Reflection -- A Prayer for Protection

The setting for this passage for the last Sunday of the Easter season is the event Christians have long called "the last supper."  Jesus and his disciples had gathered in a room in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover.  John recorded Jesus' lengthy prayer after the Passover meal for us in chapter 17 of his gospel.

This portion of Jesus' lengthy prayer is not a prayer for everyone, but only for those whom God has given into Jesus’ care.  It is a prayer for an inner circle; an inner circle whose makeup changes with the years as new disciples are added and old ones finish their earthly journey. 

The good news is that the gate to this inner circle is always open.  That “gate” is just receiving the words that Jesus gave us; words that Jesus received from God to pass on to us; words that strike a chord in our hearts and let us know that Jesus and his words are of God.  When we appropriate those words and that reality, this prayer of Jesus becomes a prayer for us.

The prayer is for protection.  Jesus was about to return to the presence of his heavenly parent.  He would no longer be in the world in physical form.  He knew well that the place where he has left us is not a safe place.  He was about to demonstrate on the cross that the world is not safe for those who put doing the will of God above all else.  It was not a safe place for him and it will not be a safe place for those who follow, including us if we are really committed to following Christ.  That is what Jesus meant when he said that “I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.”

So the bad news here is that there is risk in being a true follower of Christ and we are not to escape that risk.  “Going along to get along” is safe, but it is often not the will of God!  Jesus was specific in saying that he was not praying for our removal from life’s perils.  He did not pray for our removal to a place of safety because we have work to do here.  “As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.” 

But there is good news too.  In fact, the best!  We do not walk alone in this risky place.  “I ask you to protect them from the evil one.”  Jesus was (and is) one with the One to whom he prayed.  When Jesus left, he placed our care into the best possible hands!

revclay

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John 17:6-21

[Jesus is praying.] “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world.  They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.  Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 

“I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours.  All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them.  And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you.

“Holy One, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.  While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me.  I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. 

“But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves.  I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.  I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one.  They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.  Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.  As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.  And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.

“I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one.  As you are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”