Love

After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up 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 glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.

‘I have made your name known 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; for 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 am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been 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 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 one destined to be lost, 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. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.

‘I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, 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. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

‘Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.’

- John 17:1-26

These words are taken from Jesus' last speeches to his disciples at the Passover supper. They are perhaps some of the most essential to the teachings of Christian theology down the centuries, on which we base so much of the foundations of the Church and its theology.

Jesus is going to His Father in heaven. As he makes clear to his disciples, he is going to the Father, to be united with the Father. But as Jesus has been given all that is the Father's, so he will also unite his followers and believers in that same relationship with the Father. This is a testimony of the greatest, deepest and most profound relationship. One thing that this speech to his disciples makes very clear is that the nature and root of all teaching, its effects and its aims is love. As Jesus is related with the Father, so we are also pulled into this relationship and the very nature and reality of what we are as believers becomes love, because we are rooted in the depth of relationship of the soul and spirit.

All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. As Jesus prays for those who believe, who are included in this relationship, he prays for them as they will be in the world when Jesus is no longer in the world - and he prays that these may be kept in that relationship of love. "The world" is here those who reject the word and the light and who prefer limitation and darkness. As we discussed the nature of time in yesterday's reading, I think it's also important to note references to time here: this is salvation unto eternal life, the relationship is one of eternal time - indeed Jesus even refers to this relationship as existing before the foundation of the world. He wishes to include his followers even in such relationship: Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

So as Jesus exchanges his earthly life for an eternal one, the cross is symbolic of Jesus' mastery of time: our salvation is not simply one of temporal reality, of choosing to say, "I believe" but it is also a promise of eternal relationship, of being in One Body for an eternal communion of love.

... so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.