Breaking the Word

And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are. When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me, and I guarded them, and none of them was lost except the son of destruction, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you. I speak this in the world so that they may share my joy completely. I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world… (Jn 17:11-19) 

There is a description about the disciples in this section. They are the ones the Father has given to Jesus. They already belong to him. Now Jesus is handing them back to his safe keeping. They are distinct from ‘the world’. Through Jesus’ teaching they have become cleansed and new people. They are not from the world.

This does not mean that they have no human ancestry, homes and families. They have physical bodies which will one day decay and die. ‘The world’ in this gospel means the world that has rebelled against God; that is wicked; the evil and the dark force. This world has hated the disciples.

So the prayer of Jesus is to protect them from this world. He prays that they may be kept safe, and kept united. He also prays that they be consecrated. Consecration in the Jewish background is to be set apart for the Temple service (High Priest). Temple is the place where God dwells. So consecration is for God’s service. Jesus prays that the disciples be set apart because that are for God (they belong to God and the word of God is with them) and hence that are not form this world. 

When Jesus had said this, he raised his eyes to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come. Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you, just as you gave him authority over all people, so that he may give eternal life to all you gave him. Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ. I glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do. Now glorify me, Father, with you, with the glory that I had with you before the world began. "I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you gave me is from you, because the words you gave to me I have given to them, and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me… (Jn 17:1-11)

Jesus is praying. Prayer is a mystery. No one can penetrate the one who is praying except the one who is doing it. The prayer that is recited, sung can be witnessed and judged. But the praying itself cannot be penetrated. Praying is a relationship between the Father and the one who is praying. Gospels bear witness to Jesus that he prayed. But they do not tell us how he prayed or what he prayed. We may get a glimpse of it here.

Here, in this section, the prayer seems to be a celebration. Jesus is celebrating because his work is completed. All, what the Father had asked him to say and do Jesus has completed. There is a sense of completion and fulfillment.

This leads to the next section of prayer which is a request. Jesus requests that he be exalted, glorified and lifted up. He should be lifted up to the right side of the Father. This is the position, according to the Jewish tradition, that the Messiah is suppose to attain. The Messiah will rule a kingdom that stretches from sea to sea, from ‘River’ to ‘the ends of the earth’ (Psalm 72.8). This is the prayer in which we are called to join in.