Preparing to leave this world, Jesus prays for those who remain. This is understandable: Christianity is inseparable from the person of Christ Himself. Christianity is not a new religion, not a new theology, not a new morality; it...
Preparing to leave this world, Jesus prays for those who remain. This is understandable: Christianity is inseparable from the person of Christ Himself. Christianity is not a new religion, not a new theology, not a new morality; it is new life. It is precisely this life that Jesus speaks about, and it is precisely this life that He opened to those who became His disciples. Christianity is, after all, the state of being a disciple of Christ: Christians (that is, messianists) was once the name given only to some of His disciples in one specific city, and only later did all His followers adopt this name for themselves.
Yet Christianity is a very special discipleship. Usually a teacher trains disciples in a craft, techniques, practices - something that, when the training is complete, can become an inseparable possession of the disciple. This applies to any learning: from mastering a craft under an experienced craftsman to training in spiritual and ascetic practices under masters of such practices. With Christ everything is different. Jesus, praying, says that He has revealed the Father's name to His disciples.
The main thing, however, lies elsewhere: in the life to which He has joined them. Yet one is inseparable from the other, because among believing Yahwists the sacred name of God was always connected with theophany and communion with God. To know the sacred name meant to know God Himself in the dynamic reality of one's relationship with Him. To become the embodied name meant to become God's person absolutely, to the very end - to the extent that human nature allows.
To the end and in fullness, this was achieved in human history by only one person, Jesus, for He was free from sin from the very beginning. For us, all the rest of humanity, one thing remains: to partake of His life, the life of the Kingdom that He brought into our world, which had separated itself from God by the wall of our sin. Discipleship here is not about learning from Him some skills, techniques, or practices (even spiritual or ascetic ones), but about learning a new life. It is about acquiring a new quality of one's own life, because new life becomes real for us only when it becomes ours. It is about learning to abide in the newly acquired life, to preserve it - to preserve it as a state, because this new life cannot become our property, even an acquired one, at least not at the earthly stage of our path. And only then, if we manage to solve this minimum task, will we be able to call ourselves true disciples of our Teacher: disciples for whom the Kingdom and its life are not merely words.
17 In this chapter our Lord prays,
And again, Joh 17:24-26.
In his prayer he comprises all he had said from Joh 13:31,
and seals, as it were, all he had hitherto done, beholding things past, present, and to come. This chapter contains the easiest words, and the deepest sense of any in all the Scripture: yet is here no incoherent rhapsody, but the whole is closely and exactly connected.
17:1 Father - This simplicity of appellation highly became the only - begotten Son of God; to which a believer then makes the nearest approach, when he is fullest of love and humble confidence.The hour is come - The appointed time for it; glorify thy Son - The Son glorified the Father, both before and after his own glorification.When he speaks to the Father he does not style himself the Son of man.
17:2 As thou hast given him power over all flesh - This answers to glorify thy Son. That he may give eternal life, etc - This answers to that thy Son may glorify thee. To all whom thou hast given him - To all believers. This is a clear proof that Christ designed hissacrifice should avail for all: yea, that all flesh, every man, should partake of everlasting life. For as the Father had given him power over all flesh, so he gave himself a ransom for all.
17:3 To know - By loving, holy faith, thee the only true God - The only cause and end of all things; not excluding the Son and the Holy Ghost, no more than the Father is excluded from being Lord, Co1 8:6; but the false gods of the heathens;and Jesus Christ - As their prophet, priest, and king: this is life eternal - It is both the way to, and the essence of, everlasting happiness.
17:4 I have finished the work - Thus have I glorified thee, laying the foundation of thy kingdom on earth.
17:5 The glory which I had - He does not say received - He always had it, till he emptied himself of it in the days of his flesh.