SCOPE OF JESUS'S HIGH PRIESTLY PRAYER IN JOHN 17, THE

Encounter, Winter 2006 by Janzen, J Gerald

(2) 1 John 2:28-29 reads,

And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. If you know that he is righteous [dikaios], you may be sure that every one who does right [dikaiosyne] is born of him.

We may note the contrast between "confidence" and "shame" at the coming of the righteous One. But is it clear that "shame" entails utter damnation? In any case, I suggest that "righteous" here has a different connotation, similar to that in Deutero-Isaiah, where it so often connotes deliverance. 1 John 2:29, then, may be paraphrased to mean, "If you are counting on God to have set things right for you, remember this-it is those who do righteousness who give evidence of being born of him." The argument parallels the argument concerning love that runs through 1 John 4 to the effect that one who "does not love does not know God; for God is love" (1 John 4:8). But these are not simply parallel arguments. For in the Johannine tradition (as in Deuteronomy for that matter), love and justice are mutually explicating terms. If God's love is not sentimental toleration for any kind of behavior, God's justice is not merely a cold bookkeeping manipulation of a moral and legal slide rule. But despite this mutual explication, John's addressees in this epistle (like the Israelites in Jeremiah's day) are all too capable of "trusting in deceptive words to no avail" (Jer. 7:8-10; see 1 John 1:6; 2:4, 6).

(3) John 5:30 reads,

I can do nothing on my own authority; as I hear, I judge [krino]; and my judgment [krisis] is just [dikaia], because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.

(4) And what is the will of the One who sent Jesus? John 3:16-17 reads,

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn [krino] the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

It is not that judgment does not occur. Of course light exposes darkness! Of course those who would hide their deeds in darkness must come to the light, redeeming sense of shame and all! (John 3:19-21; 1 John 1:5-9). But the aim and end of God's sending of the Son into the world is (as promised on oath in Isaiah 45) that "the world might be saved through him" (John 3:17; 1 John 2:1).

THE COSMIC SCOPE OF PRAYING IN GOD'S NAME

Another intertextual vector bearing on the topic of this paper can be identified in terms of the biblical theme of God's action for the sake of the divine name. In Psalm 79:9 and Daniel 9:19 divine forgiveness is sought "for the sake of thy name." This appeal is grounded in Exodus 34:6-7 with its explication of the connotations of the divine name. In Ezekiel 20:9, 14, and 22 God recalls for Israel (echoing the logic of Moses's intercession in Exod. 32:11-13 and Num. 14:13-19) how God had dealt with previous covenant betrayals: "I acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations among whom they dwelt, in whose sight I made myself known to them in bringing them out of the land of Egypt." Here, however, Ezekiel, through the phrase "for the sake of my name," ties Moses's intercession back to the scene at the burning bush, where Israel's deliverance from Egypt is grounded in the divine name. When God in Ezekiel promises deliverance from Israel's exilic situation, it is again "for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations" (Ezek. 36:22). All this is to suggest that, in these passages, the scope of the redemptive connotations of the divine name is delineated by the context in which it is foundationally proclaimed, in Exodus 3:14, 33:19, and 34:6. That scope is the descendants of the Genesis ancestors, the current people of Israel.