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

 "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

In yesterday's reading, we began to read what is known as the High Priestly Prayer.  This is the prayer Jesus prayed after giving to His disciples the Farewell Discourse at the Last Supper, before He goes to His Crucifixion.  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."

 "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."  The son of perdition (meaning "destruction") is Judas Icariot (6:70-71).  My study bible says that Old Testament prophecy alludes to Judas (Psalms 41:9; 109:2-13; Zechariah 11:12-13), and Judas becomes a type for all those who will fall away in the last days (see 2 Thessalonians 2:3, in which "son of perdition" refers to the Antichrist). 

"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."   My study bible notes that inasmuch as Christ is from heaven, those who are joined to Him become like Him.  (As we are made "in the image and likeness of God" so we may grow in that image and likeness; see Genesis 1:26.)  But thereby, believers attract the world's hatred.  My study bible quotes from the second century Letter to Diognetus (6:3), which states, "Christians dwell in the world but do not belong to the world."  As those reborn in Christ, Christians have their citizenship in the Kingdom of God (3:1-5), but our vocation is in the world, where we are protected by God against the evil one.  Note that this does not mean Christians do not face persecution, hardship, even cruelty; rather, the protection is spiritual.

"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."  To sanctify is described by my study bible as to consecrate, make holy, separate, set apart from the world, and bring into the sacred for God's use.  It quotes St. John Chrysostom, who interprets this verse as to say, "Make them holy through the gift of the Spirit and by correct doctrine." 

Jesus speaks of a people who are somehow "set apart."  That is, a holy and sanctified people -- one sanctified by the truth -- who are not like the world, or the worldly.  In this we have an understanding not that we are somehow separate from the world, but rather different.  Christians are sent into the world by Christ specifically in order to be that different people, the ones who are set apart by Christ's truth, His commands, His love, and the communion of the kingdom of God.  The most important desire in Christ's prayer is that those who love Him be sanctified and kept in His truth -- and protected from the evil one.  This is a prayer for spiritual protection; that is, for the keeping of those who love Christ in that love and in His word, for the keeping of the faithful in the faith, and freed from the destructive power of evil.  We are warned many times in the Gospels that if we love Christ we will also face tribulation, persecutions.  But our protection, ultimately, is not from sad or bad things happening in life.  It is protection for our faith, to keep us in this communion of love.  Most especially, it seems to me, Christ's prayer here speaks of a commitment to be sanctified.  That is, to be distinguished and set apart through the commitment to spiritual truth, the word of God, so that even in the midst of persecutions we remain distinctively faithful.  Our love for Christ and our willingness to grow in His likeness continues, and renders us distinctly as followers of Christ.  He asks of the Father that we, as His followers, be sanctified in His truth.  And this is the power and meaning of what it is to follow Christ:  He prays for us for protection from the evil one; that is the deception and destruction of that which hates the spiritual truth of the love of God and all that this entails.  Let us remember how precious is this truth that sanctifies our souls and feeds us with God's love.  It is everything, and in it we are contained, loved, and have our being.   Outside of that is destruction, no matter what the world's delusions may feed us to the contrary.  The world has watched recently while the church of Notre Dame de Paris burned, a cathedral consecrated to and named for the Virgin Mary, the Theotokos.  Millions of French watched the flames and realized what they might be losing, in a country known for its rigorous commitment to secularism.   Let us sanctify ourselves in His truth.  It is the one thing that truly sets us apart and in the love of God.