Seventh Sunday of Easter

John 17.6-19 -

John 17:6–19 (NIV): “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.

13 “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

As a child of God, what do you do when you really really want something? Something you know you can’t achieve on your own. You don’t have the resources, the strength, the know how. A problem you can’t figure out. A situation you can’t figure out? Do you stand in front of the mirror and say mirror mirror on the wall? Do you just wish really hard and hope it gets resolved? My grandmother used to have this Buddha statue and she would tell us to rub the belly for good luck. When you really want something to happen, what do you do? I mean when you are really serious about your need and the need is very real? What do you do? You pray, right?

Anyone notice what Jesus was doing as we were listening to this text? Jesus is praying which should tell us that whatever he was asking for was something he really wanted. And this wasn't "Now I lay me down to sleep” or “God is good. God is great. Now we thank him for this plate.” In other words, it wasn't just a routine prayer. This was a specific prayer for specific people with a specific purpose or should we say purposes?

First, Christ asks His Father to protect His followers from the world. But the meaning of this phrase isn’t really, “the world”. In other words, Jesus isn’t praying for His Heavenly Father to keep them safe from the bad things that could happen. He isn’t asking His Father to wrap His followers in bubble wrap to keep them safe. Instead, to protect them from “worldly philosophies”. We might say, to avoid temptation. In other words, Jesus knows how easy it is to be tricked into believing the wrong is right and right is wrong. It happens all the time. We see it all the time. But Jesus doesn’t want His followers to be led astray. He wants them to live according to the truth.

He prays for their protection in the name of the Father. Not only will Jesus’ disciples face temptation but Jesus knows they will also face persecution. Just as He has not been accepted by the world, so too, they will not be accepted. Just as He will be crucified, so too, many of them will die for their faith, for their message.

He prays that they may be one. But this prayer is not that God will turn Jesus’ disciples into automatons who will say the same thing, look the same way, think the same way. Instead, that God will use the disciples and their unique personalities to accomplish one goal. Christ just said, that He and the Father were one. And Christ’s birth, life, death and resurrection were in complete harmony with the will of the Father.

He prays that they may have the full measure of His joy.

He prays that they will be set apart or sanctified.