a break in the Dance, a pull into the Dance

Maundy Thursday, April 9, 2009

Jer. 20:7-11; 1 Cor. 10:14-17, 11:27-32; John 17:1-11(12-26)


“Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you...
now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed...
I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word...
All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them...
Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one...
While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them...
now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves...
I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us...
22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
(John 17)

Yes, I butchered the prayer - leaving out some important things - but to highlight a thread through the whole prayer that blesses and strengthens me as we enter the highest, holy days of our Christian year, the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In this prayer just hours before his suffering and outpouring of life, Jesus is pleading and interceding that we would know, that we would be drawn into, that we would not miss what it's all about - that we would know the glory and the unity of the Father and the Son. It's as if he sees his life quickly coming to an end, the hour has come, he cannot do anything more, and he's pulling us into that eternal dance which is the Trinity. The whole point of his being "glorified" by being lifted up on the cross and then lifted up in exaltation, was to restore all things, to unite all things in himself, who is united in love, honor, delight with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Overall this Lent has been better than most for me, in terms of devotion, growing in unity with and freedom in Christ. Reading Great Lent by Alexander Schmemann helped, as did the silent retreat back in the first week of Lent.

I want these last days, remembering him on this last evening, his Last Supper, his washing feet, his agony, his prayer, his mock trial, the violation of his person, his way of the cross, his receiving the nails, the jarring pain of being physically lifted up on the tree, the humiliation, the thorns, the spear, the blood flowing, the ultimate separation from the Father, his loud cries and tears, his heartbreak and expiration, his burial and resting on the Sabbath... and his vindication - victory over every power!!!

And now, though identifying with all that is overwhelming, I am encouraged, inspired and comforted that through it all, this high-priestly prayer is Jesus holding us, grasping us, pulling us in with him into the Dance, into the glory, into the love and unity that he and the Father and the Spirit have always known, and that we will know with them for ever and ever.

Amen. Thank you Lord Jesus.