John 17 is the intercessory prayer of Jesus. This prayer gives me an opportunity to discuss the difference between church and world and even the meaning of life. Tension between church and world exists, in part, because the church defines the meaning of life in a different way than does the world.
In Act 5 scene 5 of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the character Macbeth has heard that the queen is dead and he knows his own death is imminent. At this time, he delivers his famous soliloquy:
Tomorrow, and tomorrow and tomorrow
creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, Out, brief candle
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
and then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot. Full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing.
Many people have pondered whether Macbeth might be right. Is life nothing but a shadow having no substance, no meaning? Writers and philosophers since recorded time have tried to answer the question. Obviously, no one has been successful in answering the question to the satisfaction of everyone. Someone once said that trying to speak about the ultimate reality is like sending a kiss through a messenger. I understand their point: Something of its truth is lost in the translation. The question of the meaning of human life is a philosophical one to be sure. I think it is also a genuinely human question. At some point, most of us ask it. We may ask it out of a sense of despair, hope, cynicism, curiosity, or a deep desire to have goals and guidance in one’s life. The question may be the most basic and fundamental of questions.
The question of the meaning of life also reveals a quite real problem we have. If the answer were staring us in the face, would we receive it? What would we do if we did not like the answer? I am not so sure we would embrace the answer, especially since embracing it might require us to change the course of our lives. In this part of the prayer of Jesus, John is making it clear that the Jesus as the Son reveals the Father and glorifies the Father. The meaning of a human life is to embrace this truth, to believe it, and live our lives in accord with its reality. We will not easily embrace such a truth. After all, we would rather go on searching instead of committing. We would rather do and believe what we want instead of finding the meaning of our lives outside us and within the life of the Father, Son, and Spirit. Thus, I think John is inviting us to reflect upon some basic issues of a human life.
As the Passover nears, chapter 13 begins with a description of the last meal of Jesus with his disciples before the Passover. Beginning at 13:31 through the end of chapter 16 is the "Farewell Discourse" of Jesus to the disciples - it is not unlike the many farewell discourses of Moses in Deuteronomy or that of Jacob, which begins in Genesis 47:29. After the farewell discourse, Jesus prays (chapter 17), and then Jesus and his disciples go to a garden across the Kidron Valley, east of Jerusalem, where Judas takes the soldiers and temple police, and Jesus is arrested. This high priestly prayer of Jesus takes the place of the Synoptic report of Gethsemane, in which Jesus anticipates the event of the passion. We should have this glorified picture in front of us if we are to appreciate the hard account of the Synoptics.[1] In this prayer, an indefinite number of people given the Son, who in verse 6, belong to the Father, who has then given them to Jesus, they hear the word of Jesus in verse 8, Christ will glorify himself in them in verse 10, and in verse 24, the ones given to Christ will be with him where he is.[2]
In John 17:1-8, the theme is glorification. 1After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come, referring to his impending crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. The hour is the moment when the Father will glorify Jesus for who he is. The hour of revelation has come, in which the cross reveals the unity of the Father with the Son, in contrast to Paul and the Synoptic Gospels that tend to focus on Jesus as obedient servant or prophetic teacher. Jesus shares the glory of the Father. Behind such affirmations is the debate in the first century concerning the identity of Jesus. In that hour glorify (δόξασόν) your Son so that the Son may glorify (δοξάσῃ) you. The prologue to this gospel testifies that the disciples have seen the glory of the only Son of the Father (John 1:14). This opening of this prayer focuses upon what such glorification of the Son means. Jesus shows himself to be the Son precisely in his self-distinction from the God.[3] Christ as John depicts him acts to complete his own sending, with everything in the conduct of the Son serving to glorify the Father and enhance the irruption of the reign of God into the world.[4] 2Since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life, emphasizing a quality of relationship that the believer has with God, not just length of time, to all whom you have given him. This suggests a difference between the disciples on the one hand and those not “given,” such as “the Jews,” Gnostics, and pagans, all of whom this gospel identifies as outside the community of John. 3 And this is eternal life, offering a definition of eternal life in this: that they may know you, not in the sense of Gnostic intellectualism, but from the fruit of experience, a personal contact that, when it matures, is love, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. In the prologue we learn that that the Son, who is close to the heart of the Father, has made the Father known (1:18). Other paths to God are toward a false God. The Father, whom the Son reveals, is the only true God. In the Old Testament, the Torah was the instrument of revelation, but now revelation is through Christ. We see the love of the Father revealed in the giving of Jesus. Therefore, when people respond with belief in Jesus as the Son, they appreciate that love and therefore “know” the Father. 4 I glorified (ἐδόξασα)you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. The aim of the message of Jesus is the hallowing of the name of God by honoring divine lordship. The sending of Jesus is for the glory of the Father and divine lordship. He glorifies the Father by proclaiming divine lordship. The prayer finely summarizing the synoptic tradition at this point.[5] The existence of all creatures, but especially of human creatures, reaches its fulfillment as they participate in the Son glorifying the Father.[6] He defines this glorification of the Father as revealing the deity of the Father on earth.[7] 5 So now, Father, glorify (δόξασόν) me in your own presence with the glory (δόξῃ) that I had in your presence before the world existed, affirming the pre-existence of Jesus. This passage would be an argument against the Socinian and other anti-Trinitarian teachers.[8] The Father glorifies Jesus by reaccepting Jesus into his original fellowship with the Father. In this way, the glorifying of the Father by the Son will come to fulfillment.[9] In these important verses, we find the Son glorifying the Father through prayer and praise, the glorifying of the Father by the Son finds correspondence in the glorifying of the Son by the Father. [10]
John 17: 6-8 conclude the section on a prayer for glory. It deals with Jesus' work of revelation among the disciples. Already implicit is the theme unity that underlies this whole section. 6 "I have made your name, person, nature, or essence known (Ἐφανέρωσά, or I revealed your name). The giving of Jesus reveals the love of the Father, so people must believe in Jesus as the Son to appreciate that love and thus "know" the Father. Thus, the primary task of revelation is to make the “name” of the Father known. The separation from Judaism is alarmingly obvious here. In the Hebrew Scriptures God revealed the divine name (YHWH) to the chosen people through the servant of the Lord, Moses.[11] In light of such statements of Jesus in the Gospel of John as "For you will die in your sins unless you believe that I am he" (8:24), the divine name referred to by Jesus is most likely that presented to Moses at the burning bush: "I am who I am" (Exodus 3:14). The object of revelation is to those whom you gave me from the world. The emphasis is on the separation that needs to happen between those who receive this revelation and those who do not. John composed the gospel in the teeth of bitter controversy between Jewish Christians and non-Christian Jews. Throughout John's gospel, a sharp and unapologetic distinction is made between those to whom and for whom Jesus delivered the message of eternal life and the several others (e.g., non-Christian Jewish synagogue leaders, Gnostic Christians, and pagans) for whom his message was not intended and by whom it was not recognized and received (see, e.g., 8:37; 17:9). This group of believers in Jesus as the Messiah was probably the intended audience of the Gospel (20:31), and John writes to encourage them to be steadfast in their faith. Jesus here is the mediator of revelation, something like an angel that shows and interprets revelation to the prophet. The prayer now turns to the work of revelation by Jesus among the disciples, as ones who know, and merit attention in a prayer like this. They were yours, you gave them to me, and they have kept your word (λόγον). 7 Now, they know that everything you have given me is from you. This tautology emphasizes the intimacy of the relationship between the Father and the Son, as well as the dependence Jesus has on the Father for all that he has received. In the context of the present verses, the most important thing the Father has given Jesus has been the disciples themselves. 8 For the words that you gave to me, I have given to them, in the time of his earthly ministry, and they have received them. The idea of giving, especially in the form of transmitting is the dominant theme of this chapter. Jesus personifies and glorifies the Father. Jesus as the true revelation of God has authority to grant eternal life. Eternal life does not refer to the quantity of time or even an eternal resting place after death. Rather, eternal life is a quality of relationship that the believer has with God. To have eternal life is to know God. To know God truly is to know Jesus and recognize him for who he is. We know God, not through Torah or even any other revelation, but rather, we know God through Jesus. Further, they know in truth that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. The prologue refers to Jesus as the true light (John 1:9) and that grace and truth came through him (John 1:14, 17). Further, it affirms that those who believe receive the power to become children of God (John 1:12). Those who believe receive eternal life (John 3:16). For John, eventually, the disciples have understood the full meaning and impact of Jesus, his divine source, his sacrificial life, and life-giving teaching. By extension, the community of John viewed itself as like the disciples. However, John has also recorded the difficulty the disciples in understanding these words. In general, we see in the New Testament the cryptic nature of the identity of Jesus combined with the eventual exclusive insights of a select group of apostles.
John 17:9-11, part of a segment that extends to verse 19, has the theme of intercession for the disciples and the world, a prayer for those whom the Father has given to Jesus. The assumption in the opening words is the hostility of the world, the opposition of the world to Jesus. “He’s got the whole world in his hand” is a comforting thought, and true from one perspective, but not the perspective of this prayer. The prologue reminds us, however, that the world came into being through the Word (John 1:10). Further, God loved the world so much that the Father gave the Son in order that those who believe would have eternal life (John 3:16). 9 I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, although we need to remember that Jesus is sending the disciples into the world. Rather, he is asking on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. The focus shifts to relationship. 10 All mine are yours and yours are mine; and the Father has glorified (δεδόξασμαι) me in them. We find here a reminder that creation does not make a human being a child of God in the unique sense in which John wants to use that term. One belongs to the Father as one belongs to or accepts Jesus. Jesus continues his prayer by emphasizing that believers are those in whom the Father glorifies Jesus as the Son.[12] 11 Further, now I am no longer in the world, a statement not true literally, but soon will be so. The prayer anticipates the passion of Jesus at this point. His departure is already under way. However, they are in the world. Affliction occurs because Jesus has entrusted the word of God to them, because as those whom Jesus sent and commissioned, they are no more of the world than is Jesus, because they can have no part in the self-understanding of the cosmos. They can only contradict it.[13] Further, I am coming to you. Holy Father[14], unique to this passage, protect (τήρησον)[15] or shelter them in your name that you have given me. Given the tense circumstances surrounding the work's composition and the beleaguered state of the community that preserved it, it is hardly surprising that the idea of protection from indifferent or even hostile forces would be a prominent concern. That God's "name" would afford the disciples protection reflects a complex understanding of the power and significance of names that was widespread throughout the ancient world, and the gift of this name to Jesus is the logical result of the intimate relationship between the Father and the Son articulated in the verse's final clause, "As we are one." That the “name” has the power to protect reflects the intimacy of relationship between Father and Son. The concern here is to keep them from contamination by the world. Such protection will have a result: so that they may be one, as we are one. The greatest threat from this world is its ability to breed divisiveness. Jesus sends his disciples into a hostile world, not to so much to change it as to challenge it.
Followers of Jesus need protection or shelter from the world. The world is a threat to the unity the followers of Jesus have with each other and with God. I came across what I thought was an interesting exploration into the prevalence of dust in our world that might give us a way of thinking about the concern of this prayer.
Dust is our beginning. It is also, most certainly, our end. "You are dust," said God to Adam, before tossing him out of the Garden of Eden, "and to dust you shall return" (Genesis 3:19). Dust is a blessing and a curse. Now, scientists tell us, dust is also a dramatic part of daily living. With every breath we take, we suck in tens of thousands of particles. Although we cannot see it, each of us walks the earth in a cloud of dust, shedding fragments of skin and bits of lint torn from our clothes through friction. One can measure it in microns, which is the type of measurement you can count on the head of a pin. Some of it is harmless, but some of it is deadly. Dust has swept away whole civilizations, burying dinosaurs so fast that they never got off their nests and suffocating all those folks you see in Pompeii, caught forever with a cry on their lips. Science journalist for the Discovery Channel Hannah Holmes suggests that by age 6, our children have consumed at least a cup and a half of pollen, pesticides, lead, dander, and fibers.
In her book The Secret Life of Dust (2001), Holmes promises an exploration of the various lives of dust, or more exactly, particulates. Those who watch the popular television series Bones will remember that “the king of the lab” often refers to particulates.
Some dusts menace the planet and its living residents. Some are beneficial to people, plants, and animals. Many are merely fascinating. All are going under the microscope. And the secret lives of dust are being revealed.
She tracks the enormous dust streams that pour across from Saharan Africa, fertilizing South American rain forests, and that carry the Gobi, particle by particle, across the Pacific Northwest. She also reports that our every human action produces tons of the stuff, from tire dust to the invisible clouds that arise from cooking, vacuuming, gardening and powdering baby. A whole dust food chain lives off it, fungi to mites to cockroaches, and their decomposing bodies and droppings add to the mess.
Dust is everywhere and unstoppable. Every breath you take brings 150,000 to 1 million specks—depending on the grubbiness of your environment—into circulation in your lungs. Many will wash out on the tide of exhalation, but not a lot of those industrial dusts, or asbestos dust, or quartz dust—all of which stay to kill you. Then again, Holmes is quick to admit, do not discount those dust bunnies skulking under the sofa that “contain everything from space diamonds to Saharan dust to the bones of dinosaurs and bits of modern tire rubber.” Then again still, dust fires the hydraulic cycle and gives birth to the stars and the heavenly bodies; every patch of the Earth is made of melted dust. Did dust start the Ice Age? Did it end it? Does dust help suppress asthma? Does space dust form noctilucent clouds?
Dust might be vital to life on our planet (and may, in fact, even be responsible for it). Yet, she also refers to it as this "heartless little brute" that could also be responsible for the deaths of millions. She is not talking about dinosaurs. (Or at least not just yet.). We are swimming in it. It covers us. We might very well have come from it, and--surely, eventually--we will become it.
Fascinating facts from the book:"...you breathe about 700,000 of your own skin flakes each day" "...a cup of flour... isn't legally filthy until it contains about 150 insect fragments and a couple of rodent hairs" "...the average child eats 15 or 20 milligrams of dust a day, and superslurpers eat 30 to 50 milligrams."
Dust. It is downright disgusting. We live in a dusty, musty, and rusty world. The dust is here. It will not go away.
Allow me for a moment to take this natural reality and apply it to spiritual life. Some dust is harmless. We do not need to have any concern about that. Some dust will help us with some forms of disease. We need to pay attention to that and learn what we can. Some dust is deadly. We need to learn to protect ourselves from it.
The prayer of Jesus in John 17:1-11 includes the prayer the holy Father would protect his disciples from contamination by the world. We part of a culture, rather than isolated from it. We must take the risk of what involvement means. As creatures of the earth, we will not live in a dust free environment. The point is that the intimacy of the relationship between the Father and the Son moves us toward such an intimate relationship with Father and Son that we can discern what is contaminating in the world from what is not.
I guess that means we need to maintain that type of intimacy with God.
We are citizens of another world. Jesus wants to provide his followers with a new way of viewing themselves. Jesus creates a new identity for his followers. They are getting a new passport. You are living on this earth, but every nation has become a foreign land. You are citizens of the eternal even as you remain in this temporal world. How do we survive as "foreigners"? If we are foreigners in a strange land, how are we going to cope? How can we make this work?
First, we can embrace our foreignness. If you have done any traveling at all, you know that the local people can always spot a foreigner. They look different, smell different, talk different, dress different and think different. Can we be similarly identified as belonging to God's world, rather than this world? This means, to keep working with the metaphor, that if Jesus says we're foreigners in this world, that the world should recognize us as total foreigners. We think differently. Our values are different. Our approach to life is radically different and sometimes contrary to this world.
Second, we can survive as foreigners by seeking God's protection. Jesus mentions this several times in our text. He asks the "Holy Father" to "protect them" (v. 11). He says that he himself has "protected" and "guarded" the disciples. Again, in verse 15, he says in this prayer to the Father, "I ask you to protect them." Evidently, living in this foreign land is not safe. From what do you suppose Jesus felt the disciples needed protection? It is possible he feared for their physical safety. He certainly was aware of his own fate at this point; and elsewhere he alludes to Peter's manner of death (see John 21:19). Perhaps he feared the attraction of the world itself with all its temptations. The apostle John writes to young Christians saying, "Do not love the world or anything in the world" (I John 2:15, NIV). He goes on to identify things we might love: "the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches" and says that these things do not come "from the Father but from the world" (I John 2:16).
[1] Church Dogmatics IV.1 [59.2] 268.
[2] Barth Church Dogmatics III.2 [45.1] 211.
[3] Pannenberg Systematic Theology Volume 1, 310.
[4] Pannenberg Systematic Theology Volume 2, 395.
[5] Pannenberg Systematic Theology Volume 1, 309, Volume 3, 625.
[6] Pannenberg Systematic Theology Volume 2, 56.
[7] Pannenberg Systematic Theology Volume 2, 391.
[8] Pannenberg Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 1, 290-1.
[9] Pannenberg Systematic Theology Volume 3, 625.
[10] Pannenberg Systematic Theology Volume 3, 11.
[11] (See, e.g., Deuteronomy 5:11, 10:8, 12:5, 12:21, 14:23, 16:6, etc.; see also John 17:26).
[12] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 11.
[13] Barth, Church Dogmatics IV.3 [71.5] 625.
[14] Although kinship terminology for the divine-human relationship is rooted in the most ancient strata of West Semitic religion, "Father" is not an epithet of God in the Hebrew Bible. Although it was not unknown in the Judaism of Jesus' time to address God as "Father," such an address is found only in apocryphal and rabbinic writings. "Holy Father" is a unique address to God, found only here.
[15] Protection is the point of Jesus' prayer and a frequent idea in the gospel of John; the word occurs far more frequently in John's gospel, in fact, than in any other NT book.
This is a good base to begin to build our world view. I liked your three points. The key for Christians is to know we are not of this world and to have a world view that is different than those around us. Too many times, in fact most of the time, we forget this and live as though we share the world's world view.
ReplyDeleteThank you. I found it helpful to see that every culture will require some discernment to live in it as a follower of Jesus. Such a decision to follow will always carry with it a tension with the prevailing culture, but not complete opposition. Every culture has redeeming qualities, in other words.
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