Day 37 - Thursday, March 25
Title: “KEEP THEM IN YOUR NAME”
Scripture: John 17:1-12
Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do.  Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You; for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me. I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours; and all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I have been glorified in them. I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are. While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition.”

Poetry:
A Better Resurrection
by Christina Rossetti

I have no wit, no words, no tears;
My heart within me like a stone
Is numb'd too much for hopes or fears;
Look right, look left, I dwell alone;

I lift mine eyes, but dimm'd with grief
No everlasting hills I see;
My life is in the falling leaf:
O Jesus, quicken me.

My life is like a faded leaf,
My harvest dwindled to a husk:
Truly my life is void and brief
And tedious in the barren dusk;
My life is like a frozen thing,
No bud nor greenness can I see:
Yet rise it shall—the sap of Spring;
O Jesus, rise in me.

My life is like a broken bowl,
A broken bowl that cannot hold
One drop of water for my soul
Or cordial in the searching cold;
Cast in the fire the perish'd thing;
Melt and remould it, till it be
A royal cup for Him, my King:
O Jesus, drink of me.

GLORIFY YOUR SON

Jesus prays that his heavenly Father will glorify him. It’s an odd prayer to our ears, this prayer for glory. Yet, as Jesus anticipates his own suffering death, he looks forward to, even longs for, the glory that he will once again share with God the Father.

Human beings sometimes long for such a glimpse of glory. Never mind the idol worship and power grabs and sensationalism that Western culture often mistakes for glory. There’s a sincere desire that people often have to see what is ultimately real, and to experience that reality without the filters of mundane human existence that obscures reality like smog against the mountains.

Moses wanted to experience that kind of glory, and he understood that such glory belonged solely to the one true God who had rescued the Hebrew people from enslavement in Egypt (see Exodus 33). So Moses asked to see God’s glory, to see his face. But God refused, explaining that such revelation would cost Moses his life. Instead, God allowed Moses to catch a glimpse of God’s back as he passed by, not an image of a human form, but rather the evidence of God’s passing presence. God said that Moses would not see God’s glory, but he would see God’s goodness.

In Jerzy Duda-Gracz’s work, Resurrection, Jesus is ascending in a semi-transparent form against the backdrop of countless numbers of people. But in his post-crucifixion, post-burial, post-resurrection state, Jesus does not appear particularly glorious. He remains unremarkably human even as he is in the process of ascending to the Father.

His right hand is raised in a traditional gesture of blessing. Jesus has been battered, humiliated, and tortured to death as the cheers of the crowds celebrated his demise. Yet, as he proceeds toward glory, he blesses everyone, including his killers and their cheerleaders.

The only unobstructed view of glory that the world will receive is that of the person of Jesus, the glory “as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). The world will not see God’s glory, for to do so we would all perish. But, in Jesus, they will see God’s goodness. All that Jesus brought to Israel—words, signs and wonders, blessing, and a fresh understanding of the character of God—he also brought to the whole world. And the world can see the evidence of God’s glory in the goodness of Jesus.

The Father has granted Jesus authority over all people, and yet Jesus is praying only for his closest followers. As he prepares to depart from them, Jesus leaves them with a commission to provide evidence of the glory of God by declaring and demonstrating his goodness.

In this Lenten season, we who follow Jesus are challenged to reflect on how God’s goodness is demonstrated through us. To be kept in the name that God has given to Jesus is to live in this world as ones who offer evidence of God’s glory. And when we receive that gift of goodness, we will live.

Prayer:
God, our Father.
Keep us in your name, the name you have given to your Son. May we be a people who point the world toward your glory as we declare and demonstrate your goodness. And thank you for Jesus, full of grace and truth, whose very human face has reflected your goodness and offered to us a glimpse of your glory.
Amen.

Michael McNichols, D.Min.
Affiliate Assistant Professor of Intercultural Studies 
Fuller Theological Seminary

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