Words 6 and 7: Double Feature

John 19:30 “It is Finished.”

Luke 23:46 “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”

Today we are going to attempt to tie up many of the themes we have dealt with over the last few weeks.  We also have to deal with two words to finish up before Easter.  These last two words are both the final ones in their Gospel account and, although these words are from different authors, they are related and can be taken together.

John 17:13-19

¹³ “I [Jesus] am coming to you [the Father] now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. ¹⁴ I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. ¹⁵ My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. ¹⁶ They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. ¹⁷ Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. ¹⁸ As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. ¹⁹ For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

We are going to break our passage into two this week and work in sections, so we will finish all of chapter 17.

Who is Jesus speaking to?

Jesus is praying/speaking to the Father, as well as to his disciples at the Last Supper, but in the second half of the chapter, he also mentions those who will believe through the disciples’ message, so in a sense he is speaking to us also.

What does it mean to be of the world but not in it?

Jesus is our example of this.  It doesn’t mean we abandon the world since he prays that we would not be taken out of the world, but be protected.  We are to engage the world just like Jesus did.  Jesus was accused of spending way too much time hanging out with sinners. (Mark 2:15) And he said that, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matt 9:12-13)  In fact, we are not just to be in the world, but we are actually sent!  We are on a mission from God.  In the second half of this chapter, we will discover just what that mission is.

Moving a different direction, who alone is holy?

Easy answer, God alone is holy. (1 Sam. 2:2; Isa. 6:3)  Although we are told to “sanctify ourselves” in places like Lev. 11:44 in relation to following the laws of God, I think we must say that God alone sanctifies someone or something.  Since God alone is holy in his nature, all other holiness flows from God.  So, it is interesting that Jesus says he will sanctify himself.  It appears that he is equating himself with God.  But, Jesus sanctifies himself, or sets himself apart for God’s task, so that we also may be sanctified.  Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross doesn’t just provide for our justification, but also for our sanctification.

John 17:20-26

²⁰“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, ²¹ that all of them may be one, Father, just as you 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. ²² I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— ²³ I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

²⁴ “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

²⁵ “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. ²⁶ I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

Let’s return to our mission; what is our mission in the world?

Our mission comes from verse 23, to tell the world that Jesus is sent from God and that God loves the world.  But, perhaps ironically and definitely sad, Jesus prays that this will be shown through our unity with God and other Christians.  If anything, this should cause us to ponder where the Church is today.  It is not like all denominations need to join up into one Super Church, but perhaps we can take this unity in the same sense Paul does in Romans 12:5.  He writes, “So in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”  Just as in each church there are many people all with different opinions, talents, and roles, so it is in the Church Universal.  Hopefully, a model like this can move us beyond declaring and believing that other denominations are either heretical or at least too strange that we can’t partner with them.

How do we accomplish the mission?

Our mission comes from the Father and is essentially the same as Jesus’: to declare that Jesus is from God and that God loves us.  Jesus mission is wrapped up in bringing glory to and revealing the Father.  So how are we also to reveal and bring glory to the Father?  Through Jesus, since he says, “I have made [the Father] known to them.” (vs. 26) John 10:30 also says “I and the Father are one.”  John makes it clear also that this is only possible because we will be filled with the Father and Jesus, just as Jesus himself was filled with the Father.  We are not to do anything of our own power or initiative.  We serve a God who, in the Old Testament, had to be approached with fear and trembling, and cannot even be seen, but has been revealed in Jesus.  We might recall an earlier encounter in John Ch. 8 when the adulterous women is caught and Jesus says whoever is without sin throw the first stone to execute her.  Jesus, as God, twice stoops down and writes in the dust and saves the sinful women.  In Jesus, we see the un-seeable God, and what we see surprises us.  We see a God who hung out with sinners and dug around in the dirt.  He wasn’t afraid to get dirty, as the saying goes.  The mission is accomplished by following Jesus into a life of service and humility full of the God’s power in our lives.

As we discussed last week, Jesus is both fully God and man.  Does this week relate to that to that at all?

Jesus is able to be perfectly connected with the Father and doesn’t do anything of his own initiative.  His prayer makes it clear that the Father and Jesus are very close and Jesus’ mission is to reveal the Father.  Yet, Jesus also sanctifies himself, an act we have said is reserved for God to do.  Jesus reveals God and says they are “one,” while still recognizing some distinction between the two in order to commit his Spirit to the Father as one of our words this week says.  These types of statements imply some sense of separateness both between Jesus and the Father and also make it difficult to decipher how Jesus was both God and man.  To reiterate a point from last week, when we get bogged down in the details and begin to emphasis one thing to much, we fall into heresy.  So, let us just leave it at saying Jesus is God and man, and that the Father and Son are connected and somehow distinct.

Final question, we haven’t directly asked the most basic question, but what exactly “is finished” as Jesus cries out?

Jesus very clearly has a mission in John and it is the cross.  At his first miracle in Cana, he says his time has not yet come. (John 2:4) This phase is used repeatedly, until finally at the Last Supper, John writes that Jesus knew his hour had now come. (7:30, 8:20; 13:1) In the same chapter and prayer we are looking at this week, Jesus says these words, “I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.” (John 17:4) The number one thing Jesus seems to be interested in is being obedient to the Father and bringing glory to him.  In verse 2 and 3, however, Jesus says that he will now be able to give people “eternal life,” which means nothing other than to “know [the Father], the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”  We have definitions of heaven in our culture, but Jesus doesn’t use that language here in his last prayer and teaching time talking about his mission.  Our life is eternal, or without end, only because we are able to “know God.”  This was Jesus’ mission: to provide a means whereby we could truly and perfectly be in relationship with God.  “It is finished” is a cry from Jesus that he has lived a life of perfect obedience even unto death and has provided the means for all of creation to be in a right relationship with God. 

Concluding thoughts:

Because we dealt with two words this week, let me summarize and clarify each one in a sentence.  1. “It is finished”: This is not a cry of defeat, but rather one of victory that Christ has accomplished all he was sent to do.  2. “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit”: Jesus and the Father are “one” and Jesus has lived a life in perfect relationship with the Father; now at his death, he continues that relationship by offering his spirit to the Father for care and protection.  So there it is, but the question remains, so what?  We have discussed our mission in relationship to Jesus mission.  We are sent just as Jesus was sent with the same mission: to reveal that Jesus is from God and that God loves the world.  We do this only by the power of the Father in us through Jesus and his Spirit.  (I know the Spirit isn’t mentioned in this chapter, but it definitely is in the Last Supper discourse, and it is important to include the whole Triune God in our discussions.)  Jesus even spells this out in the Great Commission at the end of his time on earth, just before his ascension.  “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all I have commanded you.” Matthew 28:19.  Also notice the Triune God in Jesus’ command to his disciples as well as using the word “go” to send them, and ultimately us, out into the world.  Just as Jesus fully fulfilled God’s mission on earth through obedience, Jesus leaves his disciples with our mission only accomplished through our obedience.

Deeper thinking:

This is a relatively recent and somewhat obscure hymn written in 1968 by a priest named Peter Scholtes.  It captures the oneness we were talking about earlier and how the world will know our mission.  Read and let these words help transform our minds and hearts towards one of love and obedience.

“We are one in the Spirit
We are one in the Lord
We are one in the Spirit
We are one in the Lord
And we pray that all unity
May one day be restored
And they'll know we are Christians
By our love, By our love
Yes, they'll know we are Christians
By our love
We will walk with each other
We will walk hand in hand
We will walk with each other
We will walk hand in hand
And together we'll spread the news
That God is in our land
We will work with each other
We will work side by side
We will work with each other
We will work side by side
And we'll guard each man's dignity
And save each man's pride
All praise to the Father
From whom all things come
And all praise to Christ Jesus His only son
And all praise to the Spirit
Who makes us one
Make us one, Lord!
Make us one, Lord!”