- Sermon - Mickey Anders

Text: John 17:1-11

If you learned that you were going to die within the next 24 hours, would you pray? What would you say? What would you ask?

Ron Williamson had a chance to find out. Ron was a young man from Ada, Oklahoma who was wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to die. He spent nearly ten years on death row, and came within days of being executed. John Grisham wrote a book about him. The title is The Innocent Man. Most of Grisham's books are fiction, but The Innocent Man is true.

Ron was raised in a religious home. He had drifted from his religious roots, but in his last days he spent lots of time in prayer. Grisham doesn't tell us what he prayed, but we can guess. He prayed that the judge would grant a stay of execution. He prayed that the police would find the real murderer. He prayed for his family. He prayed for mercy.

It became clear fairly early that Ron hadn't killed anyone –– but bad police work and a bad public defender and an over-zealous prosecutor put Ron on death row and kept him there for ten years.

Fortunately, near the end of the story, a good lawyer developed an appeal that convinced a judge to give Ron a new trial. In the years between his first and second trials, DNA appeared on the scene. They tested Ron's DNA, and it proved that he was innocent. Proved it beyond the shadow of a doubt! They had to set him free.

Imagine what it is like to sit on death row –– and what it is like to know which day you will die –– and what it is like to watch the clock winding down toward that day. Would we pray if we found ourselves in that situation? You bet! We would pray the same kinds of prayers that Ron Williamson prayed –– save me –– help my family –– work a miracle, Lord!

I mention that book, because our Gospel lesson today is Jesus' prayer as he was facing death.

The chapters leading up to this text outline Jesus' preparation for the cross. He began by washing the disciples' feet, demonstrating to them the kind of servant ministry that he expected of them. He gave them his new commandment of love. He promised them the gift of the Holy Spirit. Chapters 15-16 are composed of discourses (lengthy teachings). Now, in chapter 17, having prepared the disciples, Jesus prays for them. After this prayer, he and his disciples will go to a garden in the Kidron Valley where he will be arrested. This prayer, then, serves as a transition from the discourses of the Upper Room to Jesus' passion.

This prayer concludes the farewell dinner. It is commonly called The High Priestly Prayer for two reasons: First, Jesus is preparing to offer himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. Second, he intercedes for his disciples in the same way that the high priest interceded for the people of Israel. But others prefer to call this The Lord's Prayer and would refer to the "Our Father" as The Model Prayer.

It's an interesting prayer. Jesus didn't pray to be spared. He didn't pray for a reversal. In fact, Jesus is thankful that his hour has finally come. He came to bring eternal life to the world, and his death and resurrection will accomplish that. He is ready to get on with the mission.

The Gospel of John gives us a radically different picture of Jesus from that presented by Matthew, Mark and Luke. In those gospels, Jesus speaks primarily in parables, but in John, he speaks in abstract, often difficult, theological discourses. Perhaps like me, you had trouble following the meaning of today's text.

In John, we have heard Jesus repeatedly say that his hour had not yet come. But in this text, Jesus makes it clear that his hour HAS come. John would tell us that Jesus knew his death was coming. In fact, John says that was the reason Jesus came into the world. In John 12:27, Jesus speaks about his death by saying, "Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say –– 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour."

For John, the parables and teachings of Jesus matter very little. It is his death, burial and resurrection that matter. Jesus says that he came to give eternal life. And in verse 3, Jesus defines eternal life for us, "And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent."

One of my favorite verses comes from 1 Peter 3:18 which says, "For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring us to God."

The thing I like about John is that it cuts through all the confusion and clutter to go right to the heart of the matter. It's like a prayer when you know you are going to die. Suddenly all the little things don't matter.

1 Peter tells us the purpose of our faith is to bring us to God. John says it is eternal life, which means to know God and Jesus.

Sometimes we get bogged down in the pettiness of life and forget the main thing. Sometimes it happens at church. We can get so caught up in details of our life together that we forget what it is that we are here for - to know God.

I remember hearing a story many years ago about an atheist trying to instruct his son in a most important lesson. The young boy had heard about God from his friends and asked his dad about it. The father was so upset that he insisted that his son write 100 times on paper the phrase, "God is nowhere!"

As boys will do, he was rather sloppy in his writing. Sometimes letters ran together so that soon he was writing "Godis nowhere." Sometimes it was even, "Go disno where." Sometimes it all ran together, "Godisnowhere." But eventually, he found himself writing over and over, "God is now here."

That's what we are about as a church. We are moving from the fear that God is nowhere to the assertion that God is now here!