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

 

 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."

 

- John 17:1-8 

 

In preparing us for Lent, the lectionary yesterday gave us the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector:   Jesus spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:  "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.  The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men -- extortioners, unjust adulterers, or even as this tax collector.  I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.'  And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me a sinner!'  I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

 

 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."  Our reading today begins what is often called the High Priestly Prayer.   The lectionary cycle gives us this prayer in its entirety over the next three days, as we read chapter 17 of John's Gospel.  This is Christ's prayer before the time of betrayal, when He knows He will be seized and eventually crucified.  It is called the High Priestly Prayer because it contains the basic elements of prayer that a priest offers to God when a sacrifice is about to be made, my study Bible explains:  glorification (verses 3-5, 25), remembrance of God's works (verses 2, 6-8, 22-23), intercession on behalf of others (verses 9, 11, 15, 20-21, 24), and a declaration of the offering itself (verses 1, 5).  In the first section of this prayer (verses 1-13), Christ's words bear witness to His divinity and His filial relationship with the Father.  The hour has come signifies that Christ is Lord over time, my study Bible says.  It cites the words of an Orthodox hymn:  "He voluntarily willed to ascend the Cross in the flesh."  Glorify is a reference to the redemption of all creation that will be accomplished through the Cross and Resurrection -- the purpose for which Christ was sent into the world.  It is in this redemption that the Father and Son are glorified.  Hence, the Cross, a sign of death in this most gruesome form of crucifixion, is glorified in the Church as "life-giving" and the "weapon of peace."

"And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent."  My study Bible comments that the knowledge of the only true God is far more than intellectual understanding.  It is participation in God's divine life and in communion with God.  Therefore, my study Bible explains, eternal life is an ongoing, loving knowledge of God in Christ and the Holy Spirit.

"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."  Christ's work is not separate from who He is.   My study Bible says that Jesus' statement, "I have glorified You on the earth.  I have finished the work which You have given Me to do," is one which each believer can make at the end of life, no matter how long or short one's life might be.   

"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."  The men whom you have given Me is a reference to the apostles.  My study Bible reminds us that they are the ones through whom God's word comes to us.  This handing down of God's word to successive generations is called apostolic tradition.  Isaiah prophesied that in the days of the Messiah, the knowledge of the Name of God would be revealed (Isaiah 52:6).  Your name:  In the Old Testament times, the phrase "the Name" was reverently used as a substitute for God's actual Name "Yahweh," which was too sacred to pronounce.  The fuller revelation of the Name was given to those who believe in Christ, as Christ manifested the Name not only by declaring the Father, but by being the very presence of God and sharing the Name with Him.  

I'm reading an interesting book (The Religion of the Apostles) in which the use of the Name in Old Testament Scriptures is gone into with some detail.  Essentially, it says, we can think of this title for God as being used to indicate a Person, but one that is distinct from the first and second hypostases (or Persons; that is, those whom we call the Father and the Son) in the Godhead.  The Name is associated with the Third Person, the Holy Spirit.  For example, we read that the Angel of the Lord was given by God to Moses, and Moses taught that any rebellion against the Angel would not be forgiven, as Yahweh's Name was placed in the Angel.  "Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name is in Him" (Exodus 23:20-21).  This sounds very similar to Christ's teaching that all manner of sin may be forgiven, but He explicitly puts into a different category blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (Matthew 12:31).  Of course, as Christians we hasten to add that the sin that remains unforgiven is the one that is not repented.  But for the consideration of today's passage, let us think about what it means for us that Christ says He has manifested God's name to His apostles, the ones whom the Father Himself has given to Christ out of the world.  Especially in the ancient world, a name was a powerful representation of a person; indeed, when we speak of kings or emperors, or anyone using a personal seal, a name conferred the presence of the person (and therefore the stamp made something the property and extension of that person).  Therefore, for Christ to manifest God's Name is for Him to present to the world the presence of God, but also this Name is manifest through the words which God gave to Christ, and upon those who keep those words.  The Name functions, in this sense, in the way the Holy Spirit works; at once God and also the extension of God's action into the world.  Therefore this Name, as it was planted in the Angel given for guidance to Moses, may also, through Christ, be implanted in us.  And there we come to Lent, which is essentially a time for the renewal of our Baptism.  In his first Letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul asks, "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" and, "Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?" (1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19).  So when we consider the traditional practices of Lent, with its focus on prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, what we see is a sense in which those practices help us to come to a clearer reception of that Name that is planted within us at our Baptism, and deeper manifestation of that Name through living our faithfulness.  Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving -- as well as special worship services during Lent -- are forms of self-emptying, self-giving.  What we do is to make an attempt to get our own egos out of the way, so to speak, and make more room for God.  Like David's penitential Psalm 51, which works as an archetypal form of confession for all of us, we are effectively asking of God, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.  Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit."  Let us also be good bearers of His Name into the world, by keeping the word which Christ has given us, and keeping or restoring clean hearts at this time of Lent, so that our spirits are renewed and upheld in the joy of God's salvation.