Maundy Thursday Devotional

www.HopeandHelpCenter.org

Maundy Thursday, April 9, 2009
John 17

After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, "Parent, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life; that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Parent, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.

"I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them.

And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Creator, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.

Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.

"I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Parent, 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. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

Creator, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. "Righteous Parent, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."

In the gospel of John, Jesus is a philosophical guru of sorts, a metaphysician who reveals God's reign to all who truly understand who Christ is and why he came to save the people. Jesus points to a fundamental spiritual truth, a metaphysical principle that defines his understanding of faith. God's love permeates everything; there is nothing left untouched by God's love. We, as followers of Christ, are called to be bearers of that unconditional love. Through our own openness to God's healing spirit we can bring transformative power to the world.

Our brokenness, our failure to respond in love, separates us from God and from others. When we stop moving about and get quiet in our souls, we can experience Christ in us, the kingdom of God dwelling inside of us. Once we know that we abide in Christ and Christ abides in us, what on earth do we have to be afraid of? God's healing power envelopes us and we are whole, right now, in this very instant. We belong to God; we know our rightful place in the world, beloved child of God, bearer of Christ's light and love. We also know that we interact daily with other beloved children of God; ones made in God's image and likeness. rsy