Seventh Sunday of Easter, Cycle B
John 17:6-17
For the members of the Johannine community while this text was being developed, Jesus was “no longer in the world.” But the members of the Johannine community were “still in the world.” Our own situation is somewhat similar to this on the Sunday after the Ascension. We too are “in the world” without having Jesus physically present among us. To us also Jesus’ word has been given (and in a more “seasoned” form than it had been given to the members of the Johannine community). We may not be experiencing the hatred of the world as much as the members of the Johannine community apparently were experiencing it, but that may not be merely because we are so much more “worldly” than were the members of the Johannine community. It may be because we do not function as a sectarian group as the members of the Johannine community functioned.
Nevertheless, according to John 17:14 the members of the Johannine community realized that they were, even in their situation, not “out of the world,” nor did they want to think that Jesus was actually “out of the world” either. Neither do they have their Johannine Jesus ask God that Jesus’ followers be taken “out of the world.” He asks only that the Father would keep them from “the evil one” (John 17:15).
Incidentally, “of the world” is an inadequate translation of ek tou kosmou in John 17:14b, 16. The translation “of the world” is a translation that is not warranted by the context. It is to the credit of the leaders of the Johannine community that they felt that they had been sent “into the world” (John 17:18) and that they were not living “out of the world.” We today also need to feel that we are being sent “into the world” rather than that we are not “of the world.” We are physically and biblically “of the world,” and it is not helpful to encourage us to think that we are not “of the world” by providing for popular use translations that are interpretations not warranted by the context of a text. If those who shaped the Johannine traditions had wanted to say that they were not “of the world” rather than that they were not “out of the world,” they could easily have avoided the use of the word ek in John 17:14b, 16. An adequate translation into English of the Greek word ek in its context in John 17:14-16 would be “I have given them your word, and the rulers of the world have hated them, because they are not derived from the world, just as I am not derived from the world. I am not requesting that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them safe from the evil one. They are not derived from the world, just as I am not derived from the world.”
Unless it is perceived that the reference to the loss of the “son of destruction” as being necessary for the Scripture to be fulfilled is a vaticinium ex eventu (prediction made after the event has occurred), we give the impression that John 17:12 teaches that Judas was predestined by God for destruction and that Judas had no free will to make his own decisions. When we see that there is a “prediction after the event has occurred” in John 17:12, we shall not declare that God predestined Judas for destruction. It is appropriate to declare that Judas did whatever Judas did because Judas wanted to do that, just as we do what we do – whether good or evil – because we want to do that also. Whatever we say next Sunday, may it be spoken as John 17:12 puts it, in order that the worshiping congregation where we are and the world may have the joy of Jesus fulfilled among them and that, in accordance with John 17:17, 19, the people and the world may be made holy.
1 John 5:9-13
It was the intention of the writers of this text to assure the people who remained within the community of faith in which they were leaders that God had given to them eternal life in the person of Jesus the Risen Christ, the Son of God. In order to give the people of the community greater confidence and to encourage them to remain within the community even though there were some teachings within the community that they found to be difficult to accept, the writers claimed in 1 John 5:12 that “the person who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” We today and next Sunday would fail in our responsibility if we would not believe and proclaim that those who believe in the name of Jesus the Risen Christ as the Son of God have life now and eternally. It is not necessary for us to make the negative judgment that those who do not have Jesus as the Risen Christ, the Son of God, do not have life. God is to be the judge of that.
Acts 1:15-17, 21-26
The link that is most apparent between this text and John 17:6-19 is the reference to Judas, whose manner of death as described here differs considerably from the account in Matthew 27, and Papias’ second century account about Judas’ death differs from both New Testament presentations. The Lukan playwright apparently chose to develop an account that would present the death of Judas in the most vivid and horrible way possible, writing with regard to Judas in Acts 1:18 words for Peter expressed in my English translation as follows: “As you know, Judas purchased a parcel of land with the coins that he had received for his dastardly act. And having fallen headlong, his body burst apart in the middle and all of his internal organs poured out their contents!” This cannot be harmonized with the Matthean account in which Judas is described as repenting, throwing the coins that he has received into the Temple treasury and then going out and hanging himself (Matthew 27:3-5). It was not the primary purpose of these accounts to provide historical information about the death of Judas. The primary purpose was to portray Judas’ death in a way that would be appropriate in view of what Judas is presented as having done as one of Jesus’ own chosen disciples, helping Caiaphas to obey the command of Pilate by guiding the contingent of bodyguards sent by Caiaphas to locate Jesus in the darkness of the Garden of Gethsemane.
What is written in the Four Gospel accounts about the actions of Judas Iscariot and concerning his motives in guiding the contingent sent by Caiaphas is based on assumptions of the disciples of Jesus who were with Jesus in Gethsemane and of later followers of Jesus, not upon explanations given by Judas himself. One of these assumptions is almost entirely theological, the interpretation that God had predestined Judas to betray Jesus in order that God would be able to carry out God’s plans for our salvation. Personally, I have never been attracted to that interpretation, because of the inconsistency of that interpretation with the biblical portrayal of human free will and accountability. Other assumptions are that Judas chose to hand Jesus over to the Romans in order that Jesus would be “forced” to exhibit his divine power and subdue his enemies, or that Jesus knew when Jesus chose Judas as one of the twelve that Judas would betray him, but chose him in spite of this for a variety of possible reasons. I prefer the assumption that Judas was a “loner” who had been duped by the leader of the bodyguards into helping them find a suitable place to camp that night, that he thought that he was helping his new friends and did not intend to do anything that would be harmful to Jesus, and that he was aghast when he saw what was being done to Jesus. That is the assumption that I use in my portrayal of Judas in my “Jesus, the Man” movie script that is available at the Texas Lutheran University Bookstore (www.tlu.edu).
Psalm 1
According to this well-known psalm that was placed at this most prominent position in the Psalter by the editors of this collection, there are two ways in which to live. There is the way of the one who rightly chooses to meditate on and live by the commandments presented in the Torah, “Word of God,” and there is the way of the one who wrongly chooses to follow the way of the wicked, the scoffers, the sinners. Those who are wise will choose the right way.
This psalm, therefore, previews the non-festival half of the Church Year in which the importance of our choosing the right way is emphasized on the Sundays after the Day of Pentecost and Trinity Sunday.
