I stumbled across this passage in a chapter in scripture I’ve read through many times. Yet, for some reason, I never noticed these tender words of Jesus Christ until today:
“Father, they are your gift to me. I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world.” – John 17:24
Christ, in his moving final prayer before his arrest, prays that God the Father would preserve his disciples and Apostles in unity so that “they may have my joy made complete in themselves” (John 17: 13). He prays for their protection in the world from the evil one, and he prays for everyone to whom the Gospel will be preached in the generations to come. This is a deeply powerful moment. Christ chooses to pray in these final moments before his betrayal at the hands of Judas Iscariot is realized, and he prays loud and clear so that all present could hear. Later, John would record these words in his Gospel of John and preserve them for the ages.
What strikes me most is Christ’s exclamation, “Father, they are your gift to me”. Here, he’s speaking about us – you and me, about our families and friends, about all of God’s children, far and near, to the ends of the earth. Christ encountered thousands of people in his lifetime. He agreed with some, disagreed with some, chided and corrected some, healed some, let some walk away, but he loved ALL. Christ sees humanity as the “Father’s gift” to him personally, and he comes to save us out of tender love for his “gift”.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t always feel worthy of being called a “gift”. I often feel weighted more towards the names of “failure” or “burden”, unworthy to be loved and cherished as a gift because my imperfections burn me (and others) daily. Nonetheless, Christ has called us “gift”. He treasures us as “gift” and he shows us with his own self-gift of his very body that we are “gift”. This proclamation touches the heart deeply and it should! Jesus’ tenderness towards us flies in the face of our shame and makes our souls feel that we are worthy of love. Indeed! We are worthy of love! Christ proves this by enduring what comes immediately his prayer of John 17 in John 18 and beyond: betrayal, imprisonment, torture, derision, mockery, public shaming and execution.
Why? Why does Jesus, who loves us so tenderly, have to die so brutally to show us his love?
Well, the problem of pain is ever present. A personal thought is that perhaps he wanted to prove a point that would be difficult for us doubters to argue around in the ages to come. If you actually take a close look at the final moments of Jesus shared in the Gospels, which we read about from eye witness accounts and hear about from dozens of ancillary sources, it is difficult to say that Christ did not willingly accept this death and cross. He could have run away or simply side-stepped the authorities as he had done on some occasions previously. But no, Christ knowingly walked into this event and accepted it with open hands. Perhaps he knew you and I would doubt our “loveability”. If you’re like me, perhaps you doubt your worthiness of love multiple times a day! Truly, after years in ministry and youth development and human friendship, I am convinced that this wrestling with our worthiness of love is a fundamental human struggle which manifests in every human heart in one way or another. Christ, in the gift of his body on the cross, desires to show us in no uncertain terms that WE ARE WORTH IT. We are worth the ultimate gift and sacrifice because he LOVES US – because you are a GIFT to Jesus, and he sees you as such!!
How sweet is this? How lovely is it to be loved? Now, may we bless others with the over flowing and outpouring of this exact love in our lives. May you be blessed in Jesus’ name!
“Man, who is the only creature on earth which God willed for itself, can fully find himself only through a sincere gift of himself.” – Karol Wojtyla