John 17. 1–11
I wonder what was going on in your mind as you heard the gospel being read just now.
It may be that you were hanging onto every word, enjoying the beauty of John’s words, of the elegance in the way such significant theological concepts are expressed. Or perhaps you got to the end and couldn’t quite remember how we’d got there. After all, as a story there’s not much in the way of characters and action. It seems a bit abstract, convoluted, and even repetitive. But let’s stay with it for a few minutes and hear what Jesus is saying.
These are the words of a prayer. John sets them right at the end of the Last Supper when Jesus has spent time with his friends, seeking to prepare them for what is to come. In this prayer Jesus makes a number of statements and also two requests. He says something about himself, something about what he has done, and something about his impact – which I appreciate might make it sound more like a project evaluation statement than words in the New Testament.
I would like to focus on one statement he makes about himself, in verse 6: “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world.” How has he done this? The best way to make something known is by showing.
Let’s go back for a moment to the first chapter of John’s story. He has told us about the preaching of John the Baptist, and John’s conviction that he was not himself the Messiah but there was someone else yet to come. We have heard that when John baptized Jesus he saw the Holy Spirit descending like a dove from heaven; and we have been told how two disciples of John the Baptist heard him exclaiming of Jesus, “Here is the Lamb of God!” Hearing that, they followed Jesus.
I do enjoy the interaction that follows: Jesus turns around, sees these two following and asks them, “What are you looking for?” It is almost as if they are caught out. I can imagine them looking over their shoulder, realizing that he must be talking to them and saying the first thing that comes out of their mouth: “Rabbi, where are you staying?”
Jesus responds with the invitation, “Come and see.”
As with many conversations in John’s Gospel, there is more than one layer of meaning. He tells us that the disciples go and see where Jesus is staying, but not whether it’s the Hyatt hotel, the B&B down the road, or the bothy down by the river. The invitation to come and see is an invitation to see and know. These first followers tell their friends what they see – which is that Jesus is the Messiah, the one written about by Moses and by the prophets, the Son of God, the King of Israel. Jesus is making something – someone – known.
In the weeks and months ahead, they see Jesus make known the abundant generosity of God in meeting human needs – whether that be through healing, the restoration of those who are socially outcast, the extraordinary provision of wine and of bread, meeting not simply physical but spiritual need. They see God’s grief and God’s extraordinary power to restore life. They have heard Jesus call them friends.
It is all this that lies behind the statement, “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world”
“those whom you gave me from the world”
Did those first curious followers of Jesus know that they have been given by God, chosen to see, to know and to receive Jesus?
I suggested earlier that our reading didn’t seem to offer much of a story, that there arefew characters and little action. But that is not true.
This is not simply Jesus looking back and summarising what he has achieved; and it is not simply Jesus thinking of and praying for those who sit around him before he is arrested, tried and crucified. They are not the only characters in this story, for we are there too. His prayer looks far ahead and includes all who are drawn to his table. In verse 20 we read, “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.”
This prayer expresses a sense of extraordinary intimacy between Father and Son, but it is not private.
Jesus speaks of his followers as those who have been given to him by the Father. The verb ‘give’ is used nine times in this passage. The Father has given companions to Jesus, and Jesus has given them eternal life, and this eternal life is found in seeing and knowing Jesus as the son of God the Father.
As Jesus is asking his Father to protect and help keep faithful these friends and companions, he knows that they too are part of his gift to the world.
As we continue in worship, as we gather around the table to receive from God, as you turn and face whatever life holds for you today, hold onto this thought: you are a gift of the Father to Jesus, and in your faithfulness to Jesus you can be his gift to the world around you. Amen.