John 17:1-11 NRSVUE
After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. 5 So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.
6 “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me is from you, 8 for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. 9 I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I have been glorified in them. 11 And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.
I’m starting in verse one….
You can follow along in your bulletin if that helps you process.
I continue to have issues with the gospel of John, or rather, the way the gospel of John has been interpreted, so starting in verse one:
“After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you,”
What does it mean to glorify God?
Isaiah – the interfaith movement working for immigrant justice in the face of ICE occupation in Minnesota, posted a video of people joyfully singing about justice on the National Day of Prayer at the Minnesota State Capitol.
“I woke up this morning with my mind, set on justice”
And I thought – that’s so good!
Seeing clergy, and union members, and activists, and immigrants, and church people, and people who just want to be on the right side of history – all singing together about the values of the Kingdom of God!
Filling the Capitol Rotunda with the joy, compassion and inclusion of Jesus instead of the usual sexist, bigoted Conservative Evangelical garbage that typically happens at a national day of prayer.
With people who maybe this is the first time they’ve seen a version of the church that actually believes in what Jesus actually taught:
Good News for the Poor!
Love for our neighbors!
Welcoming the Stranger – which is a biblical word for immigrants.
And I’m thinking – this, THIS, is giving Glory to God!
This is showing people God’s glorious commitment to justice for ALL God’s creation, not just justice for some.
This is Glorifying the God of the Bible!
The God who in Luke 4:18-19 quoted Isaiah 61:1-3
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to set free those who are oppressed,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
This Glorifies the whole of the Triune God – Creator Christ and Spirit who spoke out for justice through the prophets and Jesus, Godself, who spoke out for justice!
Glory to God! And Peace with Justice on Earth!
It’s soooo good! Right?!
I knew it was a bad idea…but I looked at the comments.
And the one that really caught my eye was from a white missionary in Japan who commented:
“It’s poor taste to replace the word Jesus with justice for whatever reason this was done.”
“For whatever reason this was done????” So I look him up and see that he’s not in the US, so maybe he doesn’t know what’s been happening here.
So I look up the song and find out that original lyrics of this spiritual are,
“I woke up this morning on my mind, stayed on Jesus”
His issue was that the song had been changed so that it was no longer focused on the Name of Jesus.
His idea of what it means to glorify God is to glorify the name of God.
My idea of what it means to glorify God is to glorify the teachings of God.
Some of us progressive preachers refer to this as being Followers of Jesus instead of just Fans of Jesus.
Fans attend worship like it’s a concert and think their job is to increase the fan base.
Followers attend worship like it’s a tune-up and think our job is to bring good news to the poor and love our neighbors like love is a verb.
I’m jumping to verse 3 –
3 And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
We glorify God, so that people may know God.
But what does it mean to know God?
I admire the commitment that evangelical Christians have to introducing the maximum number of people to Jesus. I really do believe that people need to know God.
But knowing God isn’t just knowing that we are loved by God.
Knowing God is also knowing that others are also loved by God – therefore we are called to love others as God loves us.
Moving on to verse 4:
4 I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. 5 So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.
The gospel of John is filled with this all this “I am the Walrus” kind of language
Glorify he
And glorify me
As you are me
And we are we
And we are all together
It feels more like mystery tour lyrics than Biblical text!
It’s not just you.
You aren’t stupid.
It’s truly weird.
The gospel of John has language that just feels circular and hard to understand, because it’s trying to explain the mechanics of the Trinity – how the 3 persona’s of God can be One God.
Basically, verses 4 and 5 are trying to explain that Jesus is doing the will of God for the glory of God that Jesus, as God, shared with God since before creation.
Do yourself a favor.
Do not overthink Trinitarian theology!
It is enough to understand that Creator, Christ and Spirit all have the same personality.
One God.
One Personality.
No Angry vs Loving God.
Just a Loving God who gets mad when harm is done.
God is I Am.
Goo goo g’joob
Moving on to verses 6-10
We’ve got more Trinitarian, I am the Walrus kind of language, but Jesus is starting to talk about being from the world and having been given something – some words that Jesus then gave to us.
The words being the teachings that Jesus gave us.
The de-weaponizing of the commandments and the prophets from
thou shall not, or else
– to –
thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself.
And this message – the message that all of the commandments and the prophets can be summed up as LOVE.
Love God and Love your neighbor.
Was so radical that the author of the gospel of John is using all of this circular, Walrus-y, Trinitarian language to emphasize that the LAW OF LOVE really is
of God and from God,
just as Jesus is God and with God.
And we belong to Jesus
And we belong to Creator God
And we belong to the Spirit.
And we are all together.
And even though we are from the world.
And we are in the world.
We are not OF the world.
Because we belong to God.
I’m in verse 11 now.
So even though Jesus is no longer in the world.
We are.
We’re here, in this world.
And God is protecting us.
And God is reminding us that we all belong to God.
We are all one in God, as God is one.
We are one under the one rule of love.
And love calls us to love our neighbors.
Love calls us to love our neighbors and ourselves enough to demand justice for our neighbors and ourselves.
So if my mind is on Jesus then my mind is on justice.
And if I sing that my mind is on Justice then the world will see that Jesus’ mind is on justice – which brings glory to God’s name, in front of people who are from this world and looking for a better world to be a part of.
This is what we were trying to get at with the United Methodist Mission Statement:
Making Disciples of Jesus Christ for the Transformation of the World.
This is what we pray for every time we pray, “thy kingdom come, thy will be done, here on earth as it is in heaven.
So I woke up this morning on my mind, set on Justice.
Because my mind has stayed on Jesus
…and justice is what Jesus taught.
We are in the world
to transform the world
Because of Jesus.
