John 17:1-11

Jesus Prays for His Disciples

After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.

‘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. 

Under pressure, it is ‘first things (or people) first’: Jesus knew that he was under surveillance, that his earthly life was approaching what was likely to be a violent end, so he took time to pray. Having acknowledged before God that his work was completed, Jesus then prays for his friends, his hand-picked companions, for whom, he knew, things were going to be extraordinarily difficult. Jesus was clear that his friends had received from him everything his Father had given to him; they had heard the good news and they knew its source and inspiration. Jesus had been captive to the message and mission given by his Father, and, in turn, his disciples had been ‘caught’ by this same message and mission. But Jesus knew that, under pressure, they might be vulnerable, so his prayer was that they might be protected. In later verses, he will pray for those who will believe through their message – for us.

Eleanor Roosevelt once said that “A woman is like a tea bag – you can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.” But it is not always like that – sometimes we collapse under pressure and bitterly regret it later. There have been times in my own life when, looking back, I recognize that I have been strong, I have resisted criticism and opposition; there have been other times when I have capitulated and given in against my own better judgement. None of us knows how we will be in ‘hot water’ until it happens. We are held by, captive to, the gospel, but living in that ‘captivity’ is not guaranteed easy! Jesus prayed for his friends – we need the prayers of our friends and we need to pray for them.

Blessings as we pray that we will be strong as we continue to be roiled in this hot water of the pandemic.

 To Ponder:

• What does it mean to you to be ‘captive to the gospel’? Are there parts of the good news that you would prefer to ignore?
• Reflect on a time when you became captive to something else and lived to regret it?