7th Sunday of Easter B

Tissot (detail)

 7^th Sunday of Easter B

Readings:  Acts 1:15-17,20-26   1 John 4:11-16    

John 17:11-19

The readings for this last Sunday of the Easter season prepare the disciples for the descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost who will send them into a hostile world.  In the gospel selection, Jesus prays to his Father: “I do not ask you to take them out of the world, but to guard them from the evil one” (John 17:15).

The reading from Acts recounts the choice of Matthias to replace Judas as a member of the twelve who had been chosen by Jesus to renew the twelve tribes of Israel (see Luke 6:12-16; 22:24-30) and to witness to his resurrection (Luke 24:44-49).  Before the descent of the Spirit, this important symbolic group must be reconstituted.  Judas’ betrayal is a sobering reminder that the power of evil had penetrated into the very heart of Jesus’ apostolic band.  Peter reminds the group of approximately 120 who are gathered in the upper room in Jerusalem: “He (Judas) was one of our number and had been given a share in this ministry of ours” (Acts 1:17).  Luke understands Judas’ betrayal as due to the power of Satan (Luke 22:3) and as part of Jesus’ destiny in fulfillment of a prophecy spoken by David in Psalm 41:10: “Even my friend who had my trust/ and partook of my bread/ has raised his hand against me.”  At the last supper in Luke, Jesus had announced: “And yet behold, the hand of the one who is to betray me is with me on the table; for the Son of Man indeed goes as it has been determined; but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed” (22:21-22).  Now Peter, continuing to follow the divine plan marked out in the psalms, quotes Psalm 109:8, “May another take his office,” and suggests that one of those who has been in the Jesus’ company from the baptism of John to the ascension “should be named as witness with us to his resurrection.”  Two men meet these qualifications: Joseph, called Barsabbas/Justus, and Matthias.  The community prayerfully leaves the final choice to God, and the lot falls to Matthias.

The second reading from 1 John continues last week’s epistle reading and addresses the most important question of how we can know if “we remain in” God.  This was vital concern for John’s church which had been rent by secession over how to understand Christ.  Some apparently thought the verbal confession that “Jesus is the Son of God” was enough.  John’s answer is at once simple and profound.  “Beloved, if God has loved us so (in Jesus’ death on the cross), we must have the same love for one another.”  In John’s theology God’s gift of the Spirit is the power to share in the very love of God.  Because we have not seen God, we can only demonstrate that God dwells in us by having love for one another.  This brings to perfection God’s love in us.  In 1 John’s unsurpassable words: “God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in him.”       

The Gospel is Jesus’ prayer for his disciples at the conclusion of his farewell discourse in John.  As he is about to depart to his Father, Jesus prays for two things: that the disciples be protected from “the evil one” and that they be consecrated in God’s word of love which is “truth.” Jesus’ language in this prayer is coded in key terms of Johannine theology.  He prays that the Father “protect them with your name which you have given me.”  God’s name, “I Am,” is repeatedly used by Jesus in John (see 6:22-66; 8:12-59; 10:1-21; 11:25; 14:6; 15:1-17; 18:5-6).  In John’s theology, this name reveals the unity of the Father and Son as the source of life and unity for all who come in faith to Jesus, the revelation of the Father’s love.  Jesus says to the Father, “I guarded them with your name which you gave me.”  The only one who was lost was Judas, “who was destined to be lost in fulfillment of Scripture.”  Now Jesus prays that the Father continue to protect the disciples “from the evil one” in a world opposed to the truth of God’s love.  As he sends his disciples into this hostile world, Jesus consecrates himself for their sakes by submitting to his Father’s plan by laying down his life.  As we await the descent of the Spirit on Pentecost and the renewal of its mission to the world, Jesus assures us of the Father’s loving protection and consecrates us to live the truth of God’s love in him.

“Consecrate them by means of truth—‘Your word is truth.’ As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world; I consecrate myself for their sakes now,that they may be consecrated in truth.”