanses, sustains, and gives meaning to our lives. It draws us into the work of the Lamb, the work of proclaiming the Lamb.
Peace be with you.
[1] Matthew uses “hour” only once in the sense of moment of death (26:45). Mark uses it thus twice (14:35, 41); Luke uses it once in a sense similar to the moment of death – for the moment the soldiers came to arrest Jesus (22:53). John repeatedly uses phrases like “the hour is coming” and “the hour had not yet come.”
[2] Remarkably, he says nothing about his works of “power evangelism,” works like exorcisms, feedings, healings.
[3] in his commentary on Galatians,
[5] John 1:29, 36.
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