Preaching Paths 21 May 2023

Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary

 Rhetorically, John 17 is prayer, overheard. The Son addresses the Father, praying as crisis looms for himself and those who have followed him. We are meant to lean in closely.

The prayer’s opening verses comprise today’s reading. Homiletical prudence favors choosing either to focus on the profound theology of vv. 1-5 or to reflect on Jesus’ prayer of concern for his disciples in vv6-11.  Lections recur down the years; there is time for careful reflection.

Jesus begins by acknowledging that at last, his long-awaited “hour” has come (v 1a). Attentive readers will have encountered allusions to this “hour” throughout the gospel (see 2:4;  7:6, 8, 30; 8:20; 12:23, etc). We have been alerted already at 12:27 that it is a dreaded hour, yet it will be, paradoxically, the “hour” of Jesus’ “glorification.”

No straightforward English equivalent for “to glorify” exists. Although the noun δόξα  (“glory’) refers in classical Greek to one’s reputation, John’s deployment of the noun and related verb “to glorify” (42 occurrences in this gospel) carries uniquely theological import.  Perhaps “to disclose someone’s true identity and worth” moves in the right direction, yet this does not quite capture the worship-evoking intent of glorification.  

Vv 1b-5 form a chiasm that begins and ends with “glorification” of Father and Son, each glorified by the other. The Son has glorified the Father by making the Father known; now the Son petitions the Father that he himself may be glorified in this, his crucial “hour” of being “lifted up” in a final manifestation of divine glory (see 12:23-33).  Forming the central “hinge” of this chiastic structure is the theme of eternal life. Jesus has been entrusted with this gift, which he has imparted by making the Father known. John’s present-tense understanding of eternal life as “knowing” the Father, rather than future state, is a worthy preaching subject.

A pastoral focus characterizes vv. 6-11. Jesus speaks to his Father about his disciples, “those whom you gave me.” These do not belong to “the world,” yet must remain in it when Jesus goes to the Father. (Notably, “world” in  Johannine literature means not the cosmos as a whole,  but systems built on power-as-domination and the subjugation of the weak, the hallmarks of empire.) Jesus has “given everything” he received from the Father to those the Father entrusted to him. To give all that one has been given:  what better summary of what it means to teach with love, or to care faithfully for one’s parish community?

Jesus yearns that his disciples “may be one” as he and the Father are one. Amid deadly division among nations, ethnicities, and even churches, Jesus prays we will dare to practice mutual love and trust as we pursue God’s redemptive purposes—a radical vision indeed.