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

 

 "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 

 

Currently, we are reading through Christ's High Priestly Prayer, which He prayed at the Last Supper, after His Farewell Discourse to the disciples.  In yesterday's reading, we read that Jesus prayed to the Father, "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."  In this prayer, Jesus has prayed first for Himself (verses 1-5), and secondly for the apostles (verses 6-19).  Only then does His High Priestly Prayer turn to pray for those whom You have given Me.  That is, all who will come to believe in Him through the word of the apostles, as He says here.  My study Bible comments, regarding those who will believe, that the Church in every generation participates in the life and glory of the Trinity.  Christians enjoy two kinds of unity:  with God and with one another, the latter being rooted in the former. 

 

"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."  Note that this entire finish to Christ's High Priestly Prayer is rooted in love, and specifically the love of the Father and how that is the root of the communion of all.  From the love of the Father is the love between Christ and the Father, and that love in turn is extended to those who believe in His word (the apostles).  Through the apostles, this love becomes a part of the faithful to come, "that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them."  There is nothing left out of this communion in the name of God, in which is rooted love and glory through God's word and faith in that word.

 

 As noted above, if we look closely at today's closing lines from Christ's High Priestly Prayer, we see everything couched in a communion of love.  It is clear that the Source of love is God the Father.  But this should not be confused with a kind of simple hierarchy that we understand on worldly terms.  For this love is not something that is limited, but shared, and shared deeply within a communion.  That communion is not only between Father and Son.  But it clearly also includes the Holy Spirit -- and beyond that, the apostles who bear Christ's word within themselves through faith and discipleship, and extends out to all those who will believe through their word.  Effectively, we have an entire universe, a whole cosmos, filled with this communion of love.  For, not only is God -- the Creator and Source of all -- love, but God's word that is extended, that finds itself in faith, bears that love to us.  That word bears God's name and Person, and these also can come to dwell in us, and through us even in the world that does not believe.  This is why, during Christ's Farewell Discourse, just before this prayer, Jesus tells the disciples, "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world" (John 16:33).  So we have two things that we know.  The first is that God is love, and that Christ's word and the communion in His name, are couched and rooted in love, permeated in love.  The second is that the word we're given, the truth of God, even the glory of God, is going to be hated by some and rejected -- and in this, believers will also experience tribulation.  We have to remember that there are spiritual roots to all of these things, and that "we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:2).  But we take our peace and joy in this communion we can experience, in the word that gives us love and good guidance, and in which we can trust, even if there is tribulation.  As the faithful, we are called upon to know and to live these things, for we will surely experience them one way and another.  We know that Christ prays before going to the Cross, His sacrifice for all of us, for that love ("Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends" - John 15:13).  For each of us, how that works out depends upon our own places in this great net of love, the communion between God and the faithful (and, lest we forget, this includes the celestial powers loyal to God, as well as the communion of saints).  Let us go forward with confidence in that love, find His victory for ourselves, and be prepared for the kind of life to which we're called, in His name.

 

 

 

 

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.

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

Starting from last Monday, we have been reading through Jesus' words and teachings to the disciples at the Last Supper.   This is His farewell discourse.  Chapter 17 constitutes what is called the High Priestly Prayer (begun in this Monday's reading).  Yesterday, we read that Jesus continued to pray, "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."  Jesus prays not only for His immediate disciples (these alone), but also for those who will believe through the word of the first apostles.  My study bible says here that the Church in every generation participates in the life and the glory of the Trinity.  Christians have two kinds of unity:  with God and with one another.  The latter is rooted in the former -- thus the two greatest commandments.   And if we look closely, we observe that this conclusion to the High Priestly Prayer is all about the unity of Father, Son, and Spirit, and with those who will follow and believe.  Jesus also speaks here of glory and being made perfect in this union and participation.   But ultimately the real crux on which hangs everything about our faith is the love of the Father.

"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."  Here is more about the quality of unity:  Jesus prays that those whom the Father has given Him may be with Him, that they may behold His glory given by the Father, because the Father loved Him before the foundation of the world.  To declare the Father's name -- the extension of His Person, is to declare, know, and dwell with the Father's love.  My study bible says 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.  This is the real definition of faith, of what our faith teaches us to believe and know.

Jesus dwells mostly on the unity of Father, Son, and believers in this last part of the High Priestly Prayer.  It's a kind of unity that will always draw and intrigue us, because Christ speaks of a unity that is the configuration, if you will, of what it means to abide in Him.  Christ abides in the Father, and yet both Christ and the Father dwell in us.  Unity here is much more than what is usually signified by the word "unity."  This is an indwelling, and it is an indwelling on multiple levels and through multiple combinations:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (as attested to in the farewell discourse when He promises several times that He will send the Helper), and the faithful:  those apostles to whom He speaks, and all those faithful who are to come: "also for those who will believe in Me through their word."  This unity of faith and indwelling and abiding are hallmarked through several important concepts of which He has also spoken through this farewell discourse:  glory, the name of the Father, and love.  Glory, as we have discussed in an earlier reading, is a kind of weightedness, a sense of value and substance.  Glory is that value which is added unto, assigned, given by the Father, a substance which then is a part of whatever is glorified.  The Father's name is an extension of Himself, just as whatever would bear the initials or stamp of a ruler was treated as an extension of His property and empire.  The name, according to one definition, is a manifestation of character, that which distinguishes this one person from all others, the presence of that person.  A name, in Jewish tradition, was inseparable from the person, something of the person's essence, and thereby the name of the Father is most sacred.  And finally, all of this is contained in and contains within it the Father's love.  Everything that we know and believe in as followers of Christ, all the abiding and indwelling Christ teaches us, the glory God can give and the glorification of the Father of which we are capable, praying and acting in His name -- all of this is within the love of the Father.  If that love is not shared, if we do not know it and live in it, we do not have Christian faith.  Over and over again, Jesus has criticized the religious leadership of His time, because they follow elaborate rules and traditions built up around the Law, but they fail to have the love of the Father in them.  He tells them that if they loved God, they would know Him.  And this is the great key to our faith.  It is quite simply love.  There is love in the Father and in the unity of the Trinity, and love for us and in us -- and we return that love.  Without it, what do we have?  If we do not know that love, what is our faith?  Everything rests in it, and we rest in it, as God dwells in us.  This is the way, the truth, and the life.  This is what He has given us, and it is this love that saves the world.   No rule or abstract principle or custom we make can ever replace this active, known love.  We do not know God without it.  It grows in us and builds in us the kingdom of God, like a mustard seed grows into a sturdy tree where even the birds of the air may take refuge.  It is love that is alive and grows and gives meaning.

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; 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

This week, we continue with Jesus' Farewell Discourse to His Apostles at the Last Supper. We began on Good Friday, with the reading of Jesus' prediction of Peter's denial, and have progressed through His discourse since. In yesterday's reading, Jesus continued His prayer to the Father for the Apostles. He spoke of keeping them together, in His name, except for the "son of perdition," Judas Iscariot. He said, "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." He prayed that they might be safe from the evil one -- He leaves them in the world to follow in the work He did. Jesus said, "Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is 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; 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." In this passage, Jesus extends His prayer beyond the Apostles, to the future Church, to all of us. And we have to take this very seriously -- the oneness, the unity of relationship and gift of grace with which He has endowed the Apostles and His relationship to them, He also extends to us. And the world must know that He is truly sent by the Father through the relationship we bear to Him. He incorporates all of us in this relationship of truth and of glory, of abiding in Him. Ultimately, it becomes a statement about love, and that this love must communicate itself to the world through us and our relationship to the Father: "that the world may know that You have sent me, and have loved them as You loved Me." My study bible says, "Jesus prays for the future Church, which participates in the life and glory of the Father and the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. Christians enjoy two kinds of unity: vertical, with the Trinity, and horizontal, with one another, the latter rooted in the former."

"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." And this glory and unity also extend beyond the world, just as it does for the Apostles, whom Jesus has told that He goes to prepare a place for them. It is a linking of love that is absolutely complete: the place He prepares for the Apostles (in the "many mansions" of His Father's house, He also prepares for us, to keep us with Him, for the Father "loved Me before the foundation of the world." We are rooted in that love and we return to it in Him. The entire universe, from before the foundation of the world, is rooted in that love -- in this He assures us through these words.

"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 has a beautiful note: "We cannot have love for God the Father, or receive His love, apart from the knowledge of (communion with) the Father. The purpose of the knowledge of God is to impart the love of God." Jesus says, "That the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them." Again, our Evangelist is the Apostle of love; there can be no more sure statement than that, that this love with which we are loved and have known through Him is the root and anchor of our faith. In this love we abide.

As my study bible says, "The purpose of the knowledge of God is to impart the love of God." Why do we "know" God, if not to live the life we learn from that love and to express that love through what we do? Isn't this really the crux of our faith, and the means of our perfection in God, our abiding in this all-encompassing and eternal relationship? I'd like to know what that love means to you, and how you experience it in your life. I can say for myself that without this love, I don't know where I would be -- and that I have truly experienced it. It has "taken me out of the world" in the sense that more worldly behavior is not the loving beauty I find there, and that I do believe it is our job as Christians to try and live that love as we are directed, so that "the world may know," as He said. This is truly our work in the world, but we each may have unique and beautiful forms and ways in which to express it. But it all comes from this relationship of love that is, even before the foundation of the world.