Readings:
- Acts 7:55-60
Psalm 97:1-2, 6-7, 9 Response: “The Lord is king, the most high over all the earth.” - Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20
- John 17:20-26
[Note that the readings for the Feast of the Ascension can be substituted for the readings for the Seventh Sunday of Easter.]
Reflections on the Gospel Reading
Today we listen to the very last words of Jesus in John’s Gospel before the passion narrative. John 17 presents Jesus’ long prayer at the end of the last supper discourse. After praying for himself and his disciples, Jesus prays for us. We are the followers of the original disciples; we are those who believe in Jesus through their word.
In this passage John lives up to his reputation as the eagle among the evangelists. We think of eagles as soaring to great heights, but perhaps a better image would be kettling. This phenomenon can be observed in places like Hawk Ridge in Duluth, Minnesota, in the middle of September. Migrating hawks and other raptors start flying in a tight circle and gradually gain altitude. Other hawks join in from the bottom until dozens of birds are spiraling upward forming a kind of kettle. Once the birds gain enough altitude, they stream out from the top and ride the thermals along a straight path, slowly descending until the reach the next kettling point.
John does this with words and phrases that he repeats over and over. He keeps circling back to concepts, each time on a slightly higher level with a slightly different emphasis. In today’s passage concepts of unity, glory, love, gift, world, and knowledge spiral in intricate patterns like a kettle of eagles.
Today I would like to concentrate on the theme of unity among believers. Jesus prays that we all may be one, and he uses the unity between himself and the Father as the model for our unity with him and the Father.
Raymond Brown points out that this unity has both a vertical and a horizontal dimension. The key to the invisible vertical dimension is our belief that Jesus is truly the messenger sent by the Father. This mystical dimension of the church involves both the present and the future. Already now, we believers enjoy the indwelling of Jesus and the Father. Yet to come is our union with Jesus in a vision of his glory that has existed since before the creation of the universe.
The key to the horizontal dimension of our unity is our love for one another, a theme that runs through the last supper discourse from beginning to end. It reaches its highest point where Jesus prays that the Father’s love for him will be in us, his disciples. For the present this love leads to unity in mission; in the future it leads to unity in glory.
Jesus’ emphasis on his followers’ love for each other resonated with John’s community, which seems to have been a poor and despised minority. They were a minority among other members of the Jesus movement as well as among other Israelites, who were in turn a minority in the Greco-Roman world. Their mutual love becomes a sign to others only if, on the surface of it, nobody in their right mind would want to belong to such a group of outcasts. Their example of self-sacrificing love for one another (agape) is what attracts outsiders (the world) to believe that Jesus is the one sent from the Father.
In its present form unity among believers “has to be visible enough to challenge the world to believe in Jesus.” (Brown 1970, 776) Who makes up this “world,” and how do we challenge them?
In today’s gospel reading John uses “world” in two different senses. When Jesus speaks of the glory he had before the creation of “the world,” it is a reference to the visible universe. However, when Jesus prays for unity among his disciples that “the world” may believe, it is a reference to people outside the Johannine community, particularly Israelites who did not believe in Jesus or had not yet believed in him.
In John’s Gospel Jesus never prays for “the world” in this latter sense. Jesus challenged “the world” of his day by his assertion of unity with the Father and his claim to be the revelation of God’s glory. Now his followers are part of that unity and heirs to that glory. Jesus prays that our love for each other will be so transparent that it will validate our belief in Jesus as the Father’s messenger and present others with an authentic challenge to believe.
This is a tall order, especially in the United States where Christians are part of the dominant culture instead of a despised minority. Our lack of unity and our lack of love for one another cloud our witness that Jesus is the true expression of God’s love for us. It is not enough to be scrupulously orthodox in the proclamation of our faith. Without evident devotion to one another along with caring, loyalty, solidarity, etc., our protestations of belief have a hollow ring. We as church must become compassionate with each other in order to be believable. If we are not compassionate, we lead non-believers into a false dilemma.
In addition, as members of the majority religion in our culture and as a powerful force in our society, we Christians must exhibit compassionate love for others, especially the poor and disenfranchised, in order for our witness to be credible. The tables are turned. Our love for other Christians must be more than mutual self-interest. Now, our wider love of all human beings is also part of what draws others to believe.
In his prayer Jesus points to the source of our unity as Christians. It is not the result of human endeavor but a gift from God in response to the prayer of Jesus. In today’s liturgy, as we enter into that same prayer of Jesus, we have the opportunity to pray earnestly for the gift of unity – unity in belief and unity in love – so that the world may drawn into the sphere of God’s love.
In preparing these reflections, in addition to the biblical texts, I consulted the following works:
Brown 1970 – Raymond E. Brown, S.S., The Gospel according to John (xiii-xxi), Volume 29A of the Anchor Bible (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1970), pp. 768-781.
Cousar et al. 1994 – Charles B. Cousar, Beverly R. Gaventa, J. Clinton McCann, Jr., James D. Newsome, Texts for Preaching: A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV, Year C. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994), pp. 338-340.
Dodd 1968 – C. H. Dodd, The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel (Cambridge: The Cambridge University Press, 1968 [originally published 1953]), pp. 417-423.
Fuller 1984 – Reginald H. Fuller, Preaching the Lectionary. The Word of God for the Church Today (Collegeville [MN]: Liturgical Press, 1984), pp. 440-441.
Malina & Rohrbaugh 1998 – Bruce J. Malina and Richard L. Rohrbaugh, Social-Science Commentary on the Gospel of John (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1998), pp. 244-248.
Moloney 1998 – Francis J. Moloney, S.D.B. The Gospel of John. Sacra Pagina Series Volume 4, A Michael Glazier Book (Collegeville [MN]: Liturgical Press1998), pp. 458-481.
Pilch 1997 – John J. Pilch, The Cultural World of Jesus, Sunday by Sunday, Cycle C . A Liturgical Press Book (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1997), pp. 85-87.