‘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 Father, 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.
I have always loved the poetry in this prayer. I can almost sense Jesus' love for his disciples and every time I read it I feel Jesus' love more and more. This is the second half of the prayer we began yesterday where Jesus was asking God to continue having a good opinion about him as Jesus goes through this very difficult time of his life. Here we see Jesus asking for protection for those who are closest to him; his disciples.
And what does Jesus think they need protection from? The world, rather from those who live in the world.
When Jesus speaks of "the world" in the Gospel of John he is speaking of the things which separate people and God. Worldly things such as power, greed, and worshiping Caesar as God or the son of God were prevalent in the mind of John as he wrote his Gospel. In this passage we see a a loving, caring, human Jesus asking his God for guidance to fight against, if you will, the forces of society which take us away from the love of God.
This prayer is not for himself, he's already accepted that what's going to happen to him is going to happen. What Jesus prays for is that his disciples, those whom he loves most dearly, are given the guidance they need to continue the work he's begun, regardless of what those who persecute them try to do.
Last night at our weekly youth gathering we talked about whether or not prayers come true just because you keep asking for the same thing. The general feeling was no, but what we also talked about was how sometimes we pray for something and miss the opportunities God gives us to help make the prayers come true. I think praying for someone else builds this kind of opportunity. In my experiences I've noticed that the more I pray for someone the closer I become in a relationship with them; even if that relationship is from a distance and only spiritual.
Jesus was at death's front door and yet he had the presence of mind to pray for those closest to him. Don't wait until you're in the same situation to begin praying for those you love. Do it now, do it often, do it with a pure heart; just do it.
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