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

 "I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may 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

In our current readings, Jesus is at the Last Supper.  He has given His Farewell Discourse to the disciples, and now He is praying what is known as the High Priestly Prayer, His prayer to God the Father before He goes to His Crucifixion.  Yesterday we read that Jesus prayed, "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 all may 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."  Jesus prays for those who will believe; that is, the faithful of the future.  My study bible declares that the Church in every generation participates in the life and glory of the Trinity.  It states that Christians enjoy two kinds of unity:  with God and with one another -- with the latter rooted in the former.   Let us make firm note of the love that is the cause of all of this, and all that Christ's declares.  He magnifies that love with His final statement here:  that is desire, moreover, is that those whom the Father has given to Him may be where He is -- so that they may behold the glory given to Him by God the Father who loved Christ before the foundation of the world.  This is the desire to share with us an eternal future and reality beyond what we can know in the world, a completeness of love.

"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."  My study bible tells us that the ultimate goal of Christ's prayer, and even of life itself, is for the love of the Father to dwell in each person.

In Christ's High Priestly Prayer we have an extraordinary testament to love.  In His words we hear the voice of a Son devoted to His loving Father, who wants to share that love with the world -- and wants the world to see that love for themselves.  He declares, "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."   These are the words of a Son who deeply loves and reveres His Father, and wants His friends to see all that His Father is going to do for Him, so they will appreciate how loving and great His Father truly is.  We are given not only a picture of unity, and not only a picture of grace, but a view on the tremendous grandeur of God's love, its immense quality, its extraordinary character.  It is the inverse of an uncaring world bent on its own selfishness and isolation and hostility.  Christ not only offers us this tremendous picture of His generous and loving Father, but He wishes for us to share in that love, and He is the link to it.  This is our great gift, one in which we take our own understanding of His love, a love inseparable from who we are through faith.  It is in this love that we take our identity as adopted children and heirs, because we not only may share in it, we may also become more like Him.  This is a love that magnifies its gifts, that adds even more onto whatever it is we are willing and able to accept.  It is a love that rejoices in all circumstances, because there is joy in it at all times -- and it is not a fickle kind of love, nor tinged with selfish and hostile motivations.  It simply is.  More than that, Jesus gives us the ground of our being and of the whole universe.  The hostility and selfishness of the world is aberrant in this picture; it is not "natural" at all that we live in a fallen world.  It is the love of God that is our true natural state, for it is our origin and destination.  It is in that generosity and beauty that we take our joy, and in which we are given our peace which cannot be taken away.  We know we are loved, and we will grow in the experience of that love.