Posts
"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."
- John 17:12-19
Yesterday, we began reading what is often called the High Priestly Prayer, which Jesus prayed to the Father at the Last Supper: Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: "Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as 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 the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth 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 have given Me, for they are Yours. And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are." Today, our reading continues the prayer.
"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." The son of perdition (or "destruction") is Judas Iscariot (6:70-71). My study bible tells us that Old Testament prophecy alludes to Judas (Psalm 41:9; 109:2-13; Zechariah 11:12-13). Judas becomes a "type" for all who will fall away in the last days (see 2 Thessalonians 2:3, where "son of perdition" refers to the Antichrist).
"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." My study bible says, "Inasmuch as Christ is from heaven, those who are joined to Him become like Him. Thus, all believers attract the world's hatred. The second-century Letter to Diognetus (6:3) states, 'Christians dwell in the world but do not belong to the world.' Reborn in Christ, Christians have their citizenship in the Kingdom of God (3:1-5), yet their vocation is in the world, where they are protected by God against the evil one."
"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." To sanctify, my study bible explains, is to consecrate, to make holy, to separate, set apart from the world, and bring into the sphere of the sacred for God's use. St. John Chrysostom interprets this verse as saying, "Make them holy through the gift of the Spirit and by the correct doctrine."
Two words stand out for me in today's reading, at first glance. They are "Joy" and "Truth." Again, we note that these are words and themes already introduced in John's Gospel. In recent readings, Jesus has told the disciples, "These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full" and "Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full" (15:11; 16:24). Interestingly, John the Baptist referred to this fullness of joy, even as his own ministry would decrease: "He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled" (3:29). John's First Epistle also uses the language of the fullness of joy: "These things we write, that our joy may be complete" (1 John 1:4). Joy is linked to truth in each of these statements, because it is in the fullness of truth that there is joy. These statements (and the joy) are given by Jesus to the disciples even as He is about to go to the Cross. John the Baptist's joy is fulfilled as Jesus' ministry begins, even as John's ministry will be eclipsed by the presence of Christ, and he will be put in prison and killed by Herod Antipas. In the Epistle of John, it's the truth of the things of Christ that completes "our" joy. It is in the fullness of this truth that our joy takes fullness. It's in the truth of the word of God. And Jesus tells us that this truth is also sanctifying. It sets us apart, takes us out of the world, reserves us for a purpose, so that we bear this Kingdom into the world as it dwells in us and among us. It has a hallowed function and a purpose and it hallows our work of faith as we reflect it in the world. The fullness of truth, therefore, contains all of these things: it sanctifies and sets us in a place where we have a mission, it places us in the Kingdom, it fills us with a kind of fullness of joy, and it is the word of God. Thereby joy and truth become inextricably linked with one another in the fullness of "God's breath" working in our lives. Let us keep in mind that the word for Spirit means also means "breath." In the Armenian Apostolic tradition, the Bible is called "the Breath of God." In the fullness of the Word is breath, joy, truth. It's the Word that sanctifies, a breath that takes us to places we don't know about, to a fullness of joy, an acceptance of what is, a Kingdom that works in us, and that we share for a holy purpose into the world. God's breath breathes in us and makes us a part of something, giving us a fullness that is missing without it. Jesus prays here that we might be so sanctified, and gives us His peace and joy. Let us remember that we are only sanctified by the truth, and that it must rest in us. We don't flinch from the reality of the world, even as we understand the life of God.
