26. THE INTERCESSORY PRAYER
John 17.
The prayer uttered by Jesus at the close of His
farewell address to His disciples, of unparalleled sublimity, whether we regard
its contents or the circumstances amid which it was offered up, it was for
years our fixed purpose to pass over in solemn, reverent silence, without note
or comment. We reluctantly depart from our intention now, constrained by the
considerations that the prayer was not offered up mentally by Jesus, but in the
hearing and for the instruction of the eleven men present; that it has been
recorded by one of them for the benefit of the Church in all ages; and that
what it hath pleased God to preserve for our use we must endeavor to
understand, and may attempt to interpret.
The prayer falls naturally into three divisions,
in the first of which Jesus prays for Himself, in the second for His disciples,
and in the third for the Church which was to be brought into existence by their
preaching.
The prayer of Jesus for Himself (vers. 1-5.)
contains just one petition, with two reasons annexed. The petition is, "Father,
the hour is come, glorify Thy Son;" in which the manner of address, simple,
familiar, confidential, is noteworthy. "Father!"--such is the first word of the
prayer, six times repeated in its course, with or without epithet attached, and
the name which Jesus gives to Him to whom His prayer is addressed. He speaks to
God as if He were already in heaven, as indeed He expressly says He is a little
farther on: "Now I am no more in the world."
The significant phrase, "the hour is come," is it
not less worthy of notice. How much it expresses!--filial obedience, filial
intimacy, filial hope and joy. The hour! It is the hour for which He has
patiently waited, which He has looked forward to with eager expectation, yet
has never sought to hurry on; the hour appointed by His Father, about which
Father and Son have always had an understanding, and of which none but they
have had any knowledge. That hour is come, and its arrival is intimated as a
plea in support of the petition: "Thou knowest, Father, how patiently I have
waited for what I now ask, not wearying in well-doing, nor shrinking from the
hardships of my earthly lot. Now that my work is finished, grant me the desire
of my heart, and glorify me."
"Glorify me," that is, "take me to be with
Thyself." The prayer of Jesus is that His Father would be pleased now to
translate Him from this world of sin and sorrow into the state of glory He left
behind when He became man. Thus He explains His own meaning when He repeats His
request in a more expanded form, as given in the fifth verse: "And now, O
Father, glorify Thou me with Thine own self, with the glory I had with Thee
before the world was," i.e. with the glory He enjoyed in the bosom of the
Father before His incarnation as God's eternal Son.
It is observable that in this prayer for Himself
Jesus makes no allusion to His approaching sufferings. Very shortly after, in
Gethsemane, He prayed: "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from
me!" But here is no mention of the cup of sorrow, but only of the crown of
glory. For the present heaven is in full view, and its anticipated glories make
Him oblivious of every thing else. Not till He is gone out into the night do
the sulphurous clouds begin to gather which overshadow the sky and shut out the
celestial world from sight. Yet the coming passion, though not mentioned, is
virtually included in the prayer. Jesus knows that He must pass through
suffering to glory, and that He must behave Himself worthily under the last
trial, in order to reach the desired goal. Therefore the uttered prayer
includes this unuttered one: "Carry me well through the approaching struggle;
let me pass through the dark valley to the realms of light without flinching or
fear."[26.1
The first reason annexed to the prayer is, "That
Thy Son also may glorify Thee." Jesus seeks His own glorification merely as a
means to a higher end, the glorification of God the Father. And in so
connecting the two glorifyings as means and end, He but repeats to the Father
what He had said to His disciples in His farewell address. He had told them
that it was good for them that He should go, as not till His departure would
any deep impression be made on the world's conscience with respect to Himself
and His doctrine. He now tells His Father in effect: "It is good for Thy glory
that I leave the earth and go to heaven; for henceforth I can promote Thy glory
in the world better there than by a prolonged sojourn here." To enforce the
reason, Jesus next declares that what He desires is to glorify the Father in
His office as the Saviour of sinners: "As Thou hast given Him power over all
flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given
Him."[26.2] Interpreted in the light of this sentence, the prayer means: "Thou
sentest me into the world to save sinners, and hitherto I have been constantly
occupied in seeking the lost, and communicating eternal life to such as would
receive it. But the time has come when this work can be best carried on by me
lifted up. Therefore exalt me to Thy throne, that from thence, as a Prince and
a Saviour, I may dispense the blessings of salvation."
It is important to notice how Jesus defines His
commission as the Savior. He represents it at once as concerning all flesh, and
as specially concerning a select class, thus ascribing to His work a general
and a particular reference, in accordance with the teaching of the whole New
Testament, which sets forth Christ at one time as the Saviour of all men, at
another as the Saviour of His people, of the elect, of His sheep, of those who
believe. This style of speaking concerning the redeeming work of our Saviour it
is our duty and our privilege to imitate, avoiding extremes, both that of
denying or ignoring the universal aspects of
Christ's mission, and that of maintaining that He is in the same sense the
Saviour of all, or that He will and must eventually save all. Both extremes are
excluded by the carefully selected words of Jesus in His intercessory prayer.
On the one hand, He speaks of all flesh as belonging to His jurisdiction as the
Saviour of humanity at large as the mass into which the leaven is to be
deposited, with a view to leavening the whole lump. On the other hand, there is
an obvious restriction on the universality of the first clause in the terms of
the second. The advocates of universal restoration have no support for their
tenet here. They may indeed ask: If Jesus has power over all flesh, is it
credible that He will not use it to the
uttermost? In reply, we shall not seek to evade
the question, by resolving the power claimed into a mere mediatorial
sovereignty over the whole solely for the sake of a part,
because we know that the elect part is chosen not
merely for its own sake, but also for the sake of the whole, to be the salt of
the earth, the light of the world, and the leaven to
leaven the corrupt mass.[26.3] We simply observe
that the power of the Saviour is not compulsory. Men are not saved by force as
machines, but by love and grace as free beings; and there are many whom
brooding love would gather under its wings who prefer remaining outside to
their own destruction.
The essence of eternal life is defined in the
next sentence of the prayer, and represented as consisting in the knowledge of
the only true God, and of Jesus Christ His messenger, knowledge been taken
comprehensively as including faith, love, and worship, and the emphasis lying
on the objects of such knowledge. The Christian religion is here described in
opposition to paganism on the one hand, with its many gods, and to Judaism on
the other, which, believing in the one true God, rejected the claims of Jesus
to be the Christ. It is further so described as to exclude by anticipation
Arian and Socinian views of the person of Christ. The names of God and of Jesus
are put on a level as objects of religious regard, whereby an importance is
assigned to the latter incompatible with the dogma that Jesus is a mere man.
For eternal life cannot depend on knowing any man, however wise and good: the
utmost that can be said of the benefit derivable from such knowledge is that it
is helpful towards knowing God better, which can be affirmed not only of Jesus,
but of Moses, Paul, John, and all the apostles.
It may seem strange that, in addressing His
Father, Jesus should deem it needful to explain wherein eternal life consists;
and some, to get rid of the difficulty, have supposed that the sentence is an
explanatory reflection interwoven into the prayer by the evangelist. Yet the
words were perfectly appropriate in the mouth of Jesus Himself. The first
clause is a confession by the man Jesus of His own faith in God His Father as
the supreme object of knowledge; and the whole sentence is really an argument
in support of the prayer, Glorify Thy Son. The force of the declaration lies in
what it implies respecting the existing ignorance of men concerning the Father
and His Son. It is as if Jesus said: Father, Thou knowest that eternal life
consists in knowing Thee and me. Look around, then, and see how few possess
such knowledge. The heathen world knoweth Thee not--it worships idols: the
Jewish world is equally ignorant of Thee in spirit and in truth; for, while
boasting of knowing Thee, it rejects me. The whole world is overspread with a
dark veil of ignorance and superstition. Take me out of it, therefore, not
because I am weary of its sin and darkness, but that I may become to it a sun.
Hitherto my efforts to illuminate the darkness have met with small success.
Grant me a position from which I can send forth light over all the earth.
But why does the Saviour here alone, in the whole
Gospel history, call Himself Jesus Christ? Some see in this compound name,
common in the apostolic age, another proof that this verse is an interpolation.
Again, however, without reason, for the style in which Jesus designates Himself
exactly suits the object He has in view. He is pleading with the Father to take
Him to glory, that He may the more effectually propagate the true religion.
What more appropriate in this connection than to speak of Himself objectively
under the name by which He should be known among the professors of the true
religion?
The second reason pleaded by Jesus in support of
His prayer, is that His appointed service has been faithfully accomplished, and
now claims its guerdon: "I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished
the work which Thou gavest me to do. Now, therefore, glorify Thou me."[26.4]
The great Servant of God speaks here not only with reference to the past, but
by anticipation with reference to His passion already endured in purpose; so
that the "I have finished" of the prayer is equivalent in meaning to the "It is
finished" spoken from the cross. And what He says concerning Himself is true;
the declaration, though one which no other human being could make without
abatement, is on His part no exaggerated, boastful piece of self-laudation, but
the sober, humble utterance of a conscience void of offence towards God and
towards men. Nor can we say that the statement, though true, was ultroneous and
uncalled for. It was necessary that Jesus should be able to make that
declaration; and though the fact declared was well known to God, it was
desirable to proclaim in the hearing of the eleven, and unto the whole Church
through their record, the grounds on which His claim to be rewarded with glory
rested, for the strengthening of faith. For as our faith and hope towards God
are based on the fact that Jesus Christ was able to make the declaration in
question, so they are confirmed by the actual making of it, His protestation
that He has kept His covenant of work being to us, as it were, a seal of the
covenant of grace, serving the same end as the sacrament of the Supper.
Having offered this brief petition for Himself,
Jesus proceeded to pray for His disciples at much greater length, all that
follows having reference to them mainly, and from the sixth to the twentieth
verse 6-20] referring to them exclusively. The transition is made by a special
declaration, applying the general one of the preceding sentence to that part of
Christ's personal work which consisted in the training of these men: "I have
manifested Thy name unto the men whom Thou gravest me out of the world."[26.5]
After this introductory statement follows a short description of the persons
about to be prayed for. Jesus gives His disciples a good character. First,
scrupulously careful not to exaggerate the importance of the service He has
rendered in training them for the apostolate, He acknowledges that they were
good when He got them: "Thine they were, and Thou gavest them me:" they were
pious, devout men, God-taught, God-drawn, God-given. Then He testifies that
since they had been with Him they had sustained the character they had when
they joined His company: "They have kept Thy word." And finally, He bears
witness that the men whom His Father had given Him had been true believers in
Himself, and had received all His words as the very truth of God, and Himself
as one sent forth into the world by God.[26.6] Here, surely, is a generous
eulogy on disciples, who, while sincere and devoted to their Master, were, as
we know, exceedingly faulty in conduct, and slow to learn.
Having thus generously praised His humble
companions, Jesus intimates His intention to pray for them: "I pray for them."
But the prayer comes not just yet; for some prefatory words must be premised,
to give the prayer more emphasis when it does come. First, the persons prayed
for are singled out as for the moment the sole objects of a concentrated
solicitude. "I pray for them: I pray not for the world."[26.7] The design of
Jesus in making this statement is not, of course, to intimate the absolute
exclusion of the world from His sympathies. Not exclusion, but concentration in
order to eventual inclusion, is His purpose here. He would have His Father fix
His special regards on this small band of men, with whom the fortunes of
Christianity are bound up. He prays for them as a mother dying might pray
exclusively for her children,--not that she is indifferent to the interest of
all beyond, but that her family, in her solemn situation, is for her the
natural legitimate object of an absorbing, all-engrossing solicitude. He prays
for them as the precious fruit of His life-labor, the hope of the future, the
founders of the Church, the Noah's ark of the Christian faith, the missionaries
of the truth to the whole world; for them alone, but for the world's sake,--it
being the best thing He can do for the world meantime to commend them to the
Father's care.
What Jesus means to ask for the men thus singled
out, we can now guess for ourselves. It is that His Father would keep them, now
that He is about to leave them. But before the request come two reasons why it
should be granted. The first is expressed in these terms: "They are Thine: and
all mine are Thine, and Thine are mine; and I am glorified in them;"[26.8--and
means in effect this: "It is Thy business, Thy interest, to keep these men.
They are Thine; Thou gravest them me: keep Thine own. Although since they
became my disciples they have been mine, that makes no difference: they are
still Thine; for between me and Thee is no distinction of meum and tuum. Then I
am glorified in them: my cause, my name, my doctrine, are to be henceforth
identified with them; and if they miscarry, my interest will be shipwrecked.
Therefore, as Thou values the honor of Thy Son, keep these men." The other
reason why the request about to be proffered should be granted is: "And now I
am no more in the world."[26.9] The Master, about to depart from the earth,
commends to His Father's care those whom He is leaving behind without a
head.
And now at length comes the prayer for the
eleven, ushered in with due solemnity by a new emphatic address to the Hearer
of prayer: "Holy Father, keep in Thine own name those whom Thou hast given me,
that they may be one, as we are."[26.10] The epithet "holy" suits the purport
of the prayer, which is that the disciples may be kept pure in faith and
practice, separate from all existing error and sin, that they may be eventually
a salt to the corrupt world in which their Lord is about to leave them. The
prayer itself embraces two particulars. The first is that the disciples may be
kept in the name of the Father, which Jesus has manifested to them; that is,
that they may continue to believe what He had taught them of God, and so become
His instruments for diffusing the knowledge of the true God and the true
religion throughout the earth. The second is, that they may be one, that is,
that they may be kept in love to each other, as well as in the faith of the
divine name; separate from the world, but not divided among themselves.[26.11]
These two things, truth and love, Jesus asks for His own, as of vital moment:
truth as the badge of distinction between His Church and the world; love as the
bond which unites believers of the truth into a holy brotherhood of
witness-bearers to the truth. These two things the Church should ever keep in
view as of co-ordinate importance: not sacrificing love to truth, dividing
those who should be one by insisting on too minute and detailed a testimony;
nor sacrificing truth to love, making the Church a very broad, comprehensive
society, but a society without a vocation or raison d'[Otilde]tre, having no
truth to guard and teach, or testimony to bear.
Having commended His disciples to His Father's
care, Jesus next gives an account of His own stewardship as their Master, and
protests that He has faithfully kept them in
divine truth.[26.12] He claims to have done His
duty by them all, not even excepting Judas, in whose case He admits failure,
but at the same time clears Himself of blame. The reference to the false
disciple shows how conscientious He is in rendering His account. He feels, as
it were, put on His defense with reference to the apostate; and supposing
Himself to be asked the question, What have you to say about this man? He
replies in effect: "I admit I have not been able to keep him from falling, but
I have done all I could. The son of perdition is not lost through my
fault."[26.13] We know how well entitled Jesus was to make this
protestation.
In the next part of the prayer[26.14] Jesus
defines the sense in which He asks that His disciples may be kept, and in doing
this virtually offers new reasons why the petition should be heard. He commends
them to His Father's care as the depositaries of truth, worth keeping on that
account, and needing to be kept, because of the world's dislike of the
truth.[26.15] And He explains that by keeping He means not translation out of
the world, but preservation in the world from its moral evil, their presence
there as a salt being necessary, and their purity not less needful, that the
salt might not be without savor and virtue. This explanation He meant not for
the ear of His Father alone, but also for the ears of His disciples. He wished
them to understand that two things were equally to be shunned,--conformity to
the world, and weariness of the world. They must abide in the truth, and they
must abide in the world for the truth's sake; mindful, for their consolation,
that when they felt the world's hatred most, they were doing most good, and
that the weight of their cross was the measure of their influence.
The keeping asked by Jesus for His own is but the
continuance and perfecting of an existing moral condition. He needs not to ask
His Father now for the first time to separate His disciples in spirit and
character from the world. That they are already; that they were when first they
joined His society; that they have continued to be. This, in justice to them,
their Master is careful to state twice over in this portion of His prayer.
"They," He testifies, "are not of the world, even as I am not of the
world,"[26.16] putting them on a level with Himself with characteristic
magnanimity, and not without truth; for the persons thus described, though in
many respects defective, were very unworldly, caring nothing for the world's
trinity,--riches, honors, and pleasures,--but only for the words of eternal
life.
Yet, notwithstanding their sincerity, the eleven
still needed not only keeping, but perfecting; and therefore their Master went
on to pray for their sanctification in the truth, having in view not only their
perseverance, growth, and maturity in grace as private Christians, but more
especially their spiritual equipment for the office of the apostleship. Hence
He goes on in the next breath to make mention of their apostolic vocation,
showing that that is principally in His eye: "As Thou hast sent me into the
world, even so have I also sent them into the world."[26.17] That they may be
fitted for their mission is His intense desire. Hence He proceeds to speak of
His own sanctification as a means towards their apostolic sanctification as the
end, as if His own ministry were merely subordinate to theirs. For their sakes
I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the
truth."[26.18] Remarkable words, whose meaning is obscure, and has been much
debated, but in which we may at least with confidence discover a singular
display of condescension and love. Jesus speaks here like a parent who lives
for the sake of His children, having a regard to their moral training in all
His personal habits, denying Himself pleasures for their benefit, and making it
His chief end and care to form their characters, perfect their education, and
fit them for the duties of the position which they are destined to fill.
The remainder of the prayer (with exception of
the two closing sentences)[26.19] respects the Church at large,--those who
should believe in Christ through the word of the apostles, heard from their
lips, or reported in their writings. What Jesus desires for the body of
believers is partly left to be inferred; for when He says, "I pray not for
these alone," He intimates that He desires for the parties next to be prayed
for the same things He has already asked for his disciples: preservation in the
truth, and from the evil in the world, and sanctification by the truth. The one
blessing He expressly asks for the Church is "unity." His heart's desire for
believers in Him is "that they all may be one." His ideal of the Church's unity
is very high, its divine exemplar being the unity subsisting between the
persons in the Godhead, and specially between the Father and the Son, and its
ground the same divine unity: "one as we are one, and in us who are one," bound
together as closely and harmoniously by the common name into which they are
baptized, and by which they are called.[26.20]
This unity, desirable for its own sake, Jesus
specially desiderates, because of the moral power which it will confer on the
Church as an institute for propagating the Christian faith: "That the world may
believe that Thou hast sent me."[26.21] Now this end is one which cannot be
promoted unless the unity of believers be in some way made manifest. A unity
which is not apparent can have no effect on the world, but must needs be as a
candle under a bushel, which gives no light, nay, ceases to be a light, and
goes out. There can be no doubt, therefore, that our Lord had a visible unity
in view; and the only question is how that is to be reached. The first and most
obvious way is by union in one church organization, with appointed means for
representing the whole body, and expressing its united mind; such, e.g., as the
oecumenical councils of the early centuries. This, the most complete
manifestation of unity, was exhibited in the primitive Church.
In our day incorporating union on a great
scale[26.22] is not possible, and other methods of expressing the feeling of
catholicity must be resorted to. One method that might be tried is that of
confederation, whereby independent church organizations might be united after
the fashion of the United States of America, or of the Greek republics, which
found a centre of unity in the legislative and judicial assembly called the
Amphictyonic Council. But whatever may be thought of that, one thing is
certain, that the unity of believers in Christ must be made more manifest as an
undeniable fact somehow, if the Church is to realize her vocation as a holy
nation called out of darkness to show forth the virtues of Him whose name she
bears, and win for Him the world's homage and faith. It is true, indeed, that
the unity of the Church does find expression in its creed; by which we mean not
the sectional creed of this or that denomination, but the creed within the
creeds, expressive of the catholic orthodoxy of Christendom, and embracing the
fundamentals, and only the fundamentals, of the Christian faith. There is a
Church within all the churches to which this creed is the thing of value, all
else being, in the esteem of its members, but the husk containing the precious
kernel. But the existence of that Church is a fact known by faith, not by
sight: its influence is little felt by the world; and however thankful we may
be for the presence in the midst of ecclesiastical organizations of this holy
commonwealth, we cannot accept it as the realization of the ideal which the
Saviour had in His mind when He uttered the words, "That they all may be
one."
In the next two sentences[26.23] Jesus fondly
lingers over this prayer, repeating, expanding, enforcing the petition in
language too deep for our fathoming line, but which plainly conveys the truth
that without unity the Church can neither glorify Christ, commend Christianity
as divine, nor have the glory of Christ abiding on herself. And this is a truth
which, on reflection, approves itself to reason. Wrangling is not a divine
thing, and it needs no divine influence to bring it about. Anybody can quarrel;
and the world, knowing that, has little respect for a quarrelling Church. But
the world opens its eyes in wonder at a community in which peace and concord
prevail, saying, Here is something out of the common course,--selfishness and
self-will rooted out of human nature: nothing but a divine influence could thus
subdue the centrifugal forces which tend to separate men from each other.
The endearing name Father, with which the next
sentence begins, marks the commencement of a new final paragraph in the prayer
of the great High Priest.[26.24] Jesus at this point casts a glance forward to
the end of things, and prays for the final consummation of God's purpose with
regard to the Church: that the Church militant may become the Church
triumphant; that the body of saints, imperfectly sanctified on earth, may
become perfectly sanctified and glorified in heaven, with Himself where He will
be, beholding His glory, and changed into the same image by the Spirit of
God.
Then comes the conclusion, in which Jesus returns
from the distant future to the present, and gathers in His thoughts from the
Church at large to the company assembled in the supper-chamber, Himself and His
disciples.[26.25] These two closing sentences serve the same use in Christ's
prayer that the phrase "for Christ's sake" serves in ours. They contain two
pleas,--the service of the parties prayed for, and the righteousness of the
Being prayed to,--the last coming first, embodied in the title, "O righteous
Father." The services, merits, and claims of Jesus and His disciples are
specifically mentioned as matters to which the righteous Father will doubtless
attach the due weight. The world's ignorance of God is alluded to, to enhance
the value of the acknowledgment which He has received from His Son and His
Son's companions. That ignorance explains why Jesus deems it necessary to say,
"I have known Thee." Even His knowledge was not a thing of course in such a
world. It was an effort for the man Jesus to retain God in His knowledge, quite
as much as to keep Himself unspotted from the world's corruptions. It was as
hard for Him to know and confess God as Father in a world that in a thousand
ways practically denied that Fatherhood, as to live a life of love amid
manifold temptations to self-seeking. In truth, the two problems were one. To
be light in the midst of darkness, love in the midst of selfishness, holiness
in the midst of
depravity, are in effect the same thing.
While pleading His own merit, Jesus forgets not
the claims of His disciples. Of them He says in effect: They have known Thee at
second-hand through me, as I have known Thee at first-hand by direct
intuition.[26.26] Not content with this statement, He expatiates on the
importance of these men as objects of divine care, representing that they are
worth keeping, as already possessing the knowledge of God's name, and destined
ere long to know it yet more perfectly, so that they shall be able to make it
known as an object of homage to others, and God shall be able to love them even
as He loved His own Son, when He was in the world faithfully serving His
heavenly Father. "And I have declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it;
that the love wherewith Thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in
them."[26.27] Wonderful words to be uttered concerning mere earthen vessels!
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