John 17:20-26; Asking for the World II

Now we are truly ready to read the passage for today. Jesus will pray for those brought to faith through the ministry of the disciples only after he has re-connected with God and has prayed for the original disciples. The intended recipients of the prayer in v. 20 include not simply the first generation of those evangelized but also those of us that have come to faith through the word first spoken by them. The amazing scope of v. 20 reaches down to us and even to those who come to faith or who are nurtured in faith through us. Just as Jesus is linked to the Father, and the disciples are joined to Jesus, so he will say in this prayer that those who come to faith through the ministry of the disciples will be linked to the earlier sources of this chain of beings. If the Scripture says elsewhere that a threefold cord cannot quickly be broken (Ecc. 4:12), this passage illustrates that truth through the connection from God, through Christ, to the first disciples, and continuing on to us. Let's turn to the important themes of the passage: (1) unity and (2) glory.

A. Though Christ prayed for the unity of the disciples in v. 11, that prayer was brief and quickly turned to the other theme of that section--protection of the disciples. Here, however, the theme of unity is the fervent prayer of Jesus. It might be good to look at the structure of v. 21 and vv. 22-23, the two verses where unity is mentioned. The Greek of v. 21 reads, literally:

"that all might be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you, that also these might be in us (other ancient sources say 'one in us') that the world might believe that you have sent me..."

Verses 22-23 are quite similar:

"so that they might be one just as we (i.e., Jesus and the Father) are one; I in them and su in me, that they may be perfectly formed into one, so that the world might know that you have sent me.

We should notice a few points from these verses. First, unity is something that is a present reality and not a future hope. That is, the tenses of the verb are always present. There are ample ways of saying things that are about to happen or will happen in the future in Greek, but John employs none of these. Thus, the unity for which Christ prays is something that the disciples and those who believe in Christ through their ministry already possess. When we try to unite in formal ecumenical understanding, or when we connect in informal ways across denominational lines, we are not "making this passage happen." Rather, we may be demonstrating, to a small degree, the truth which this passage proclaims is already ours.

A second thing about unity is the fruit or result of it. Unity is valuable for the sake of itself but in each instance quoted above it is important "so that the world might know that you have sent me." Since the disciples' realization that Jesus came from God triggered Jesus' prayer to be glorified (i.e., to "get on" with the drama of death/resurrection), so the world's realization that Jesus came from God is the result of the unity of the disciples. Unity may be important in and of itself (that will be my third point), but here the emphasis is on the world's realization that the Father sent Jesus. Once the world realizes this, then Jesus becomes the focus of study and discipleship for all. That is the basic question, then, isn't it. Did Jesus come from God or not? If we say "yes," then we look into the world of Jesus as portrayed by the Evangelists; if we say "no," we may study Jesus but we see him just as an interesting historical figure.

A third thing about unity is the nature of our present experience of it. Jesus prays not only that we "be" one, but that it be a unity that is just like that between Christ and the Father. Earlier Jesus had said, "The Father and I are one" (10:30), and so we understand how we should manifest unity with others by studying the way that Christ and the Father are united. This, then, gives us a completely different focus and eagerness in study of the Gospel of John. We not only study it to get comfort or insight about living, but to learn about the nature of the unity of Father and Son in its pages. For that is the kind of unity that disciples of all ages and times should manifest for each other.

But we can take things one step further. The interesting phrasing of v. 23 tells us even more about this unity. After the "customary" language of "I in them" and "you in me," there is the phrase, "so that they might be perfectly into one." The Greek participle is from the word teleo, a verb meaning to complete or to render perfect. Alone of the Gospels, the Gospel of John has Jesus say on the cross, "It is finished!" (completed, perfected--tetelestai--John 19:30). Thus, the unity of the disciples with each other is something that is "perfectly one"--as perfect and complete as was the giving of Christ for the life of the world.

Is this true today? Of course not. Is it getting closer to being true? I don't really know. But if we truly read and want the Scriptures to form us, to shape us, we will have to conform our thoughts and actions to its parameters. We are already one. We are to be perfectly one in him. There really isn't any equivocation or explanation beyond this.

Finishing with Glory

Jesus' final wish is that for the disciples to see his glory (v. 24). There is a little ambiguity in the passage. It appears in the broader context of Jesus' prayer for those who come to faith through the ministry of the disicples (i.e., even reaching to us), and so the thought could be that Jesus is praying for us to behold his glory. A more limited interpretation would see Jesus' prayer as only for the disciples--that they would see his glory. I think both have support in the text, but I will read it in the context of 17:20-26 to suggest that we, too, can behold the glory of Christ.

Jesus prays that those whom God has given him (i.e., all disciples, in my reading) will be "with me" and "see my glory." Many commentators think of this as a sort of post-death experience where we will be "with Christ." But I think the power of Jesus' prayer and John's conception of glory is that it is already available to those who have eyes to see. Recall that even in the first few verses of the Gospel John "tips his hand" on the subject of glory.

"And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth" (1:14).

Even though the word "glory" in this Gospel has a future dimension to it (Jesus prays for God to glorify his name; he says that he would be glorified shortly after the Greeks come and ask for him--12:23), "glory" is also something Christ shared with God from the foundation of the world. It is an enormously rich concept, a sort of timeless intimacy, comprising in its two syllables all the riches of historical life as well as heavenly existence. To behold Christ's glory means not simply to have seen him in the flesh or to be a witness to his death and resurrection, but to be "with him" or, in the language of John 15, to "abide in him." Christ prays for us in John 17 to "see" his glory, and we do so by realizing that our very lifebood is drawn from Christ, that apart from him we are nothing, that the Spirit leads us into all truth, that Christ can and will do even greater works in us than the Father did in him. The power-packed concluding verse of the prayer, then, is that we, too, can join in the seeing and experiencing of this glory of Christ.

Words seemingly fail in trying to explain the concept, but I will close with a quotation from Paul who was wrestling with the same idea. When speaking of the "gospel of the glory of Christ" to the Corinthinians, he breaks into this incomparable thought:

"For it is the God who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (II Cor. 4:6).

That is the promise of the Gospel this morning. And that is its mystery. Long for the face of Christ, for the manifestation of his glory. I think it is a revolutionary thought.

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