John 17 and a Wii

We just got a Wii, and it is so freaking fun you have no idea. On to John 17.

Jesus Prays for Himself

1After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: "Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. 5And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

I'd like to note again that this section both 'give[s] eternal life' and also defines what that eternal life consists of. Jesus didn't die on the cross so that we might never die, but in exchange our eternal life consists of reading owner's manuals for all of eternity. It's an eternal life, and a life that consists of things that are worthy of eternity.

I remember being completely freaked out as a kid at the concept of eternity one night. I couldn't sleep at all, the whole night, I just couldn't stop thinking that a consciousness that goes on forever would be a terrible thing. Probably that's because our normal experience is so often filled with pain or suffering or boredom or discomfort or ennui or melancholy that I couldn't imagine anything else. But I'm not asking for an eternal life with 'the only true God, and Jesus Christ' to be non-stop pleasure, either. It gets too saccharine that way. It's more than pleasure, it's the happiness that can only come from finally coming home after a long trip, of being reconciled to a friend, of being at peace with someone you originally hated.

Jesus Prays for His Disciples

6"I have revealed you^[a] to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one. 12While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled. 13"I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17Sanctify^[b] them by the truth; your word is truth. 18As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

John 17:17 is often used as support for the proposition that the Bible is divinely inspired and is therefore what we should use for deciding theology, as opposed to, say, popular opinion or the authority of Popes or councils. I never really thought it was all that fair: "the Bible says that the Bible is true" is circular reasoning at its finest. But I've come to a better understanding of this verse in particular as a result of making my way through the earlier parts of John.

It could be the defining message of this entire gospel: the Truth. John recalls Jesus proclaiming himself "The Way, The Truth, and The Life." He says that all those "on the side of Truth listen to me." Pilate will later sneer, "What is Truth?"

And what is it? I think the blind man Jesus healed earlier in the Gospel (chapter 9) sums it up nicely:

24A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. "Give glory to God,^[b]" they said. "We know this man [Jesus] is a sinner."

25He replied, "Whether he is a sinner or not, I don't know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!"

26Then they asked him, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?"

27He answered, "I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?"

28Then they hurled insults at him and said, "You are this fellow's disciple! We are disciples of Moses! 29We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don't even know where he comes from."

30The man answered, "Now that is remarkable! You don't know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. 31We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will. 32Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. 33If this man were not from God, he could do nothing."

34To this they replied, "You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!" And they threw him out.

The image is pretty remarkable. The self-deception shown by the Pharisees here is incredible- they are truly spiritually blind. Jesus speaks the Truth: he says that he is God, and he is, he says people are sinful, and they are. Jesus explains exactly how the world works, and the world rejects him.

Or look later when Jesus is arrested and smarts off to the High Priest and gets hit in the face. Jesus says, "If I said something wrong, testify as to what is wrong. But if what I said was the truth, why did you hit me?"

That's not really a rhetorical question, you know. The man hit Jesus not because he thought Jesus was lying- he knew that Jesus was telling the truth. Why did he hit him, then? Perhaps he was scared of what would happen to him if he didn't. Perhaps he was simply a cruel person. At rock bottom, he hit Jesus because he preferred his own lies to Jesus' truth, just as Eve preferred the Serpent's lies.

So that passage, "Your word is truth" is a little more meaningful than "the Bible says that the Bible is true". I hope I'm expressing this coherently.

Jesus Prays for All Believers

20"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24"Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. 25"Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."

A call for unity of purpose throughout the Church that I still long to see. Thy kingdom come, on Earth as it is in Heaven. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.