Due to some unusual circumstances and given that I was already prepping a children’s sermon, I was asked if I would lead worship using the Service of the Word liturgy. The invitation also included the note that a sermon was not expect on such short notice…24 hours. It was enough to consider how to adjust the children’s sermon after realizing that my Plan B for that was not going to work so I went back to a modified and expanded Plan A. So, I’ve been thinking in the couple of days since then, if I had had the time to write a sermon or reflection, what would I have written? The Gospel reading was John 17:20-26 (NRSVUE below), my favorite of the Gospels (minus some of the “I am” statements) and one of my all-time favorite passages. So here goes…
“I ask not only on behalf of these but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, 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. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
“Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you, and these know that you have sent me I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them.”
The Gospel of John was finished at the end of the 1st century, after the destruction of the Temple. Tensions were high between Jews and followers of Jesus. Traditionally, the author is said to be John, son of Zebedee, the beloved disciple. Scholars believe John the Evangelist and other scholars rearranged and made edits to it. The Johannine community this Gospel was probably written for was likely to be in Ephesus.
This particular passage is a portion of Jesus’ farewell discourse to his disciples and friends before he is arrested. While the setting for this is around a dinner table, there is no “Lord’s Supper” in John. Instead there is this long discourse with final instructions and prayer. Many find John difficult to read due to the abstract and mystical nature of some sections, a tendency to repeat things, and as in this passage, writing that seems circuitous. For John, Jesus’ divinity and as the incarnation of God is key. The cosmic Christ comes through in John. And this passage is one that speaks to that. While this passage is spoken by Jesus, it is not addressed to the others in the room, though they are privy to listen in. This passage is a deeply felt prayer to God the Father.
In the preceding passage, Jesus has prayed for his disciples, here he is praying for all who will be following after them. The prayer is for communion, for unity. In the course of this chapter, Jesus speaks to his being in the Father, the Father being in him (Jesus), and Jesus being in the disciples and future followers. He says this three times. He also makes the point that he has taught his disciples what they need to know…and that boils down to God is love. Earlier in John, Jesus has given his disciples and friends a new commandment, that they are to love one another and this is how others and the world will know that they are his followers.
These verses are reminders to Jesus’ followers and those yet to come, of the mutually loving relationship between Jesus and the Father, Jesus and the disciples, and thus the Father and the disciples. All that circuitous language “you in me and I in them and I in you” that gets repeated three times in some combination is about oneness and communion. The Lord’s Supper instructs followers to do “in remembrance” of Jesus. The word “eucharist” is Greek for gratitude. Communion comes from the Latin “communion” which means mutual participation.
The Gospel of John does not have a Last Supper narrative, but this passage is very much about communion and Communion. St. Augustine taught regarding the Lord’s Supper, that “we become what we receive.” Or more commonly, you are what you eat. The sharing of the cup which many probably think of as originating with the Last Supper had its origins long before. The passing and drinking from a common cup were part of the rituals of the Greco-Roman banquets that happened in both Jesus’ time and long before. The point of sharing a cup of wine was to unify those partaking in the banquet. This communion (mutual participation) created unity among the participants.
As Meda Stamper wrote in her commentary on this text in 2022, “eternal life will be an extension of the love of God stretching back before the foundation of the world, forward to us, and beyond us to the communion of the saints and to those who may be able to experience God’s love through us.
And so the Easter season culminates where the Gospel began: with Jesus making God known so that the world may know that every soul and all creation has come from and has a place in the creative love of God.” (Stamper, 2022)
In John’s gospel, Jesus prays for communion and Communion of his disciples, and all those to come, with each other and with him and with the Father. As we approach Holy Trinity Sunday, this prayer is for the mutual participation of all with all the saints of all time and in the life and work of God and God’s Kin-dom.
Stamper, Meda. “Commentary on John 17:20-26.” Working Preacher. May 29, 2022. https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/seventh-sunday-of-easter-3/commentary-on-john-1720-26-5#.
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