John 17:1-11
I have made your name known
to those you took from the world to give me.
They were yours and you gave them to me,
and they have kept your word.
Today we hear again the opening verses of Chapter 17 of John’s Gospel. Each couple of sentences presents us with an idea which builds up our understanding of the glory that is revealed in Christ. We can see this lengthy prayer as Christ articulating his relationship with his Father. Faithfulness and trust run as a thread through the whole passage.
The dynamic of the relationship between Father and Son has been made concrete in the way in which the Son has nurtured those entrusted to him. Christ can confidently say that those entrusted to him have ‘kept your word’. In this simple phrase a whole thought world is echoed. I hear in this phrase the touchstone text of the Old Testament:
You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, with all your strength.
Let these words I urge on you today
be written on your heart.
You shall repeat them to your children
and say them over to them whether
at rest in your house or walking abroad,
at your lying down or at your rising;
you shall fasten them on your hand
as a sign and on your forehead as a circlet;
you shall write them on the doorposts
of your house and on your gates.
Keeping the word permeates every aspect of life: the word binds in love and shapes in fidelity.
How can you keep God’s word today?