Coptic Orthodox Answers

Name the Father and Son, the Holy Spirit, One God. Amen.

Welcome again to Coptic Orthodox Answers Deep Dive. We are covering the Gospel of John, chapter 17. We're halfway through. We started last week or last time and we saw last time how Christ was praying for the apostles, for the Church, right?, for everybody that would actually end up believing in Him, because He's doing so in His foreknowledge as the high priest and as the mediator between humanity and the Father. So, He's praying specifically for those people. And we're about to continue today with verse 14.

Verse 14:

'' 14 ''I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.'' '' (John 17:14)

So, the same way that Christ was rejected, His deeds and His teaching were rejected, the same deeds and teaching which are given through the apostles or disciples to the world will also be rejected. Consequently, the disciples or the apostles will be persecuted while on earth, right? And therefore, He continues in verse 15:

'' 15 ''I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.'' '' (John 17:15)

The world still is in need of these disciples and these apostles, because we become or they become. And therefore, we, right now as we speak, as in the Church here in this world, in the 21 st century, we are meant to enlighten the world, not because, again, we're smarter, but because we make Christ present. It's the mystical presence of Christ within the Church. We are His mystical body, and therefore, we are about or meant to go throughout the world and to enlighten the world through the presence of Christ Himself.

So, essentially here, Christ is praying to the Father that the Father may protect the disciples from the seeds of the evil one, that they become or remain strong, they become one in all humility, and therefore, they together become the mystical body and Christ is there among them and then they're able to go ahead and to preach His word or to evangelize until the end of the world.

Jumping to verse 16:

'' 16 ''They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.

18 As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.'' '' (John 17:16-19)

Obviously, Christ does not need to be sanctified in His divinity, but when His divinity is united with His humanity, He is healing this humanity, He is saving this humanity every minute of the day as He is in that body in all... throughout all His actions, including, obviously, incarnation, cross, resurrection, Ascension, all of these things. So, He is sanctifying Himself. He is sanctifying His humanity or the human nature, so, His humanity and, by extension, the human nature, and that nature is shared with us, right? And therefore, we also ought to be sanctified like Christ was sanctified.

So, essentially here, Christ wants us to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect, as He says in the Sermon of the Mount in Matthew 5. And there is a link between the idea of sanctification and the idea of sacrifice. So, in Deuteronomy 15, for example, He speaks about the firstborn of the herd of the animals and how this animal has to be sanctified and then sacrificed, right? It's the same idea St. Paul speaks about in Romans 12:1 when he says:

'' 1 (...) present your bodies [as] a living sacrifice, holy, [and] acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.'' (Romans 12:1)

So, we ought to be sanctified. And through this sanctification, we sacrifice our own lives to God, right? And therefore, we are following in the footsteps of Christ and in doing so, we are transformed. And by being transformed, we enlighten the world around us. And if you notice, sanctification starts with the reality that we are not of the world. That's why it says: They are not of the world just as I am not of the world, right? And this is the first step, the renunciation, right? And this renunciation will lead us or give us the potentiality or capability or access to this sanctification, right?

And then it says: Sanctify them by Your truth, right?, and Your word is truth. So, by living a truthful life starting with Scripture, with the holy tradition of the Church and so on, we're able to sanctify ourselves. So, part of it is detachment of the world, renunciation. The second part, which is as important, if not more important, is to be one with God through the holy tradition, the sacramental life of the Church, and Scripture, which is part of this tradition.

Verse 20:

'' 20 ''I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word [so, Christ here is praying for all of the Church throughout the generations]; 21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.'' '' (John 17:21-21)

So, between the persons of the Holy Trinity, there is an eternal, unconditional, like, incredible love between them. And this love unites them, right? And if the Church lives in that way, the world will recognize that these people are sent by God. Unfortunately, the Church is the intersection of humanity and divinity, but the human portion of it, still, is very weak sometimes. And... and therefore, we're all human beings. We all make mistakes. We're sometimes stumbling blocks for others.

But we're able to repent and we're able to ask for forgiveness and we struggle to do the right thing. And through that struggle, right?, we find this unity within us. So, as Christians, we always have to remind ourselves of this. Is it normal that we have different opinions? Of course, there's a diversity, even within the Trinity. But it's the humility and the capability of saying I'm sorry, to apologize, right? You know, we're not perfect. Even the saints are not perfect, right?

But the capability to... in our humility, to say, you know, metánia or, you know, μετάνοια: I changed my mind; please, forgive me. And in doing so, we're able to remain one and we see this ideology, right?, in the design of the mystery of matrimony, where the husband and the wife are meant to be one, again, mirroring the Holy Trinity. And they're not meant for each one to go their separate ways. They are meant... we are meant to get humbled in marriage and to love each other unconditionally. And therefore, as we do so, we become one and we become like an image of the Holy Trinity.

This is our purpose as Christians. It's nothing but difficult. But in that, we find the true beauty and we find God within us shining. And therefore, the world is able to see this and is able to say: Wait a second, these people are different, right? And this is one of the ways how we enlighten the world around us.

Verse 22:

'' 22 ''And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: '' (John 17:22)

So, St. Cyril, the pillar of faith, here he says that this glory is given to us when we are united to the Father, which is done through the Son, as we will see in one second. But that glory is the sharing of the divine attributes of the Father who is the source, who is the αρχή (archí), right? And the Father has given these attributes, but not only these attributes.

When it comes to the Son, He has given that same divine nature to the Son before time began, right?, since the beginning of creation, so before time began, right? And now, the Son has these attributes. So, He has the nature and the attributes. But the attributes are given to us, right?, not the divine nature, obviously, but the attributes are given to us when we become one with the Father through the Son.

So, He says... He continues to say that they may be one just as We are one. So, in the same way there's love between the Father and the Son, again, sharing in these attributes, there are... there is love between us as humans, right?, and we become one. And then, He says... He expands on the how that happens:

'' 23 ''I in them, and You in Me;...'' '' (John 17:23)

So, the Son being fully man and fully divine at the same time is able to bring us back to the Father, to reconciles... to reconcile us, right? So, He says:

'' 23 ''I in them [meaning I share with them the human nature], and You in Me [meaning we share together the divine nature, right?];...'' '' (John 17:23)

So, Christ becomes the means of reconciliation, right?, between humanity and divinity in His person.

'' 23 '' (...) that they may be made perfect in one [so, we're able to share in this love, in this κοινωνία (kinonía), in this fellowship], and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.'' '' (John 17:23)

So, the idea here of God the Father loving us as He has loved the Son has to do with the kinonía, the fellowship, the unity, right?, that happens between us and the Trinity in the person of Christ. It's not about, you know, using the word love the same way it's used today, that God loves those people but not those people.

We say very much in Christianity, and it's a very well-known fact, that God loves unconditionally. So, His love is unconditional to anybody. But here, these terms are used in the sense of unity, right?, that we... that we may be one as the Trinity is one. So, on these verses, St. Cyril says the following:

''The Son dwells in us in a corporeal sense as man, commingled and united with us by the mystery of the Eucharist. And also [he dwells with us] in a spiritual sense as God, by the effectual working and grace of his own spirit, building up our spirit into newness of life and making us partakers of his divine nature...'' (St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John 17)

The partakers of the divine nature here means to become in the likeness of God or it means θέωσις (théosis) essentially, right?, where we partake of God's attributes, right? So, when he says here his divine nature, he means that He, God the Father or God the Holy Trinity, share with us their attributes, their divine attributes. And therefore, we become similar to them; we become like them.

Verse 24:

'' 24 ''Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.'' '' (John 17:24)

So, Christ's deep love for His disciples, right?, is clearly seen here, and how He wants them to be with Him where He is, even in the spiritual realm, right?. That's the idea. And when they see Him in the spiritual realm, they will behold My glory or His glory which the Father has given Him since the foundation of the world. So, they will see Christ in a very different way. He will not be limited in His humanity anymore.

Again, it's very clear here that the Son of God is God. He has the divine nature. So many verses make it extremely clear in the Gospel of John, right? And this has been given from the Father to the Son before the foundation of the world, before the Big Bang, before time was created. He is the eternal Son of the Father.

Verse 25:

'' 25 ''O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. [very clear] 26 And I have declared to them Your name...'' '' (John 17:25-26)

I have declared to them your identity, your power, right? And this is the name, the power, the identity through which the disciples will continue doing miracles through the name of Christ in the Acts of the Apostles, right? So, it's a powerful name, because the name is associated with the identity of God.

'' 26 ''And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it...'' '' (John 17:26)

Because at this point, the cross and the power of the resurrection, the power of both the cross and the resurrection, right?, are still to be accomplished. Again, the cross is not weakness. It's quite the opposite. To be crucified on behalf of others is insanely powerful. And to be prayerful to the Father on behalf of those who are crucifying you is just beyond imagination, right? So, here the cross is not weakness. Christians are not called to be weak when they're called to be crucified with Christ. We are called to do something that is beyond what is natural here on earth through the presence of God within us.

'' 26 ''(...) and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.'' '' (John 17:26)

So, this epitome of love happens in the cross and reflects the love within the Trinity, and therefore, this is reflected in us and throughout the end of the world until the end of time.

Remember: Know your faith, live your faith, and teach your faith. And glory be to God forever and ever. Amen.

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Remember: Know your faith, live your faith, and teach your faith.