Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are

 

 "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.  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 17:9-19 

 

In yesterday's reading, we were given what is called Jesus' High Priestly Prayer, which He prayed to the Father before His trial and Crucifixion.  Jesus 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."  My study Bible notes that Christ first prayed for Himself (verses 1-5) and secondly, for them, the apostles (verses 6-19).  Only then does He pray for those whom You have given Me -- that is, all who will come to believe in Him (verses 20-26).  Here, my study Bible says, the world is the portion of humanity in rebellion against God, those who prefer darkness to God's light.  

"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."  Holy Father is echoed in the eucharistic prayer of Didache 10:2 (the Didache the earliest known Christian teaching document):  "We give you thanks, Holy Father, for Your holy name which You have made to dwell in our hearts."  

"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 ("destruction") is Judas Iscariot (John 6:70-71).  Old Testament prophesy alludes to Judas, my study Bible says (Psalms 41:9, 109:2-13, Zechariah 11:12-13), and 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."  As Christ is from heaven, my study Bible explains, so those who are joined to Him become like Him.  Therefore, believers attract the world's hatred.  In the second-century Letter to Diognetus (6:3), it is stated, "Christians dwell in the world but do not belong to the world."  To be reborn in Christ is to have citizenship in the Kingdom of God (John 3:1-5), yet the vocation disciples 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."  My study Bible explains that to sanctify is to consecrate, make holy, separate, set apart from the world, and bring into the sphere of the sacred for God's use.  According to St. John Chrysostom, Christ is saying, "Make them holy through the gifts of the Spirit and by correct doctrine."

Jesus makes a distinction in His prayer between those who are His and the world.  My study Bible explains that "the world" is the portion of humanity in rebellion against God, those who prefer darkness to God's light.  He indicates that those who come to Him, those who hear His voice, are those whom the Father first has given to Christ ("those whom You have given Me").  As we have seen consistently in John's Gospel, all things begin with the Father, including the identity of the Son, and we who hear the Son's voice.  It is the Father through whom all things begin, including our capacity to hear Christ's voice, the word of truth (Matthew 16:17).   What is extremely notable in this section of the High Priestly Prayer is Christ's clear distinction between "the world" and His followers, the faithful.  He begins by saying to God that He does not pray for the world, but for those whom the Father has given to Him, for they are the Father's.  Jesus prays, "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."  Let us note that what is of greatest importance to Christ is simply that His followers remain faithful; that they remain true to the Father and true to the word which Christ has taught.   To have been kept in the Father's name is to have been kept and held within the Kingdom, the realm of the Holy Spirit, this reality to which we respond which is planted in our hearts, for this is how the Name of God works.  It is a sense in which we belong to God, we are stamped in our hearts with God's Name.  It's important, essential, to remember that what Jesus prays for is that we remain in this condition of belonging to God.  He is not praying that we always get our wish, that we live in a mansion and have every worldly success we can think of.  Far from it.  What Christ prays for is that we are kept by God and not lost, and that we are kept from "the evil one."  That is, we are not lost to the ways of the one who opposes God, whether that be a spiritual power or a worldly manifestation of spiritual darkness, which is in opposition to God.  It is this life and this safety that Christ prays for, for us.  He prays that we not become "of the world" in the sense that we give up God's ways for the ways we see in the world that are in opposition to God.   Jesus says, "Sanctify them by Your truth.  Your word is truth."  We must remain within God's word and God's truth; and we know God's ways from the Scripture, from the teachings of Jesus.  He says, "And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth."   Jesus will remain loyal within God's truth and God's way for Him all the way to the Cross, putting everything on the line, so that He might be sanctified in order to sanctify us in God's truth.  It is we who are the beneficiaries of this prayer, we who must take it seriously that we are in the world and not of it.  And this is Christ's joy, that we remain in this place of truth and sanctification, even when the world would demand a different way, of manipulation and lies, coercion in all its forms, expedience, and serving all manner of forms of selfishness over our call from God.  Let us consider the ways we need to keep alert to the temptations of the world, so that Christ keeps us for Himself, and we may have His joy fulfilled in ourselves.