Take this personally
Saturday March 4, 2006
John 17:20-26
Take this prayer personally, you were meant to.
We have been listening to the prayer of Jesus on the night he was arrested. He has finished the last supper with the twelve disciples, and he speaks this prayer that has been remembered and passed on to us by the people who heard him
“I am not praying for these disciples alone but for all who will come to me and believe in me because of their witness.” That includes you and me, Jesus prayed for us. And of course Hebrew 7.25 tells us that he is still praying on our behalf.
We might expect Jesus to spend a lot of time praying about the shock, horror and terror that the disciples were going to experience by being involved with him during his arrest and crucifixion. But he has few words for that because he intends to be return to them after three days and his words then will heal their trauma and strengthen them for the hostility that will come towards them from many sources. He says, “I have revealed you and will keep on revealing you.”
Jesus had faith, he was about to die in faith, he believed that God dwelt in his inner personal being. And he was asking and expecting that after he went back to his father he would enter into the inner being of all who believe in him. We would be united with God through him and because of this union with the Divine the world would know that God loves the person who believes in Jesus as much as God loves Jesus. That’s an extravagant statement.
This claim is so extravagant that we tend not to hear it. Of course we believe that God loves everybody, but we don’t hear in what way or how much God loves people.
Talking about love is hard to do because almost immediately we start talking about loving behavior; and indeed love is a behavior, but it is more, it is the expression of the heart of God. A poor attempt to identify love is that we enjoy behavior that is motivated by a person’s love for us but are delighted by the statement that we are central and motivating force in the inner being of the person who loves us. God’s love for us makes us equal with Jesus, we are the central and motivating force of God’s being.
“I have given them the glory you gave me, the glorious unity of being one as we are.” Society frequently comments that if this part of Jesus’ prayer is answered we would all belong to one denomination. The focus of this prayer is not about how the various groups of believers will organize themselves for mutual support but about the connection of each individual to God through Jesus. The glorious unity that Jesus asked for is evident in that we are all individually united to one God.
“Father I want these individuals that you have given me to be with me so that they can see the glory I had with you before the world began“. These are Easter words, this is the Easter Hope. In order to prepare ourselves for Church-wide annual celebration this Easter, we can choose to consider the glory Jesus had with God before the world begun.
John 17:20-26
Take this prayer personally, you were meant to.
We have been listening to the prayer of Jesus on the night he was arrested. He has finished the last supper with the twelve disciples, and he speaks this prayer that has been remembered and passed on to us by the people who heard him
“I am not praying for these disciples alone but for all who will come to me and believe in me because of their witness.” That includes you and me, Jesus prayed for us. And of course Hebrew 7.25 tells us that he is still praying on our behalf.
We might expect Jesus to spend a lot of time praying about the shock, horror and terror that the disciples were going to experience by being involved with him during his arrest and crucifixion. But he has few words for that because he intends to be return to them after three days and his words then will heal their trauma and strengthen them for the hostility that will come towards them from many sources. He says, “I have revealed you and will keep on revealing you.”
Jesus had faith, he was about to die in faith, he believed that God dwelt in his inner personal being. And he was asking and expecting that after he went back to his father he would enter into the inner being of all who believe in him. We would be united with God through him and because of this union with the Divine the world would know that God loves the person who believes in Jesus as much as God loves Jesus. That’s an extravagant statement.
This claim is so extravagant that we tend not to hear it. Of course we believe that God loves everybody, but we don’t hear in what way or how much God loves people.
Talking about love is hard to do because almost immediately we start talking about loving behavior; and indeed love is a behavior, but it is more, it is the expression of the heart of God. A poor attempt to identify love is that we enjoy behavior that is motivated by a person’s love for us but are delighted by the statement that we are central and motivating force in the inner being of the person who loves us. God’s love for us makes us equal with Jesus, we are the central and motivating force of God’s being.
“I have given them the glory you gave me, the glorious unity of being one as we are.” Society frequently comments that if this part of Jesus’ prayer is answered we would all belong to one denomination. The focus of this prayer is not about how the various groups of believers will organize themselves for mutual support but about the connection of each individual to God through Jesus. The glorious unity that Jesus asked for is evident in that we are all individually united to one God.
“Father I want these individuals that you have given me to be with me so that they can see the glory I had with you before the world began“. These are Easter words, this is the Easter Hope. In order to prepare ourselves for Church-wide annual celebration this Easter, we can choose to consider the glory Jesus had with God before the world begun.
posted by Jessie Coates at 8:59 PM
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