John 17.11b-19

Easter Seven (Revised Common Lectionary) | 05.16.21 | John 17.11b-19 | Carl A. Voges |

The Passage

Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.  While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me.  I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scriptures might be fulfilled.

But now I am coming 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 ask that you take them out of world, but that you keep them from the evil one.  They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.  As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.  And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they may be sanctified in truth.                                                                            [English Standard Version]

“And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.  Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”                                                                                                           [1 John 5.11-12]

In the Name of Christ + Jesus our Lord

Coming into this Sunday’s Gospel is a magnificent and stimulating event!  It not only pulls our attention away from the usual realities of the world’s life, it also immerses us fully in the realities of the Lord’s salvation for the world’s people.  This passage from John 17 is the middle section of Jesus’ high-priestly prayer for himself, his twelve apostles, and for his followers throughout the world’s time.  It is also the closing chapter of Jesus’ Farewell Conversation with the disciples on the night of Maundy Thursday.

The world’s realities continually break into our own with their absorption and predictability, their attractiveness and disruptiveness.  Frightened by a deadly virus and its variants, confronting different economic and political considerations, and wearied by a history and an ethic that does not extend beyond the individual, there apparently are no other resources on which to base our lives…until this Sunday’s Gospel reading!

Liturgically, the Lord’s people are between the Ascension this past Thursday and the pouring out of his Spirit next Sunday on the Festival of Pentecost.  These magnificent events are the reason for this Sunday being such a stimulating event!

In his prayer Jesus is asking Father to keep their people in his Name, that they may reflect the oneness between him and the Father.  Jesus notes that he has kept these people in his Name, guarding them with it.  Only one of them has been lost, an occurrence anticipated in the Psalms.

Jesus states he is coming to the Father now.  He is speaking these things in the world so his apostles can have his joy fulfilled in themselves.  He has given his Word to them.  The world has hated them because they are not of the world.  Jesus does not ask the Father to take them out of the world but to keep them from the Evil One.  Jesus notes his people are not of the world just as he is not of it.

He asks the Father to make his people holy in the Truth – the Father’s Word is Truth!  As the Father has sent Jesus into the world, so Jesus is sending them into the world.  For their sake he consecrates himself so they may be made holy in the Truth.

My friends, this is an incredible passage!  It is one that honestly pulls us away from the realities of the world’s life and imbeds us firmly in the salvation given us by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!  Looking around at our lives in this world, a person can get ground down by the ways in which the world works on its people.  And these ways are ultimately nothing but trouble.  They keep promising freedom and improvement for our lives, but they end up making them more pressured and destructive.

That is why it is so heartening and strengthening to be plunged into Jesus’ high-priestly prayer this morning and have our lives thoroughly re-set in his own!  More than six weeks ago we were exposed to our Lord’s suffering and death in Holy Week and, since then, we have been walking in the brilliant Light of his resurrection.  Over these weeks we have been reminded that Baptism brought us into the Lord’s death and resurrection, and that his rescue of us from sin, Satan and death enables his people to reflect his Life through all that we are and do.  During these same weeks, however, we learned that such reflecting is not easily done.

There are many dominating realities in Jesus’ prayer, ones that show how his redemption wraps around our lives.  He asks the Father to keep us true to his Name so we can be one as they are.  This Name receives little or no consideration from the world, but it is a powerful one.  It reflects the Father’s statement to Moses – “I am who I am!”  This is the same Name into which we have been baptized.  It is also the same Name that Jesus spoke when the temple police came to arrest him that Maundy Thursday evening.  When Jesus spoke it, it knocked all of them to the ground!  He baptized us into that Name so we can be surrounded with the Life shared by Jesus, the Father and the Spirit.  Jesus also notes that he has kept the apostles in that Name, losing no one except the one who betrayed him – Judas.  Stunningly, that same keeping extends to his followers today and beyond.

Since his dying and rising are looming, Jesus points out he is now coming to the Father.

He further comments that he is saying these things so he can share his joy with his followers to the full.  This joy is an eternal reality, one that is not achievable by what we work on, but by what he does as he pulls eternity into the present time.  Thankfully, Jesus has passed the Father’s Word on to his followers, the Word which breaks down the world’s life and then restores people to the Life streaming from Baptism.

But then Jesus startles us with the assertion that the world hates us!  Wait a minute!  The world hates us?  Here we are, rolling along so well: kept by our Lord; sharing his joy; receiving his Word into our lives!  Now we’ve got hatred and hostility?  Such a realization makes us want to back up or away from what our Lord is describing!  This is not what we had in mind when we found ourselves being drawn into the Son’s crucified and resurrected Life!  We may be wondering how Jesus can be talking of all these great realities that attach to our lives in him and then casually bring up the world’s hatred for his followers?

He can do that easily, my friends.  Thousands of years ago the world took a walk from its Creator and chose to create a life of its own.  As a result, the world now gives birth to people whose thoughts and actions are fully imbedded in themselves.  Such people honestly believe that the universe spins around them.  However, when our Lord appears and challenges that understanding with a much different look – the Creator wants the world to return to him; the Creator offers its people his Life; the Creator’s ways revolve around the giving of one’s self, not grasping for one’s self; the Creator is, in reality, the center of universe – the world instinctively reacts with hatred and hostility!

As the Lord God attempts to bring his real Life to the world’s people, it upsets the lives they have created and maintained.  Baptized into the Holy Trinity, then, we should not be all that surprised when we attempt to reflect his Life to the world around us.  We, too, will see that hatred and hostility flare up, both inside and outside the Church’s life.  At the same time, though, we should not let that hatred and hostility cause us to back up or away from such reflecting.  In this prayer, Jesus comments that this is the way life is in the world, so he asks his Father to protect his followers from the Evil One.  He reminds us that we do not belong to the world just as he does not belong to it; we belong to him as he belongs to the Father!

Consequently, he asks the Father to make us holy and to send us into an absorbed and trapped world.  Being made holy by the Father is another stunning reality that emerges from this passage!  Through our exposures to the Lord’s holy places – his Baptism and his Holy Writings, his Forgiveness and his Eucharist – he draws us mercifully into his Life and creates the holy reflections that spin out from what we think and do.

This contrasts sharply with the way life is in the world.  The world is always focused on itself.  It will pay some attention to the Lord God, but it always keeps him at a distance so we can be at the center of all we are and do.  There are thousands and thousands of individuals who applaud this approach and who encourage others to imitate it.  This is a tragic error because it separates people from the only Life worth living – the Life streaming from the Son’s crucifixion and resurrection!  As the Lord’s rescued people we are baptized to step into the world’s separation and tragic errors so we can faithfully reflect the realities of the Lord’s magnificent and stunning Life!

Here we are today, sitting between the Lord’s Ascension of this past Thursday and the pouring out of his Spirit next Sunday on the Festival of Pentecost.  We are fully aware of the world’s life with its absorption and predictability, its attractiveness and disruptiveness.  We are frightened by its deadly illnesses, along with its different economic and political considerations.  We are wearied by histories and ethics that do not reach beyond the individual.  However, we are surrounded by the most incredible Life this world has ever seen!  This Life has grasped our own and grounds us in the dominant realities spinning out of Jesus’ prayer for us today!  This is THE resource on which the life of every person can be based.  May the Lord’s rescuing and sustaining activity continue to swirl around everything we are and do as his rescued people!

Now may the peace of the Lord God, which is beyond all understanding, keep our

hearts and minds through Christ + Jesus our Lord

Pr. Carl A. Voges, Columbia, SC; carl.voges4@icloud.com