john 17

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DOI: 10.1177/0020964313505974 2014 68: 72Interpretation

Peden Emile HarleyJohn 17

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Between Text and Sermon John 17

Peden Emile HarleyWinter Park Presbyterian Church, Wilmington, North CarolinaEmail: [email protected]

Christ Prays for Us

Who is in a position to condemn?

Only Christ,

and Christ died for us,

Christ rose for us,

Christ reigns in power for us,

Christ prays for us. (Rom 8:34, Book of Common Worship, Westminster John Knox, 1993, 56)

Each week in the church of my youth, the associate pastor spoke these words from Romans as part

of the assurance of pardon following the confession. To a boy who had just pondered his transgres-

sions, the idea that the risen Christ cared enough about us as individuals and as a community to

pray for us was indeed good news. In the midst of strife and stress, the reminder that Christ prays

for us is a treasure. It is a sign of Christs powerful love, which dwells with us and seeks us.

The 17th chapter of the Gospel of John gives us opportunity to hear Jesus pray for his disciples,

as well as for us, his disciples to come (John 17:20). The prayer comes at the conclusion of Jesus

long talk with his disciples in John 1316. The themes raised in the prayer echo those of the

preceding chapters. Jesus has spoken of the persecution and the hatred of the world that the disci-

ples will face. He prays that God protect them: I am no longer in the world, but they are in the

world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so

that they may be one, as we are one (17:11). Having sent the disciples into the world, Jesus prays

that they be sanctified in truth (17:19).

Perhaps most importantly for the church, Jesus prays, 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 (17:2223). Jesus goes on to pray, 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 (17:26).

This prayer echoes Jesus words, I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.

Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are

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Between Text and Sermon 73

my disciples, if you have love for one another (13:3435). Jesus commands us to love one another.

He prays that we might be loved by God and united with God and with one another. I suggest that

in praying for his disciples, Jesus models how we are to pray for one another.

A church following the Revised Common Lectionary will hear this prayer on the Seventh Sunday

of Easter. Still propelled by the good news that Christ is risen but also anticipating Pentecost, John

17 invites us to reflect upon how Christs commandment to love one another may be lived out in

the church. Through his prayer, we are given opportunity to hear of Christs abundant love for us.

A pastor preparing a sermon could reflect upon how prayers for one another, spoken and heard, are

a way in which the church lives out Christs calling to unity and love with each other and with God.

Although only a portion of the prayer is assigned each year in the lectionary (vv. 2026 in Year C),

a church might benefit from hearing the entire passage as a prayer. A liturgist could read the prayer

with the vocal cadence of one praying extemporaneously, giving congregants opportunity to hear

these words from Johns Gospel as a prayer of Jesus for them.

An Unexpected Blessing

Countless times as a student chaplain, I walked into a hospital room to greet a stranger, listen to

them, and offer to say a prayer. One time was different. I knocked on the door of the semi-private

hospital room and spent time with one patient before coming to the other. He was an older gentle-

man, and he was quite hard of hearing. Through a shouted conversation, I conveyed that I was a

student chaplain and training to serve as a pastor. He told me that he was the Pastor Emeritus of a

Baptist congregation. With limited ability to communicate with each other, I offered to say a prayer

with him as I would with any patient. In a moment of unexpected grace, he began to pray for me

instead. It was a prayer of blessing. He prayed for my current ministry, the training I would undergo,

and for the congregations that I would serve. I do not remember his words, but I do recall the feeling

that I had encountered an Isaac and had received a blessing that I did not deserve but greatly

needed.

How many people within our church communities have had the experience of hearing another

person or group of people pray for them in the last year? Certainly those who have been hospitalized

or faced a tragedy have heard such a prayer as their church family has sought to respond. For those

who have not faced a crisis, how many have heard such a prayer? What is at stake for the church

when we do not pray for others in such a way?

A Community of Love Bound Together By Prayer

In our relationships with spouses, children, family, and friends, expressions of love in words and

actions strengthen and reassure us in the midst of the challenges of life. Simple words and gestures

remind us that we are loved. Those gestures are not the love itself, but they are symptomatic of that

love. The love that we cannot see is made known to us by words we can hear, actions we can see,

and touch we can feel.


74 Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology 68(1)

Prayer orients us toward God and toward each other. In order to pray for another, one must take

the time to listen and to understand what that person needs, what challenges they face, and what

joys they celebrate. Such knowledge may deepen relationships between people, and it may give

sisters and brothers in Christ insight into how helping hands could be given to face particular

challenges.

What role does prayer play in churches in conflict? Does the practice of prayer shape how we

disagree? Will we find it easy to break away from the person who has listened to our fears and

hopes and dreams in order to raise a voice of blessing over us?

Words spoken in prayer are not magic. A spoken prayer will not on its own forever unite two

people, but I suggest that the practice of prayer is one significant way in which a community lives

out the unity and love for which Jesus prays. There are other important ways that we might express

that unity and love, but prayer may be a starting place. Prayer may draw out our empathy for

another; it may invite Gods grace into our relationships with each other. We encounter grace and

express love both in the act of praying for another and in the experience of hearing another praying

for ourselves.

Through the practice and teachings of Jesus, the church is called to be a community bound

together in love as it worships God. The essential question is how shall we live out that calling?

The reading of John 17 is an opportunity for the preacher to invite and challenge the church to

become a community of prayer by embracing the gift of prayer. It is an invitation to move from a

place where the pastor and a few other leaders offer most of the prayers, and move toward a com-

munity where everyone prays for each other. Such prayers will be one way in which the church

lives out its calling to be a community united with each other in Gods love.


john 17

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