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Seventh Sunday of Easter 2025

John 17:20-26

Revd. Neli Miranda

 

 This past Thursday, we celebrated the Feast of the Ascension when Jesus, having conquered death, returned victorious to God His Father. Today, the Seventh Sunday of Easter, serves as a bridge between the Ascension of Jesus and Pentecost Sunday when we receive the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, promised by Jesus.

Jesus has ascended to the Father; but first, he has recreated us and commissioned us to continue the proclamation of the Kingdom of God. Throughout these past weeks, the risen Jesus has been in our midst reminding us that we are a community of life, love, service, reconciliation, and restoration in the world. As our primary Advocate, Jesus has been at our side to comfort, counsel, and prepare us for the trials we face. He has also promised us the coming of another Advocate, the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, in a calm voice, Jesus has left us these words: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” (John 14:27).

Today’s Gospel is taken from John Chapter 17, commonly known as the “High Priestly Prayer of Jesus.” In this chapter, Jesus embodies the role of the High Priest in the Old Testament and offers a profound prayer to his people, his disciples. His prayer is an earnest plea for his community because he knows that they live under an unjust system that hates those who proclaim justice. Thus, he prays to God, “Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me… the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.” (John 17:11, 14). The pinnacle of Jesus’ intercession is a plea for the community to become one, just as Jesus and his father are one. Jesus prays that his disciples may embody God’s desire to reconcile all creation into one great community and to overcome all divisions created by human ambition for power and domination. 

Jesus prays not only for his first community but also for the great community throughout all ages and centuries: “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.” (17:20-21). Jesus further clarifies that the foundation of this oneness is Jesus’ and God’s oneness: “As you, Father, 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.”  (17:21). The key phrases here are “that they may all be one… so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”  Brothers and sisters, how truly wonderful it is to realize that you and I, Christians of the 21st century, are also embraced in this priestly prayer of Jesus, who commended us to the Father’s loving care. Through this prayer, we are made part of the great oneness of Jesus’ community.

Sisters and brothers, we humans are diverse, and from this diversity we have, unfortunately, fostered inequalities. However, as disciples of Jesus we are called to overcome these inequalities and to shape our rich diversity into a community of oneness. Jesus’ community is where justice reigns and where we actively build bonds of love, security, and solidarity. When we are all one, we become a space in which the love of God is tangibly expressed. In this unity, we participate in the new creation initiated by Jesus’ resurrection, and we journey towards the fullness of reconciliation of all things in God.

Dear sisters and brothers, while we await the coming of the Holy Spirit, let us reaffirm ourselves as the community of St. James whose very foundation is God’s love and God’s profound desire to see us living in oneness. In the midst of this often chaotic and broken world, may we continue living and proclaiming God’s great dream: that we all may be one!

Amen.

https://images.knowing-jesus.com/i/john-17-9-jesus-prays-on-behalf-of-his-disciples-beige






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