The Gospel today brings us an important message of love and hope—a message of the great love that God has for each of us and the deep hope His love brings to us. The Gospel of St John, chapter 17, takes place on Great and Holy Thursday at the end of the Last Supper. Jesus Christ tells His apostles what is about to happen to Him and to them. He begins: “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, so that the Son might glorify You. Just as you gave Him power over all flesh, so that You have given everything to Him, that He might give them life in the Age. And this is life in the Age [that is, eternal life that lasts forever]: that they may know You, the sole true God, and Him whom You sent, Jesus the Anointed.”

The text of the Gospel of St John from which I have just quoted and will continue to use for this sermon is from an Orthodox theologian, David Bentley Hart, The New Testament: A Translation, published recently by Yale University Press. Dr Hart has tried to be as faithful as possible to the original Greek text. His aim “is to help awaken readers to mysteries and uncertainties and surprises in the New Testament.” Let’s see if he has succeeded in this translation of chapter 17 of the Gospel of St John.

Jesus Christ had just warned the apostles at the end of chapter 16 that “in the cosmos you have suffering; but take heart—I have conquered the cosmos.” That is a bold translation, but Christ has indeed conquered not simply our world, but “the cosmos”—the whole of the universe. So what does Christ offer us with this immense power to conquer the cosmos? He offers each of us eternal life—the ability to know in faith “the sole true God”—that is, the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, sent by the Father.

In the highest place of every Orthodox Church is an icon of Jesus Christ, the Pantocrator—He who governs all—the Ruler of the universe. The local church gathers below Him, to be blessed by His right hand. In His left hand, Jesus Christ holds the Gospels open to a particular text, such as “I am the light of the world.” In the book, Praying with Icons, Jim Forest reflects that whenever he is “distracted during the Liturgy… [this] icon reminds me that I am truly standing before Christ. It helps bring me back to reality, back to the present moment, back to the consciousness that [in my life at all times] I am always in the presence of God….”

In today’s gospel, Christ shares with His apostles and with us His words to His Father. “On earth,” said Christ, “I glorified You [Father] by completing the work that You have given Me to do. And now, Father, glorify Me by Your side with that glory I had by Your side before the cosmos was.” Jesus Christ continues not only by asking that He would be glorified by the Father, but that the apostles would also be glorified “because they are Yours…. They have kept Your word,” said Christ, “and knew truly that I came forth from You, and they had faith that You sent Me forth.” Then Christ links His coming to the glory of the Father with the apostles also coming to the glory of the Father. As Dr Hart translates the passage, “All that is Mine is Yours,” [said Christ to His Father], what is Yours is Mine, and I have been glorified in them…. I am coming to You, Holy Father, keep them in Your name, which You have given Me, that they may be one just as We are.” That is a remarkable statement from the person Jesus Christ who is about to die on earth, be resurrected and ascend to heaven. Christ is saying that His glory is unified and completed by the faith and lives of the apostles. As Jesus Christ dies, He draws attention not only to what will happen to Him, but also to the apostles He has taught and served so well.

Jesus Christ continues in his dialogue with the Father, “But now I am coming to You, and in the cosmos I speak these things so that they [that is, the apostles] might have the joy that is Mine made full within them.” The Gospel reading for today ends with verse 13, but let’s continue, as Jesus Christ says to the apostles, “I have given them Your word…. Make them holy in the truth. The word that is Yours is truth…. And on their behalf I make Myself holy, so that they also may be made holy in the truth.” Then comes a beautiful passage, as Christ continues: “But I make supplication [that is, I plead] not for them only, but also for those having faith in Me on account of their word, that all may be one, just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they too might be in Us, so that the cosmos may have faith that You sent Me forth. And I have given them—[that’s us, everyone who believes in Christ]—the glory that You have given Me, that they may be one just as We are: I in them and You in Me, that they might be brought to completion in one, so that the cosmos might know that You sent Me forth, and loved them just as You loved Me.”

And so it is, when our hour comes and we die, it will be for each of us just as John the Evangelist has explained: our faith in the Truth that is Jesus Christ makes us one with Him, completes our life on earth and brings us eternal life.