Reflection on John 17:1-11

 

John 17:1-11 (NRSVue)

¹ After Jesus had spoken these words [to his disciples,] he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, ² since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. ³ And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. ⁴ I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. ⁵ So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.
  ⁶ “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. ⁷ Now they know that everything you have given me is from you, ⁸ for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. ⁹ I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. ¹⁰ All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I have been glorified in them. ¹¹ And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.”

Reflection

Jesus prayed for you.  Have you ever stopped to think about that?  Jesus prayed for his followers.  We get to hear the words of his prayer right here in the gospel of John.  And since Jesus prayed for all his followers, that means that Jesus also prayed for you. 

It is like the night that a childhood friend of mine walked past his mother’s bedroom door after using the bathroom and overheard her talking.  There was no one else in the house.  His mother and father had divorced recently, so he could not imagine that anyone else would be in the bedroom, so he thought anyway.  He put his ear to the door and distinctly heard his mother praying to God for him.  She prayed that the divorce would not bring harm to his life.  She prayed that he might walk in better, less destructive ways.  She asked for forgiveness for all the ways that she was failing him as a mother.  What was the most remarkable thing to my friend was not what she prayed about, it was the very fact that she was taking the time to talk to God about him.

“She yells so much at me, I didn’t realize how much she cared.”

She prayed for him, and he was blown away by that simple fact.

Jesus prayed for you and me.  I am blown away by just that simple fact.  The breath of God that spoke the world into being, the very wisdom of God that brought order to the chaos waters that swirled about before creation, the Word of God who made our world into something beautiful and wonderful, the very hands and feet of God in the flesh, took the time to assume a posture of prayer with those hands and feet, and of all things that he could have prayed for, he chose to pray for you and me; his followers.

I need that reminder.  In a busy world with too much to do and too little time to do any of it well, in a lonely world where you are surrounded by people but few stick around to talk, in a world where tragedies and unexpected complications remind us that death is like a snake in the grass, just waiting to strike, I need the reminder that Jesus is not too busy or oblivious to stop and pray for even someone like me, and someone like you.

And what Jesus asks on our behalf is so on point.  It might not seem like it at first.  The Gospel of John is full of so very many words, but when you can untangle those words, you find that they are so on point and so relevant to our own prayers.

Jesus prayed, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him” (John 17:1-2).

Again, this may sound nothing more than a sentence of tangled words, but it is helpful to know that the word “glorify” in the ancient Greek language simply means: “reveal.”  So, Jesus prays that God the Father reveal or let us clearly see Jesus, the Son.  He asks this because Jesus truly wants to clearly reveal or show us the heart of God the Father.  Another way of putting it is that when Jesus hears us ask, “God, show me” or “God lead me” or “God I don’t understand” Jesus desires that our eyes might be opened to truly see him, because he is “the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).

Just a few years ago I was talking with a woman who feared death.  Of course, we all fear death in one way or another, but it was causing her major panic attacks.  She could not sleep.  She feared losing her husband.  She feared what the last moments of life are like and feared what might or might not be beyond.  She kept saying, “I want to know.  I just need to know.”  “Can you tell me?” she pleaded.

I prayed for her.  I prayed for her a lot, asking the same things that Jesus asked, asking that God might allow Jesus to show her what she needed to see so that she could finally find some rest and peace in the face of these anxiety-filled questions.

I think of another conversation that I had with someone else who was spared death, but asked over and over again, “Why am I still here?  What does God want with me?  What reason did God have for keeping me around?”  Behind the questions I could hear a yearning for life to finally be over, but for some reason God had chosen for life to not be over, and the person desperately needed to know why.

Again, I prayed.  I prayed that this person might not be kept in the dark.  I joined Jesus in his prayer to God the Father that this person might be able to look at Jesus and see these secrets of the Father that seemed so elusive.  I prayed that Jesus might show them the Father’s heart and the Father’s plan and purpose for them. 

Again, I said that I joined in Jesus’ prayer because he prayed that when we look at him, we might see something that would give us hope in the face of fear and in the face of uncertainty and not knowing.  Jesus prayed that we might see God through him, and I was praying the same thing.

And praying the prayer of Jesus made me think of other prayers Jesus that Jesus prayed, and that led me to a great and wonderful realization through which Jesus did give some peace and hope.

I thought about Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane as his own death approached.  I thought about how Jesus asked for the cup to be taken from him.  I thought about how he questioned his purpose and whether he was on the right track and questioned if death was the only way.  I thought about the words of his prayer that held all this fear and confusion: “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me, yet not my will but yours be done” (Luke 22:42).

“Yet, not my will but yours be done.”  The words of the prayer lingered with me.  “Yet, not my will but yours be done.”  I thought about the absolute trust behind those words.  It is a trust that says, “I don’t want to drink a cup of death, but if that is the way, then I will trust it.”  It is a trust that says, “I don’t know exactly what you expect of me, but I will trust that your will is the right one.”  And I thought about how that sort of trust in the face of fear and confusion is none other than the beginning of eternal life.

Jesus teaches us, “This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent” (John 17:3).  Eternal life is trusting in God the Father and trusting in Jesus who reveals the heart of God. According to Jesus trusting him is living with God, both now and into eternity.  Eternal life is trusting the one who holds onto us and does not let us go, despite our fears and questions, despite our misgivings about what the future holds or our purpose.  Jesus prays to God the Father, “All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I have been glorified in them” (John 17:10).  We belong to God, no matter our fears and no matter our confusions.

If I could resume that conversation with the woman who feared death so much, I would show her that Jesus too feared and had misgivings.  But I would also show her that above all Jesus trusted in God the Father.  And that relationship made all the difference.  That relationship of trust allowed him to go to the cross.  That relationship of trust allowed him to love the world.  There are some questions that we just cannot answer, but we can trust the one who holds all the answers.

And If I could resume that conversation with the person who questioned their purpose now that they continue to live, I would point out how Jesus questioned his own purpose as well, but he trusted that where God the Father was leading him would impact people with a life-changing and world-changing love.  That love would give all who are held close by the Lord true life with God that lasts forever. 

Let us pray, Lord let us see you, truly see you, and show us how you trusted God the Father.  Give us that sort of trust so that you can turn us from all our fears and confusions, allowing us to truly live.  Amen.