Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world

 

 "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 recent readings, Jesus has been speaking to the disciples at the Last Supper.  He first gave them what is known as His Farewell Discourse (beginning with this reading).  Then Jesus began what is known as the High Priestly Prayer, a prayer to God the Father, which we began reading in yesterday's reading.  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."  My study Bible comments that the son of perdition (which can be understood to mean "destruction") is Judas Iscariot (John 6:70, 71).  It says that Old Testament prophecy alludes to Judas (Psalm 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."  Inasmuch as Christ is from heaven, my study Bible explains, those who are joined to Him become like Him.  Therefore, 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, my study Bible says, Christians have their citizenship in the Kingdom of God (John 3:1-5), yet their vocation is in the world, where they are protected by God against the evil one.  When we pray the Lord's Prayer that Christ gave us, we say, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one" (Matthew 6:13; Luke 11:4). 

 

"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, make holy, separate, set apart from the world, and bring into the sphere of the sacred for God's use.  It notes that St. John Chrysostom interprets this verse as effectively saying, "Make them holy through the gift of the Spirit and by correct doctrine."

Jesus speaks of believers being separate from the world.  During His Farewell Discourse, He said to the disciples, "If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you" (John 15:19).  In today's reading, He prays to God the Father, "They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world."  What distinguishes His followers from "the world?"  He prays to the Father, "While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name," and, "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."  So we have an understanding of a split, a boundary, between "the world" and those who are kept in God's name, who kept in God's word.  In this way, disciples of Christ are taken "out of the world."  We can also think of this as a boundary between light and darkness, with the world being in darkness, and those who keep Christ's word walking in the light, dwelling in it, becoming "enlightened" and drawing upon that light for their identity.  This we should understand as a kind of a process, not a one-time exclamation of faith, but a path which we walk.  John's Gospel tells us from the beginning that "the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it" (John 1:5).  The darkness is that which can neither understand, nor "take in" the light.  "Illumination" is therefore the process of receiving, living, dwelling in God's word, making this word given by Christ a part of ourselves and our lives, a deeper and growing indwelling, reflected through us.  In this way, we glorify Him and the Father who gave Him the word He taught us.  Now in today's reading, Jesus prays to the Father, "They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  Sanctify them by Your truth.  Your word is truth."  Here Jesus begins to speak of sanctification.  As noted above, my study Bible describes sanctification as meaning to consecrate, make holy, separate, to set apart from the world, and bring into the sphere of the sacred for God's use.  So sanctification, the act of making holy, is also a setting apart, a separation from the world in the sense of putting something aside as exclusively for God's purposes.  And as Jesus indicates in His words as He prays, a person is sanctified through God's truth -- and God's word is truth.  So, light, sanctification, God's word, and truth all become concepts related to this sphere of the kingdom of God, this place where we are in the world, but not of it.  If we look closely at all of these aspects of Christ's prayer, what we observe is a kind of exhortation to follow this path of sanctification in our lives, and as His disciples.  Yes, He prays to the Father, but in describing His work in the world, it is to take the disciples into the Kingdom even as they are in the world, and to set them apart in the sense that they will continue in this place of bearing the word of God, remaining in His name, and dwelling in the world as those who will be sanctified by His truth.  If we listen closely to His prayer to the Father, we conclude that this is what He desires, that we remain in the world, but as part of "His" world, the Kingdom that lives not "here or there" but "within" us and among us (Luke 17:21).  Let us know that He prays for us to be protected from "the evil one," even as we may be sanctified in His truth, set apart by it.  Let us remember this is who we are, and who we are called to be in this world, even as we seek to bear His light into it ever more deeply (Matthew 5:16).