John 17: 20-26
Offered to the Beemerville Presbyterian Church, Wantage, NJ on May 29, 2022
Mel Prestamo, Ruling Elder PCUSA
I have a favorite way of referring to the Gospel of John apart from the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. It is that the Synoptic Gospels tell us what happened during Jesus’ ministry, the events of the day, the miracles, Jesus’ interaction with the people. Matthew, Mark & Luke tell us the “what” that happened. In his Gospel, John tells us why it happened. John looks at Jesus’ ministry, the miracles not from an awe-inspiring perspective but from a perspective of why did God do all of this for us.
So, this in a way tells us why the lectionary today, the Seventh Sunday after Easter takes us back to the evening of Jesus’ betrayal and arrest. Our lectionary directs us to go back to that evening so that we can listen in closely to Jesus’ prayers and John’s understanding of what Jesus what doing and why.
I want to begin my message for you today by reading again the opening of today’s Gospel reading. This is Jesus praying:
“I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you Father are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us.”
I want to stop there for a moment because I want us all to get the sense what Jesus is doing. This is awesome. We as Christians should drop our jaws and slap our heads and utter, “Holy [expletive deleted]”. That is how earth shattering this simple line of prayer is. Take a moment to visualize what is happening here. Jesus is hours away from the Cross. He is about to leave for the Garden where he will be betrayed, and what is he is doing? He is praying for us [you and me]. He has been praying all evening. He has prayed for himself and for the Cross that was coming. He had prayed for his disciples. But here He is reaching out across future millennia to ask the Father to sanctify us. Think about this, thousands of years before either you or your parents at your baptism uttered the words, “I believe that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior”, Jesus prayed that God would sanctify and bless you. I don’t know about you but that gives me a chill. Am I that important? Are you so important that on the eve of his arrest, Jesus is looking out across the eons at you and me and praying for us. This, I think, should give us pause. We should hear what john is telling us and reflect on who and what our God is. Our God, at the moment God is giving up God’s Son; our God, at the moment God is going to sacrifice itself for our reconciliation and restoration to righteousness, looks out into the future to pray for us that we may become one with the Father as Jesus himself is.
I ask again, are we that important? Well, I guess in God’s mind, in Jesus’ heart, we are. We are so important that hours before the Cross, Jesus is petitioning God on our behalf. That boggles my mind. Now, I want to be careful here. I don’t mean to say that we are special and set apart as followers of the Christ; that we are better than any other of God’s creation, that we stand above or apart from the rest. The Israelites made that mistake and turned God’s love inward on themselves and refused to share it. They were the Chosen People. But they made that choosing of themselves to be for themselves; and for that Jesus chastised them and told them they had it wrong. So, let’s not make the same mistake. We are important because we are dear to the heart of God. Through Jesus we have been given the inheritance of the Promise to Abraham. That is purely Grace from God. But it is not ours to keep solely to ourselves. It is an inheritance to be shared.
There is something else that this knowledge does for us. It should define us as Christians. We are dear to the heart of God, we have been showered with a Grace, an inheritance that has made us righteous again before God. But that gift of Grace is not a reward of any kind, it is a calling. This was how Jesus changed the concept of God’s promise. God, by way of the Cross, has made us righteous before God. But this righteousness calls us out. It calls us to actively represent God’s image by representing God’s love to the world. Jesus told us, “They will know you by your love for one another.”
Jesus continues his prayer for us,
“The glory that you have given me I have given them.”
Glory, what glory?
Jesus is speaking of his glory and triumph on the Cross. At this point, Jesus does not see what is coming as a death or an ending. He fully views the Cross as God’s triumphant moment in time and history. What is to come will be a world-shaking display of God’s almighty power and it will glorify God – and it will glorify Jesus through God’s power – and us through Jesus’ triumph over the Cross. It will be God’s healing reconciliation with humanity and our restoration to righteousness with God. And Jesus, is praying that God will make us a part of it.
Here’s the thing, Jesus is a total optimist. He is looking at death in the eye, but he is confident of the outcome because he is confident of God’s love. It will be to God’s glory.
He has this rag-tag group of followers. They are shaky at best in their understanding of who Jesus is and what is going to happen next. In a matter of hours, they will abandon him. In a week’s time, they will be locked in a room hiding. Yet Jesus is so solid in his confidence in the power of God, that he is praying to the Father in that moment more than two thousand years ago that when we hear his story through the witness of those disciples that we will be sanctified and become one with him and with the Father. This is a display of his complete faith and radiant certainty in the Father’s power. This passage should be precious to us. For it is Jesus’ prayer for us.
Jesus continues, “I have given them this glory, so that they may be one, as we are one. 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 love me.”
Now there ae a couple of things here, I want to pull out of this verse. Jesus is praying for us that God will love us as God loves the Son. Let’s pause here. I want you to think about this. Please think of that one person in your life that you love more than life itself. I want you to think about that person for whom your heart beats and even draws its own life and existence. Now imagine that person coming to you and asking you to love another person with that same intensity and fervor. Imagine that person whose life beats in your heart asking you to love another with no less than that commitment. I struggle with that. Is it something I can do? I have difficulty wrapping my mind and heart around such a request as this.
This is the Glory of God that Jesus wants us to be a part of. This is what Jesus prays for. This is the Glory that God has graced upon us. It is that God loves us as God loves the Son.
This is a wonderful and singular thing; God’s Grace being showered down upon us. It is the extension of the inheritance promised to God’s chosen people. The promise made to Abraham is revealed in us. The salvation of the Cross that is Jesus’ new Covenant is to be made known to creation through us.
And that my friends is the gift and the rub. This is where this wondrous gift becomes a calling.
You recall a few moments ago, I had mentioned that Jesus had told the Jewish people that they had gotten it wrong. That they misunderstood what it meant to be selected as God’s Chosen People. They took that gift and closed it in upon themselves. But Jesus’ ministry took God’s Grace and brought it out to the world, to the Gentiles, to the Samaritans, to the Greeks and even to the Romans. Jesus was adamant and clear that God’s love was for all of God’s creation and that in the sharing of that message the leaders of the Jewish religion had failed.
Now we are in the very same position. We are being asked by Jesus to share that love of God with the same intensity and fervor that Jesus has requested of God. “Make them one with us,” he asked. And that is what he asks of us.
“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you should also love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Jesus asked God to love us as God loves the Son. Jesus also asks us to love one another as he has loved us. But this is not to just throw it off and say, Yep, that’s the Christian thing to do. Yep, I’m there. No, it is much more than that. This request of us is the same one that Jesus made of God. Love them as you love me. It was a gut-wrenching prayer that Jesus made to God, and it is a gut-wrenching commandment that he has laid down for us. Being, children of the inheritance, being disciples of Jesus doesn’t just mean that we are saved, and we get to waltz into the Father’s Kingdom. It also means to that we are called to love all of God’s children as if we were loving Jesus and do for them whatever we would do for Jesus.
That is the challenge of Christianity. So, how should we respond to that challenge? What is it that Jesus expects of us? How would we show God’s Love? Hear these words from Matthew.
Matthew 25: “Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ 40 And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family,[ g] you did it to me.’ 41 Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’
My friends, this is the challenge of Christianity. We need to seek out the least of these Jesus’ children and care for their needs.
What, we as Christians, need to do is look at how we view the community around us and how this community views us. If the community of Wantage and Sussex County sees love, your love for your neighbor and the other, then it will see Jesus. Then the Kingdom of God will come down to earth as it is in heaven. Amen.
Charge & Benediction:
My friends, my charge to you this week is a simple one. Know that our lord Jesus prays for you. Have confidence in and be emboldened by His Gospel of Good News. Be his hands and feet and heart to the world and shine his light out brightly for your neighbors to see – even to others who you may not know. Then they will know that you are Christians by your love.
May the God of Glory shine his countenance upon you to light your way and give you peace.
