THE LORD'S PRAYER
(Jerusalem. Thursday night)
JOHN 17
I once spent a month in this chapter---it's bottomless. Right now, I don't know that I can spend another month here...just feeling worn out on studying the gospels and ready to keep moving. So I'm trying to take a global view, a broad glimpse, as I "fly over" John 17.
All throughout this passage, there is this sense of the correct kairos--timing. First, Jesus establishes that the time is ripe, "the hour has come." John 17:1 Then he establishes that he's "accomplished the work that you gave me to do." John 17:4
These are universally applicable to each of us--there is specific work for us to do during a specific time. Solomon echoes this principle throughout Ecclesiastes. It's crucial that we pay close attention to the timing, circumstances, and our correct work within these. To the list, I would also add ability---we can have time and work all day long, but we must also be operating with the correct ability and authority, "since you have given him authority over all flesh." John 17:2
"And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." John 17:3
Is eternal life not eternal life? It seems like a straightforward set of words, yet he defines it here as "that they know you." Can we only live eternally by knowing God? Do those who do not know God not live eternally?
I love that he mentions repeatedly that God's word has been given:
"For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me." John 17:8
"I have given them your word." -John 17:14
"Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." John 17:17
Word, truth, and sanctification all in interconnection.
Jesus repeatedly contrasts the world and its values and perceptions with God's. The world is hostile to his objectives; there's no diluting this. It's clear that he protected the disciples while on earth, and that although he didn't take them out of it, he petitioned God for their continued preservation:
"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 Scripture might be fulfilled." John 17:12
"I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one." John 17:15
The Fourfold Gospel frames our time in this world positively as well as protectively:
"The care which he asks in protection in, and not removal from, the world. It is best both for the Christian and for the world that he should remain in it. The world is blessed by the Christian's presence (Matt. 4:14- 16), and abiding in the world affords the Christian an opportunity of conquest and reward--Rom. 8:37; Rev. 2:26; 3:21."
"And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth." John 17:19
Jesus was without sin, but for the disciples' sake, he sanctified himself. This in itself is worth considering. To sanctify means to set apart as holy, so Jesus being able to do that for himself confirms that his role is godly.
"To sanctify means to set apart to a holy use. As Jesus himself had been set apart as God's messenger to the world, so he had set apart the apostles as his messengers to it. This setting apart was not a formal, empty act, but was accomplished by God's imparting or developing a fitness in the one sanctified to perform the duties for which he was set apart." -Fourfold Gospel
"Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word." John 17:20
Jesus prayed into the future, over us, even way back when. Fourfold points out that unity among the believers was mentioned in his petitions to the Father twice. Why does the Church struggle so greatly with unity? Is it because families struggle? Individuals struggle? What does the Lord make of this?
And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one. John 17:22
Throughout these last few chapters, there's this bizarre sense that Jesus is talking with them, talking to them, but also in communication with God. There is a repeated theme of God giving Jesus tasks, roles, abilities, and then of Jesus transmitting those same qualities and roles unto the disciples who were then being instructed to pass them on to us--the universal Church. So, there is a mysterious, repetitive linking among all of these pieces. Specific roles. Specific duties. Specific privileges.
There is also this sense that it is Jesus who connects God, who makes him perceivable and accessible, to the world at large:
O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. John 17:25-26
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