Unlocking the Word-Hoard (Jn. 17)

In reading Beowulf with my seniors this past week, I came across one of my favorite images in literature: the idea of Beowulf unlocking his “word-hoard” (Roberts ed.) and speaking his storehouse of thoughts.  Thinking on this seems to have unlocked my own, as this summer was quiet, reflective, and restful, I had taken to writing my thoughts on paper instead of blogging them.

In retrospect, all of my studies this summer have been tied to THE WORD. Genesis and John and Revelation all reveal the power of the Word at creation, on the earth, and at the end, and Psalms reveals His glory, Proverbs His wisdom. Today, as I sit reading and pondering John 17, the recorded prayers of the Word Himself offer me encouragement.

When Jesus finishes the work that God had given Him to do, and He had spoken all of the words the disciples needed to hear from Him in order to believe and obey, he lifts them (and all the ones to come in the future as mentioned in verse 20) up to the Father in prayer.  He mentions in verse two that God gave Him authority over all of mankind so that all God had given Him, He could give eternal life, and it is these He prays for.

While God is not bound by the time He created, in this chapter Jesus the Eternal One dropped down briefly into the timeline of humanity, offers a prayer that should offer comfort. God gave Jesus the power to save and offer eternal life to His own. Eternity, continuing on without end (and in Jesus’ case without beginning), is then defined in the next verse: “And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent” (Jn. 17:3, NASB). Eternal life is knowing God. Eternal life is not something nebulous out there in the future after death to be looked forward to, but rather it begins with knowing God here and now, and Jesus makes it clear that if we know Him, we know God. Jesus teaches us how to know Him through His unlocked storehouse of words recorded in the Bible, so we have all we need to know God.

What Jesus prays for His disciples is telling. In verse nine, He prays for them specifically—not the world—and what He asks, He asks on their behalf, knowing He will soon leave the earth. His words are beautiful and reveal His love for the ones the Father gave Him to care for and show His concern over attacks from the evil one: “Holy Father, keep them in Thy name, the name which Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, even as We are. While I was with them, I was keeping them in Thy name which Thou hast given Me; and I guarded them, and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled” (v. 11-12). Jesus is able to keep His own safe, not losing any that are His. He is the good shepherd.

Jesus also prays for His disciples to have joy—His joy—made full in them (v. 13) because He knows that the world will soon hate them as it has hated Him. He prays for God to keep His own from “the evil one” (v. 15), not asking God to remove them from the world, but to protect them in the world that was not their home, just as it was not His. Jesus outlook is eternal, and a temporary home is not to be dwelt upon.

Jesus asks for His disciples to be “sanctified” in the truth. Then He reveals more about the word when He says, “Thy word is truth” (v. 17). Jesus is the Word, and the word is God’s truth. We see Jesus living out His ministry on earth, and we see the Word made flesh. The Word present at creation willingly walked on this earth in order to bring all truth to man—part of that being that He alone can bridge the gap between God and fallen man, that He alone can save. The same Word will win in the end, and I have hope. I have a future that even now is playing out. My eternity began when I was twelve and it will continue on without end. The God who sent Jesus to earth holds the power to preserve His own, and the Word confirms this.

But Jesus doesn’t stop there. He prays that all of us who have followed Him and have believed His teachings through the words of the disciples would be one—just as God, Jesus, and the Spirit are one—and that the world would believe that God sent Jesus into the world and that He loved them (v. 21-23).

Jesus prays that His disciples will be with Him and see the glory that God had given Him out of love “before the foundation of the world” (v. 24). He eagerly awaits the time when they can see Him as He was meant to be, unclouded by the human body He wore.

And the end of Jesus’ high priestly prayer ends this way: “O righteous Father, although the world has not known Thee, yet I have known Thee; and these have known that Thou didst send Me; and I have made Thy name known to them, and will make it known; that the love wherewith Thou didst love Me may be in them, and I in them” (v25-26).

In the New Testament, Jesus unlocks his word-hoard that is far more valuable than any piece of literature I will ever read, but because I am His, I see Him in everything I read. I cannot look at the world through any other lens than His truth, and whether I see the fallen state of man in need of God or the redemption of man believing in God, I see Him, and I am grateful He unlocked the truth in the Word He has given us and that He unlocked my word-hoard, too.