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"I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them."
- John 17:20-26
Last week we read through Jesus' Farewell Discourse to the disciples. See In My Father's house are many mansions; Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you; I am the vine, you are the branches; This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you; When He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth and That your joy may be full. This week, we are reading Jesus' prayer to the Father. On Monday, we read that Jesus prayed, "Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are." In yesterday's reading, He continued: "While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth."
"I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me." My study bible tells us, regarding "who will believe: Jesus prays for the future Church, which participates in the life and glory of the Father and the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. Christians enjoy two kinds of unity: vertical, with the Trinity, and horizontal, with one another, the latter rooted in the former." This "cross" formed by the vertical and horizontal to which my study bible refers is an embodiment of Jesus' "greatest commandments" -- to love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus summed it up in last week's Farewell Discourse when He revealed the new commandment with which He's left us: "Love one another as I have loved you."
"And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me." Glory and love are intertwined in Jesus' statements here, just as we are intertwined in relationship through Him: with the Father as He is in us and the Father in Him. How is the world illumined and enlightened? Through this glory that is lived through love, as we fulfill the mission upon which He's sent us (via the Apostles): God's glory is reflected through us when we learn to love as He loved us.
"Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world." Throughout John's Gospel, we have been repeatedly promised this depth of togetherness and relationship to Christ: that where He is, so He will be with us as well. This is the promise of eternal life, of a dwelling place "in My Father's house" where there are "many mansions." But Jesus' desire comes from this great beginning of all things, the love of the Father. It is a prayer of a depth of intimacy only possible through such relationship of Father and Son, "for You loved Me before the foundation of the world." We are aware of the prayer of one Divine Person to another, but it is the prayer of intimacy and tenderness reserved even for the depth of a human heart.
"O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them." A note reads, "We cannot have love for God the Father, or receive His love, apart from the knowledge of (communion with) the Father. The purpose of the knowledge of God is to impart the love of God." I really can't sum it up better than what my study bible tells us, that "the purpose of the knowledge of God is to impart the love of God." Jesus' fervent prayer here is of one deity to another, Son to Father, but it is with the fervency of a depth of love to which we all can relate. So great is His love for the Father, that His true will is to express that love to the world through His disciples, so that the Father may be glorified through them.
We can't separate knowledge of God from the love of God. That is, we can't separate out knowing God from knowing God's love and thereby sharing God's love, practicing God's love. All are inseparable, and thus the truth of Christ is inseparable from the love of Christ. John's Epistles teach us essentially the same thing, when he writes that God is love and love is of God: "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love" (1 John 4:7-8). If we take this to its fullest extent, we must also consider other words that Jesus teaches us about His truth, in John's eighth chapter: "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." If Christ's truth is love, then our real freedom is the freedom to love. In this way we show the glory of God. Whatever gets in the way of that love and our realization of that love diminishes the glory of God as it is or may be revealed in us, through us, to the world. And that's where we take the "crux" of our mission; it is the heart of the Cross: that the world may try in all kinds of ways to get in the way of this love and its realization in us, but that He has overcome the world. They, the disciples, have been "taken out of the world" in order to be like Him, to become more like Him, and so, through them, may we. In this is God's glory reflected into the world and illuminates the world. It all depends on how we understand this mission. The love of God, beginning with the great and tremendous love of the Father to which Jesus testifies in His prayer today, takes us on a journey. We are in this journey together, inseparable from Christ, from the Father, and the Helper, which is the Spirit of truth in John's Gospel. In this journey we are on a road, His Way, to learn what it is to love from the Father, and to become more like Him. How do you practice this love? We learn it from the Father, through prayer, through encounter, through our own love of God. With that, we take the world and give it to God, so that what is assumed in that love is healed -- but it starts in us and in this way is given to the world. Let us remember Jesus' prayer that we may reflect God's glory, and that we may be one in this endeavor. What obstacle does that love pick up for you today?
