Preached by Michael Cheuk
May 4, 2008, Seventh Sunday of Easter, Year A
John 17:1-11
Have you ever unknowingly walked in on a person who was praying? It can be a somewhat awkward situation. I remember one Sunday morning at University Baptist Church, and I was preparing for the worship service. I had one quick question for Tom Leland, my senior pastor, and so I walked into his office. I found him in front of a chair on his knees, hands clasped, head bowed obviously deep in prayer. I quickly turned around and stepped out of his office and waited until he came out before I asked him the question. He knew that I had entered his office while he was praying, but he was gracious enough not to mention it.
His response was quite different from mine when we had a group of friends over one night for dinner. One couple, who was notorious for always being late, was of course, late for the meal. The food was all set out on the dinner table and our other friends were all ready to sit down when we heard that couple’s car drive up. So we all quickly found our places around the table, and pretended we were saying the blessing. And right as they walked into the front entrance near the dining room, I prayed: “And O Lord, please be with the Wilsons, as once again they are late. Let them know that we waited as long as we could before deciding to partake of this meal. Inspire them to bring a very nice dessert to make up for their tardiness!” Our tardy friends were at first very quiet and reverent, until they quickly realized that my prayer was part of a joke.
Well this morning, in our Gospel lesson from the book of John, we are given the opportunity to overhear a prayer that Jesus prayed for his disciples. This was a prayer that Jesus prayed to his Heavenly Father, but it was also a prayer that was intended to be overheard by his disciples. And this prayer was no joke. Jesus and his disciples had just finished the last supper, and throughout this farewell meal, Jesus was constantly engaging his disciples, giving them final instructions and preparing them to continue with God’s work once he was no longer with them on earth. I imagine it was a pretty intense time. I should know, because I experienced something similar when Keith Smith announced his resignation as pastor of University Baptist Church where I was serving as an associate. In April of 2000, the ministers of UBC went on a final staff retreat at Graves Mountain Lodge, and during that retreat, Keith and I talked late into the night after dinner as he tried to impart as much wisdom and experience as he could to help prepare me to lead University Baptist after he was gone. As he spoke, I hung on to his every word because my future depended upon it. Throughout that evening, Keith tried to give me a heads up about the potential challenges that I would face during the transition period between senior pastors.
As we read the Gospel of John, chapters 14 to 16, that’s exactly what Jesus was doing for his disciples during their final meal together. But here in chapter 17, Jesus went one step further. Jesus prayed to his Heavenly Father on behalf of his disciples in a manner that they could all overhear. The first part of Jesus’ prayer was strictly directed towards his heavenly Father. And you can hear such a close intimacy in Jesus’ words that it almost makes you wonder whether you ought to be eavesdropping or not. But in these words, we hear that Jesus is celebrating the fact that his mission on earth is about to be accomplished. “The time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you,” Jesus said. “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.”
In the first five verses of this prayer, Jesus mentions the word “glory” five times. Jesus is asking God to glorify him just as he has glorified the Father. It sounds like Jesus is seeking fame, honor and esteem. And he is. Now for us, at first hearing, this sounds a little conceited, because we’ve seen glory-seeking people whose whole lives are revolved around pompously grabbing the spotlight and being boastful and proud about their own achievements and abilities. But throughout his earthly ministry, Jesus never sought out glory from other people; Jesus sought out glory from his heavenly Father. In John 8:54, Jesus said: “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me.” Jesus was not seeking human glory, but divine glory, a magnificence and splendor that He already shared with God the Father even before the world began. And in the Gospel of John, the glorification of Jesus begins with the cross. After Jesus entered Jerusalem in triumph during his last week on earth, Jesus told his disciples in John 12:23-25, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” Jesus later said in verse 32, “But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” And John adds this comment in verse 33: He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die. Yes, Jesus was going to be lifted up in glory, but the instrument of that exaltation would be the cross. So these intimate words that Jesus prayed to his heavenly Father refer to his own upcoming suffering and death on the cross, an event that will fully reveal the true glory and magnificence of God. They are not words of boasting triumph, but they are words of humble trust. And as Jesus moves toward his own death, he entrusts his own future to God. The words of his prayer show the love and trust that Jesus has for His heavenly Father.
The words of this prayer also show the love that Jesus and God have for God’s community in the world. For through the cross, people will know the depth of God’s love for the world. Through the cross, people might receive eternal life. Jesus said: “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” To know God and to know Jesus Christ–that, according to this prayer, is eternal life. The “knowing” that Jesus is praying for is not just an intellectual kind of knowledge. It is not just knowing facts about God. It is not just about knowing the right doctrines and correct beliefs, as important as those things are. Jesus was praying that his followers would learn to know God the Father and Jesus the Son through personal experience that is made possible by a continuing relationship of intimacy and love. This kind of knowledge involves the intellect for sure, but it also involves the emotions and the will. This kind of knowledge involves facts for sure, but it also involves love and faith. This kind of knowledge comes about through abiding in Jesus Christ, like a branch to a vine, drawing upon the life and sustenance that a true vine can provide. And to all people who accept this life-changing knowledge, God will give them eternal life. It is not only a life that lasts after death, but it is a life that is abundant and meaningful starting right here, right now. It is a life that is lived in the full presence of God surrounded by God’s protective care and loving kindness even in the midst of a broken world that has not fully received God.
So in these opening verses, we overhear the words of intimate love that Jesus had for his Father, and we get a sense of the deep love that God has for God’s community in the world. But that’s not all, for starting in verse 6, Jesus specifically prays for his disciples. On the eve of his death, Jesus speaks to God on behalf of the faith community. Having already entrusted his future to God, Jesus now entrusted the future of the Christian community to his heavenly Father. Jesus prayed in verse 9: “I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.” Jesus affirmed that his disciples ultimately belong to God: “They were yours: you gave them to me.” The disciples’ identity as God’s very own is manifested through their obedience and acceptance of God’s word, and their intimate knowledge, belief and trust that Jesus came from God. And even though Jesus would remain in the world no longer, Jesus asked his Holy Father to protect his disciples by the power of God’s name while they remain in the world. Bible scholar Gail O’Day writes that “Jesus’ final words before the hour are not last-minute instructions to the community about that it should do in Jesus’ absence; instead, his words turn the future of the community over to God. . . . The church’s future is thus shown to be God’s, not ours. That is, the future of the church ultimately does not depend on or derive from the church’s own work, but rests with God.”[1]
Every Sunday, as we as a church gather to worship God, we have a time of prayer in which we pray for those in our church and in our community who need our intercession. We as a church pray for those who are sick, those who are grieving, those who are going through difficulties in their lives. Frankly, it is one of the most important things that we do as a church. And this week, many of you have been in prayer for our associate pastor Amanda Johnston and her husband John, as she struggles to recuperate from double pneumonia and as he recovers from an upper respiratory infection. We know the importance of intercessory prayer.
On the other hand, most of us have also benefitted from the intercessory prayers of others. Our church office receives many letters from folks thanking church members for their prayers and their cards during times of illness and loss, and many times, they write about just how much they can feel and experience the power of those prayers. I personally have experienced the power of the prayers of many people when I have been sick. And throughout my college and seminary days, the organist at my home church in Shreveport would pray for me each and every day. Perhaps you also have someone who intercedes for you almost every day.
We know the importance of intercessory prayer. Perhaps that’s why this passage from John is so powerful for me. Because here, Jesus was not only praying for his disciples who were with him in that upper room during his last supper with him. No, in this prayer, Jesus was praying for all his followers throughout the course of time. In these words of intimate love and protective care, Jesus was offering a prayer for the church. Jesus was praying to God the Father for you and for me. We are the recipient and beneficiaries of Jesus’ prayer!
Several years back, right before my ordination into the ministry, my mom told me a story about my birth. I was a breach baby, which meant instead of my head coming out first, one of my legs came out first. It is a dangerous thing giving a breach birth, because a leg or an arm could get stuck in the birth canal. I had a hard time coming out into the world. After hours of trying to give birth to me, the doctors were about to take my mom into surgery, which at that time was a serious thing. My mom, who wasn’t not formally a Christian at that time, prayed to God that if He could safely deliver me into the world, she would do all she could to dedicate me to God’s work and glory. It was powerful for me to realize that even before I was born, my mom was praying for me, and I guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise that God answered my mom’s prayer and my mom made good on her promise!
It is also powerful for me to realize that even before the church was born on Pentecost Sunday-next Sunday, by the way-Jesus was praying for the Church: for the church universal, for Farmville Baptist Church, for the church gathered here this morning. It is powerful to realize that before we were born, Jesus prayed for us. Isn’t it amazing to know that the very Son of God himself prayed for you? And he did it in such a way that even today, we can overhear how Jesus spoke to God on our behalf. Jesus intercedes for all of us to know God in a relationship of intimacy and love. Jesus prays for us to remain faithful to God’s word, to believe and trust in God, to live in this world but not be of it, and to be unified as one even as Jesus and his heavenly Father is one. Sure, we fall short of what Jesus prayed for, but the whole story has not been completed yet, and it shouldn’t come as a surprise that God will answer Jesus’ prayer!
As I finish my message this morning, I want to ask one question. How would Farmville Baptist be different if we took as our starting point this truth: “We are a community for whom Jesus prays”? Knowing that Jesus prays for us, would that help us to better rest and trust in God’s care? Would that help us to entrust our future to God? Would that help us to step out in faith to follow God’s will? Would that help us to set aside differences that divide us so that we might be one just as Jesus and his heavenly Father is one? Might it help us to know that God will give us whatever God has given to Jesus? Think about these questions this week. And live out your answers with your lives.
All praise and thanks to the God whose Son prays for us to be the true and faithful Church of God! Amen.
[1] Gail O’ Day, The New Interpreter’s Bible: Luke – John (Volume 9), p. 797.
