Brothers and sisters in Christ—
The subject of today’s Gospel
reading is the high-priestly prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ. In this prayer, the Lord Jesus proclaims that
the Father gave to Him authority over all flesh. Actually, the universal authority of the
Messiah was foretold during the time of the prophets. For example, King David proclaimed in the
second psalm: “The Lord said to me, ‘You are my son. Today, I have begotten
you. Ask of me, and I will give you the
nations for an inheritance, and your authority to the ends of the earth. You will shepherd them with an iron rod, and
you will shatter them like a potter’s vessel.’” Here we have a description of
the universal authority of the Son of God.
The Father gave authority to the Son even to destroy the whole of
Creation, just as the psalm says, but the Son did not choose to destroy the
Creation, but to save it and redeem it.
Therefore, the authority of the Son of God did not come about in order
to herd and then shatter the peoples of the world, but, instead, this authority
appeared in order to give enormous gifts to the human race. The authority to destroy became the authority
to give and to bless, since the Son of God gave up His claim to justice in
order to show mercy to evildoers. We
should have a very great admiration and a great love for our God, because He
willed to lay aside justice in order to act mercifully in our regard. Instead of the authority to destroy, the Lord
Jesus uses His authority to give us everlasting life. It is just as we said all during the paschal
season: “He has given us life everlasting.
We bow down to His holy Resurrection on the third day.” We should decide
to become like Him in our generosity—to be merciful to one another, using our
authority to give life and joy.
The
Lord Jesus also spoke concerning a task, which the Father sent Him to
accomplish. “But I glorified You on
earth, accomplishing the task, which You had given Me to accomplish.” What was
this task? The Lord Jesus accomplished many works during the period of His
earthly life. But here the Lord spoke
concerning the redemption of mankind, the inauguration of the Kingdom of God
and the gift of everlasting life. In
other words, the Lord Jesus received authority from the Father to accomplish a
task, and He accomplished it. Naturally,
He has plenipotentiary authority, since He is God the Creator and the Almighty,
but He speaks concerning a specific authority to fulfill a specific task. This is the authority of a servant, not the
authority of God. He gave up His royal
authority in order to receive the authority of a servant and agent. Here we have a special motive for gratitude,
since our Almighty God came among us in order to serve the Father and us. According to His example, we ought to look
upon all our tasks (even the most mundane) as very important things. After all, God has sent us in order to
accomplish them. Our salvation depends
upon us doing them well.
The
Lord continues His prayer, so that He can speak about glory. He says, “Now
glorify Me, Father, in Yourself, with the glory I had in You before the world
began.” What sort of glory is it, for which he asks? Of course, it is a share
in the only true glory—the Life of God.
But, He already shares in this glory, since He is God—One of the Holy
Trinity. But, He asks for this glory for
the sake of human nature, so that in Him human nature might be deified and
receive everlasting life. Our hearts
ought to be full of gratitude and love for God, because our God Jesus Christ
asks the Father for our sake, so that we can receive as an inheritance the
greatest benefits and goods. On account
of God’s very great compassion for us, we should pray to the Father through our
Lord Jesus Christ for others to receive God’s benefits and to be glorified through
the Lord’s works in their lives.
In
Christ, we have authority to accomplish a task, which will lead us to glory—the
salvation of our souls and the souls of others around us.
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