Bible Reading: John 17:6-19
Dear Friends,
As if often the case, context is everything in biblical interpretation. And the context of this week’s passage
happens on Thursday evening, the eve of Jesus’ crucifixion and departure from his disciples – matters because it helps
set the scene for Jesus’ words of promise to his disciples tucked into a prayer he offers to his heavenly Father. There are three parts to this prayer and promise, each of which holds, I believe, import for our hearers today.
1) The world can be a difficult place. This perhaps doesn’t seem like much of a promise, or at least good news. But it’s the truth, and given how many voices in our culture invite us to imagine that if we just buy the right product or vote for the right political party life will be honky dory, it’s important that church be a place where we can stop pretending and tell each other the truth. This life is at turns beautiful and difficult, and difficult, wonderful and painful. Jesus knows that his departure will prove immensely challenging for his disciples, and he does not sugar-coat that but instead tells them the truth. Let us do the same.
2) Christianity does not provide an escape from life’s difficulties, but rather offers support to flourish amid them.
One of the more heart-rending elements of this prayer, I think, comes when Jesus prays, “I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one.” Oh, how much easier it would be, the disciples may have thought, if you would only take us with you. Yet that is not Jesus’ promise. Rather, he asks for God’s support and protection of them against all the evils of the world. I’ve often thought that there are two understandings of the Christian faith. Both recognize that this world can be difficult, painful, and tumultuous. One version believes that when you come to faith, the world stops shaking and everything makes sense. The other believes that faith gives you the ability to keep your footing amid the tremors. This is the promise that Jesus makes his disciples then and now: not that they are exempt from struggle, but that they are not alone in those struggles.
3) We are here for a purpose: to care for this world God loves so much. There are two terms we should pay attention, the first is “given,” which occurs nine times in this passage, seventeen in this chapter, and seventy-five in John’s larger Gospel. And just what is given? Well, just about everything! Chief among these things is a) the disciples’ identity as those given by God to Jesus as precious, knowledge of God as loving parent, the word of truth about God’s love for the world and, particularly, the realization that they those persons who have been chosen and sent into the world to make a difference. Which leads to the second terms to notice: “world.” While often denoting that entity which is at enmity with God – hence Jesus says the world will hate the disciples as it hated Jesus – this is also the word John uses in 3:16, that God so loved the world… That’s right, this difficult and at times painful world is yet beloved of God. And we are sent precisely this world to bear witness to the truth that God loves the whole world, even when the world runs contrary to God’s design or desire. You see friends God continues to tell us the truth that this life can be difficult, that God has promised to be with us amid the challenges so that we not only survive but actually flourish, and that God intends to use us wherever we are to work for the good of this world God loves so much. Interestingly, the word translated here as “sanctified” – as in “sanctify them in your truth” – is the same word translated in the Lord’s Prayer as “hallowed,” which means that God is actually setting us apart and making us holy in order to serve the world. This in turn invites us to realize that the question for the Christian is never whether God will put to us to work, but rather how.
Imaging how God will use you to make this world God loves a more trustworthy place. Will it be through being a good friend to another, or listening to someone else’s struggle, or standing up for someone who is vulnerable, or doing an exceptional job at work, or volunteering to make a difference, or praying for those in need, or inviting someone to church to hear the truth about God’s abundant love for all of us. Who knows? What we do know is that God is at work in us and through us for the sake of this beloved world, and this week we are again invited to take part in God’s unfolding plans for the future.
Solomzi