Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Friday, March 28, 2014 Read John 17:1-19 We come now to some of the most beautiful and powerful words in John’s gospel – the prayer of Jesus for his followers. Certainly this prayer belongs in the meal scene, doesn’t it? The final editor of John’s gospel wants his readers to associate this prayer with the meal. Yet, we are once again confronted with the reference to Jesus and his followers leaving the meal at the end of chapter 14. Is there another way for us to hear and think about this wonderful prayer? In the next chapter, chapter 18, we will find Jesus and his disciples in a garden across the Kidron valley to the east of the Jerusalem Temple at the foot of the Mount of Olives. That is the destiny for their leaving at the end of chapter 14. In fact, if we read the final verse of chapter 14, “Rise, let us be on our way,” and then jump over to chapter 18 and begin reading, “After Jesus had spoken these words, he went with his disciples across the Kidron valley to a place where there was a garden,” the sequence makes perfect sense. What we also discover is that we then match the storyline we find in the synoptic gospels (Mark 14:26-32, Matthew 26:30-36, Luke 22:39). We will look more fully at John 18 in the coming days, but there is something we should notice in the telling of this movement from the Passover meal to Gethsemane in the synoptic gospels. Once Jesus reaches his destiny at the foot of the Mount of Olives, all three synoptic gospel writers tell us that Jesus began to pray. Significantly, when John tells us that Jesus arrives at the garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives the prayer is missing. In John’s gospel Jesus does not pray in the garden. Jesus has already prayed. Could it be that John is very aware of the tradition of Jesus praying in the garden at Gethsemane but that he has taken that prayer and moved it ahead just a bit to place it within the context of the meal scene? We will notice that the prayer in John 17 and the prayer of Jesus at Gethsemane in the synoptic gospels are very different. In John’s gospel there is no agony for Jesus in the garden and there is no plea from Jesus that the Father “remove this cup from him.” We will talk about that later when we get to chapter 18 in John’s gospel. For now it is enough to say that the Jesus John has presented could never pray the agonizing prayer found in the synoptic gospels at Gethsemane. So if John found such a prayer in his traditions he would have omitted it. But, John does know that Jesus prayed! And Jesus does pray in John’s gospel – chapter 17. If, in fact, chapter 14 marks the “historical” ending of the meal scene, then perhaps the prayer in John 17 really belongs to the garden scene. The content of Jesus’ prayer in John 17 carries forward many of the same themes that have been a part of John’s gospel from the beginning and have been emphasized in the materials in the previous chapters (John 15-16). The prayer is very “theological” in nature – like much of John’s gospel, especially those parts that we have theorized might come from the eye-witness. The first few part of the prayer really is a prayer on Jesus’ own behalf – he prays that the Father might glorify him now that the hour has come. Readers of John’s gospel know by now that the “glorification” of Jesus is his death. His “hour” is also associated with his death. Jesus prays that the Father would complete his work through his death on the cross. Upon closer reading, the prayer also seems to do something we have noticed before – it morphs into commentary. It is a bit strange that Jesus should address the Father with the words, “that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). Why would Jesus refer to himself in this way in an intimate prayer to his Father? It would have been more personal and flowed better if Jesus had said something like, “that they may know you, the only true God, and me, the one whom you sent.” The prayer lends itself to be interpreted as both the “words of Jesus” and theological commentary on the part of the author. Once again it is important for us to observe that John as not interested in providing “verbatim” words of a prayer but of making a theological proclamation through that prayer. Having prayed for himself, Jesus now prays for his disciples who accompany him on the way to his glorification – his death. John has often spoken of the reality that we, Jesus’ followers, did not choose him but that he has chosen us. Jesus now says that God has given these disciples to him and that he has kept them. No one can snatch the sheep out of the shepherd’s hand. Jesus declares the true faith of his disciples – they have come to know him and believe that he has come from the Father and that he is now returning to the Father. Jesus is also very aware that their genuine faith will be tested. And so he prays for them. Jesus is also aware that one of those who the Father has given him has become the betrayer and is lost. We have known from the very beginning that Judas Iscariot was the betrayer (John 6:71). We have also heard that Satan has entered into Judas. So here the betrayal by Judas is spoken of more as a necessity than the choice of Judas. John tells us that it fulfills the scripture. Exactly which scripture John has in mind is not easy to determine. There is no OT scripture that tells of this betrayal directly. However, in the meal scene, Jesus had said something quite similar and there the quotation regarding Judas is directed to Psalm 41:9 – “He who ate my bread has lifted his heal against me” (John 13:18). It is likely that John has this same passage in mind here. We have struggled before with this sense that it was Judas’ destiny to become the betrayer – he could not do otherwise! There is a profound mystery in the fate of Judas. Perhaps we should not be so quick to place judgment upon him. Jesus prays for his followers who will remain in the world now that he is returning to the Father. Jesus’ prayer is essentially for two things – that the followers of Jesus might be one and that they might be protected from the evil one. John is keenly aware of the plague of disunity within the body of Christ – the church. Earlier he had hinted at the reality that there were “sheep who do not belong to this fold” (John 10:16). In that context John longed for the day when they would be brought together and there would be one flock and one shepherd. Just who these “other sheep” might be is not easy to determine – but one possibility is that they were Christians who were associated with the writings in Mark’s gospel along with those of Matthew’s and Luke’s communities. Maybe they were also Christians who were associated with Paul and his friends. We cannot know for sure, but the point here is that Jesus prays for unity – that all might be one. In his letters, especially in 1 John, John reveals a painful break within the community of John’s gospel (1 John 2:18-28). Exactly who John is referring to in 1 John is also beyond our ability to say with certainty. Was it Jewish Christians who now turned against Jesus because to remain faithful to Jesus would mean being “put out of the synagogue” now that the “Jews” had split completely from Jewish Christians. Was it others who had misinterpreted Jesus and become Gnostics? Was it simply people who no longer agreed with the eye-witness behind John’s community and ventured off on their own? As we think about our own time, we tragically know that there is disunity within the body of Christ – and tragically there are some who seem to thrive upon it! Wherever there is disunity we need to approach that disunity with a profound sense of grief and sorrow. We need to take seriously the need to heal the brokenness we find. We need to be committed to unity within the body of Christ. It is Christ’s prayer for his church. The second concern that Jesus prays about is that his followers might be kept safe from the evil one. Living in this world is a dangerous proposition. So, Jesus invites his followers to think of themselves as he understands himself – just as Jesus does not belong to this world, his followers also do not belong to this world. The big catch, of course, is that the followers of Jesus must still live in this world. What are some of the dangers that this world poses? Jesus has mysteriously spoken of Satan entering into Judas. There is evil in this world. We can be thankful that Jesus has prayed for his followers and that he has given his followers the Paraclete to make Jesus present to his followers. Jesus has also given his followers his truth. So Jesus prays that his followers might be “sanctified in his truth” – that they might be set apart from the world by his truth, that they might be made holy in the word that Jesus gives. But it is not only the presence of evil in the world that is a danger. The world itself is a huge part of the problem. The world has become the enemy of its creator. The world is in rebellion against its creator. Just exactly what that means is a real challenge for any of us. We may even disagree about some of those things. But the point here is to be aware of the danger of this world. Believing that we do not belong to this world has sometimes resulted in Christians not being involved in the care of this world. I think that is a mistake and is not what Jesus meant. The care of creation is an important part of the mission God has given to human beings. To use a passage like this one to argue against good environmental practices and “doing good” within the world would be a mistake. So it is a balancing act. It is to know that “this world” is not our final destiny, but it is also knowing that “this world” is still God’s world.