John 17:19 "And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth."

John 17 is a deep and rich passage of scripture.  Jesus is praying, and He is soon to be crucified.  John is listening in and reporting the prayer to us.  On this occasion Jesus is fully aware that His prayer is being listened to.  This prayer (usually called the 'High Priestly Prayer') is Jesus' gift to His immediate disciples, and to us.  We can be confident of this because Jesus makes it clear.  The prayer is given in three discrete but connected passages:

• John 17:1-5  Jesus opens his prayer by detailing His relationship with God The Father, for our benefit.  This is a theological goldmine - a gift from Christ to all Christians, and indeed to all people, for all time.  If you ever had any doubt about how Jesus Christ understood Himself, this is a go-to passage of scripture. 
• John 17:6-19  Jesus prayers for this immediate disciples (the 12 - or possibly a wider circle of believers) - the "people You gave Me out of the world".  Even Judas Iscariot gets a mention albeit by an unhappy description as "the son of destruction" (verse 12).  Jesus uses this part of His prayer to make crystal clear the relationship between The Father, Jesus Christ, the 'world' and his disciples.  There are enough complex themes here to keep a small group Bible study busy for weeks!
• John 17:20-26 Jesus prays for all the believers who will ever live.  Yup - that's us! Again there is compact depth and richness here, enough to ponder on for a lifetime. 

This is a wonderful chapter of scripture to chose as 'food' for Lent.  As Jesus prays on the very threshold of His passion, death, resurrection and ascension, they are all in view here in these 26 verses of prayer. 

But for today, and I suspect for some days to come, I will focus in on just one little dynamite verse.  Right now I have only a shallow sense of what it means.  It is verse 19: "And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth."

Jesus is speaking; 'They' refers to His then-current disciples...the "people you gave me out of the world";  Jesus wants them to be sanctified in the truth.  

What would that look like exactly?  Jesus' method of ensuring that this goal would be achieved is for Him to 'consecrate' Himself.  What does that mean?  How did He do that?  What would it matter if this verse had been omitted from the Bible?  What effect does this verse have on our understanding of God The Father, Son and Holy Spirit?  Is the Holy Spirit even involved?  How does this verse effect the church, me and you?

I apologize for that string of unanswered questions.  If you are still reading,  thank you. May we be sanctified by Christ, not because of anything we deserve, or anything that we may do, or anything that we may already be, or not be.  But rather, because Jesus wants it.  Because Jesus prayed it.  And Jesus is God.  So that means we have it, because when God prays, His prayers never fail.

I hope to journey into this verse and penetrate it's depth and riches.  Pray for me, and let me know the truth that the Holy Spirit is speaking to you about, so that we can stand together in Christ's consecration, and be sanctified.  I need it.  I know this from deep  within my own brokenness.  I need Him.  How about you? 

Amen. 

Dust Thou Art and to Dust thou Shall Return, Repent and Believe the Good News!

Today is Ash capital Wednesday, the only Christian day on the calendar that Hallmark will not produce a greeting card for!  It is the first day of Lent - the 40 day (not counting Sundays) preparation for Easter.  Christians typically fast for this period - a form of spiritual preparation for the great high feast of Easter.
To mark our period of fasting - and mourning for the sin we carry and the death that accompanies sin, we borrow from the Old testament tradition of ashes and sackcloth for mourning.  Well, the sackcloth piece has not really been adopted, but we do mark ourselves with ashes - usually on our foreheads in the sign of the cross.

 As the forehead is marked, the minister will usually say "Thou art dust, and to dust you shall return", reminding the person of their mortality, that we carry the inevitability of death within us and that this is theologically linked to our sin nature, and the sins that we may chose.   For added poignancy try being a hospital chaplain and walking through the oncology floor with ashes.   As I did so, I reflected that there is no guarantee that I will outlive any of these dear souls.
In more recent days, ministers may chose the alternative, more positive words "Repent and believe the Good News".  The Good News is that when we could not find God, God has come to us in the person of Jesus Christ, and has done for us what we could not do for ourselves - to remove the guilt and disease of our sin far from us, reconciling us to God and giving us His Spirit within us to comfort, guide and mediate His love to us, for right now and for evermore.  Good News indeed!

This is a free gift from God, but it must be received:  We 'repent' or turn away from living for our own selves, ambitions and agendas, and instead we take upon ourselves the role of servant of God, adopted children, obedient not from fear but from love, to the Father God who freely gives unconditional love, forgiveness, encouragement, and human flourishing (blessing).

So welcome to Lent.  We journey towards the cross that saves us, and the empty tomb that brings us new life.  As we go, we shed the baggage of our sin, and we start with the ashes.