A journey towards intimacy with God...
In the Upper Room, hours before his arrest and with the knowledge of what was to come weighing heavily upon him, Jesus speaks to His Father. He speaks private, passionate words but he does not speak them privately, as he has done in the past when he has withdrawn to spend time alone with his Father. These were spoken at the table, for the disciples to hear, and John records them in his gospel. Is he sharing with his closest friends a glimpse of what his suffering will make possible- a relationship with God as Father?
"Father, the hour has come....
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. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; 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. 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. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. 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 the name you have given me, so that they might be one, as we are one...Now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves."
John 17: 1, 6-11, 13
In a week of increasing shadow and foreboding, where tensions and betrayal surround him, Jesus' sense of purpose and the source of his strength shine with a clear unwavering light. His prayer here is that we too may journey with such joy.
"Father, the hour has come....
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. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; 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. 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. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. 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 the name you have given me, so that they might be one, as we are one...Now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves."
John 17: 1, 6-11, 13
In a week of increasing shadow and foreboding, where tensions and betrayal surround him, Jesus' sense of purpose and the source of his strength shine with a clear unwavering light. His prayer here is that we too may journey with such joy.
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