Reflection on John 17:20-26

 

John 17:20-26

Jesus prays that the life of his followers will be characterized by an intimate unity of identity with God. To be so identified with God means also to share in God’s mission: to proclaim the word that will bring others into this same unity.

[Jesus prayed:] 20 “I ask not only on behalf of these but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory (divine image) that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24 Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory (divine image), which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

25 “Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them.”

 

Reflection

For those of you who remember Marian Feathers, she loved recalling the day one of her children was acting up in church.  She quietly ordered them to settle down, but the child refused to listen to her.  This got her husband Bill mad, so he quickly put the child on his shoulder to haul him out of the church.  Just as they were headed out the door the child looked out at the congregation and pleaded, “Pray for me!  Pray for me!”

It is good to be prayed for.  And in our gospel reading for today, Jesus is praying for us.

And, before I go any further, I just want to stop right there and sit with that for a second.  I just want that reality to sink in for a moment.  Jesus Christ, our king.  Jesus Christ, the Son of God the Father.  Jesus Christ, the word made flesh, through whom all was created.  That important and busy divine Son of God took a moment of his precious time in order to pray for you.  He prayed for you.  If you do not believe me, look.  It is there in the scriptures.

While Jesus is praying to God the Father, he mentions how he is asking things, not only for the benefit of his disciples who are standing right there, but he is also praying and asking things “on behalf of those who believe in me through [the disciple’s] word” (John17:20).  And, I do not know if you have ever considered this possibility, but it struck me the other day that Jesus is praying for us.  He is praying for you.  Because the disciples told generation after generation the story of the good news of Jesus Christ, and you trust that good news, because of that, Jesus is praying for you

Way back in 33AD, Jesus stopped and took the time to pray for you.  “That can’t be true.”  Of course, it is true.  Who else could he have been talking about?  At that time, he had not yet died on the cross.  The disciples, for whom he was also praying, had not yet begun their own ministry.  So, when he mentioned, “those who believe through [the disciples’] word,” he was talking about believers in the future (John 17:20).  Jesus had you in mind.  Jesus prays for you.  And, that is powerful stuff.

A few years ago, I was talking with a young man who had gotten into quite a bit of trouble with the law.  He was on probation and was working in the stock room of a local store.  I saw him through the door while I was shopping and I asked how he was doing.  We talked for a bit about his struggles with the law and his addictions, we also talked about video games, but he said one thing that day that still sticks with me.

He said, “For a long time I just didn’t really care about myself.  I didn’t care if I hurt myself.  I didn’t care if I hurt my parents.  I didn’t care if I ever got caught.  But, I care now.  I am trying hard now because a couple months ago I overheard my grandma, just down the hall, talking in her bedroom.” 

He was living with his grandma as a stipulation of his probation. 

“She was talking, but we were the only two in the house.  So, I put my ear to her door to see if there was anything wrong, if there was an intruder or something.  I realized that she was fine.  She was praying.  Only, I heard my name.  She was praying for me.  She was praying that I would be given a life that was good and worth something. 

I didn’t know anyone cared enough about me to even think of me, let alone pray for me.  But, my grandma did.  I decided right there that if she cared about me, maybe I should start caring about me.  And, I also decided that maybe I should try praying.”

It is good to be prayed for.  And in our gospel reading for today, Jesus is praying for us. 

So, what is it that Jesus wants so badly for us that he takes the time to stop and lift us up to God the Father?  Well, it says it right in the Bible.  Jesus prays: “As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21).

“May they also be in us” (John 17:21).

Just like the young man’s grandma prayed that her grandchild would return to a life of goodness and a worthwhile purpose, Jesus is praying that we might return and be with him and God the Father.  But, Jesus does not just want us back with him, he also wants us to have a purpose; “that the world may believe” that Jesus was sent by God the Father for the world as well (John 17:21).  Jesus wants more than anything for us to be one.

I want that too.  I am not even going to talk about the divisions within our nation and politics.  We do not have to look that far to desire unity.  Within my own extended family there are siblings who used to love each other who are bitterly divided.  Within my own extended family there are children who will not talk to parents, and there is a cousin who lives nearby another cousin who is struggling, but they refuse to help out.  This is all because something from the past has divided them, and none of them appears to ready to love like Jesus loved, or forgive like Jesus forgave.  You have the same thing in your families, I know.

And, all my family went to Sunday school.  All of mine learned “Jesus love me.”  All of them learned the words, “love your enemy, and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44).  They know John 13:34, even if they cannot tell you the verse and number.  They know that they have been commanded to “Love one another.  As I have loved you…”  They all know. 

But, they are like the little boy who was overheard praying: “Lord, if you can’t make me a better boy, don’t worry about it.  I’m having a real good time just the way I am.”

It is a joke, but it is so true.  There is something that we gain when we remain separated.  That is why we do it.  There is something that we think will fulfill our souls by remaining in a state of division.  Good fences make for good neighbors, we are told.  That is what the world teaches anyway.  The world tells us that being separated is important; that walls are a good idea.  But, Jesus takes time out of his busy day and stops his journey to the cross for a moment in order to pray that we might all be one.

Listen to Jesus’ prayer: “The glory (or divine image) that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one” (John 17:22). 

People out in the world tend to think that Christians come to church and put on a false disguise of love and goodness.  And, they think that because they have seen people who call themselves Christians out in the world and have seen what these people really do.  They have seen the truth.  All of the love and goodness at church seems to be put on for show.  They say that it is all a costume, but they have seen the truth.

My Sunday school teacher in High School, a man who was devoted to us teens and asked about our lives and our weekly struggles every Sunday morning, once talked about a guy who stopped by his little repair shop and accused him of that very thing. 

“I saw you for years at the bar.  I heard you talk.  I know who you left with at night, even though you were a married man.  What a fraud you have become, starting to go to church.  And, I heard you are teaching kids!  How can you do that?” the man accused.  Do you want to hear my Sunday school teacher’s response?

“You are right.  I was all of those things.  I still am some of them.  But, I don’t go to church to pretending to be someone I’m not.  I do not and put on a costume.  I go to church so that Jesus can wash off all of that grime, to have the costume that you saw stripped away, so that I can finally be who he made me to be.  And, you can be that too.”

The sin is the costume.  The image of the divine is the reality.  “The divine image that you have given me I have given them” (John 17:22).  We were born with an image of the divine on our faces.  We were born with an image of divine love in our hearts.  Genesis 1:27 says, “God created humans in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”  And in his prayer, Jesus reminds us of that fact.  Jesus says that the glory, the divine image, that was given to him, “I have given them” (John 17:22).

More than that.  The image we have been given is Jesus’ own image.  He is what the divine image looks like when walking and talking down here on this planet. 

And, you might have noticed that I keep saying, “We were born with an image of the divine” and that Jesus “reminds us of that fact.”  It is because that glory, that divine image that Jesus bears, Jesus says, “I have given to them” (John 17:22).

When washed clean, we all look like Jesus.  When washed clean we all love like Jesus, pray like Jesus, heal like Jesus, and serve like Jesus. And, if we all look like Jesus, then we are one; glorifying God together; bearing the image of God together for the world to see.

And, that is what Jesus prays, that we might finally be able to look at each other, see the face of Jesus in each other, love each other because of that face, and be united as one.  No more divisions.  No more hatred.  No more individuals being left out or pushed away.  No more people being forgotten.  No more sinners being barred from the table.  Jesus prays to God the Father hoping that, “the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them.” 

Jesus prays that we might be one.  Jesus prays that you might be one with him and with one another.  It is good to be prayed for.