Jesus' Prayer for You Today

Text: “ 9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.” (John 17:9-11)

Grace, Rachel, Brittney, Claire, and Hanna,

The hour has finally come. Not quite the way we would have imagined it, or as you may have wanted it— postponed, and now with immediate family only— but it is here. And there’s something fitting about that. It is a very strange time, when gathering with just our immediate families would be a big step forward from 7 weeks ago when we celebrated the Resurrection of our Lord with exactly 4 people in the building. It certainly was, as others have pointed out, a little too much like that first Easter when the disicples were behind locked doors out of fear when the morning dawned.

It’s fitting because the faith that you’re about to confess is not about being immune to suffering; it’s about rejoicing in suffering. It’s not about holding off death; it’s about the gift of eternal life.

There is a pastor named Bryan Wolfmueller who was talking about suffering recently. He pointed out that, through history, there are different philosophies that human beings have created to try to make sense of this world. There was one, for example, called stoicism. It tried to deal with the hardships of this world by insisting that suffering was good: it produces character; it teaches you to appreciate things; it keeps you from getting lazy and complacent… suffering is good. There was another group called Epicureans that said, “No, no, no, pleasure is good. What point is there to pushing our way through everything we deal with in this life without enjoying life’s pleasures? Pursuing pleasure is the greatest good.”

Which one is right? Pastor Wolfmueller summed it up this way: Stoics say, “Suffering is good.” Epicureans insist, “Pleasure is good.” Christians confess, “Jesus is Lord.”

The point is that it’s not an abstract set of doctrines you’re about to confess. You’re about to confess a very real savior. A very real savior who has done very real and incredible things. And He’s done them for you.

Today may be too much like the fear and uncertainty that the disciples were experiencing that first Easter morning, but remember how that day ended: with joy that the grave cannot contain.

We come to this hour and this day and in the Gospel reading we hear words that could not be more fitting. We see, in that reading, Jesus praying. Now, that’s not unusual. But today’s Gospel reading is literally Jesus praying. For you.

“6 I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.”

That is Jesus’ prayer for you. And not just something He said once upon a time— what is Jesus doing right now? He is seated at the right hand of the Father interceding for you, praying for you.

He’s praying for you because He, Himself, was not immune to suffering. Just the opposite: “3  He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not” (Isaiah 53:3). And yet He has borne your griefs and carried your sorrows (Is 53:4). “ 5 [H]e was pierced for [y]our transgressions; he was crushed for [y]our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought [you] peace, and with his wounds [you] are healed” (Is 53:5).

That is who you are invited to confess today: the One who would not deny you, even when it meant being betrayed by a friend, being mocked and beaten, being crowned with thorns. He would not deny you, even when it meant taking your sins upon Himself and going to suffer the penalty for those sins and the death you deserved. Who said from the cross, “It is finished,” referring to His plan for your salvation that He worked out over the course of thousands of years.

You’re invited to confess the One who called you by name in baptism and claimed you there as His child, who now invites you to take and eat, take and drink the body He gave on the cross and the blood He shed there— given and shed for you.

You’re invited to confess the One who is continually ruling right now, guiding and directing everything for your good even as He continues to pray for you every moment of every day.

That is where He will be and what He will be doing until the last day when He will call you by name one more time. He will call your name and raise you from the grave to the new creation where your name is written in His book of life.

On that day you will find that every one of the scars that this life has given you will be left behind in the grave forever. And yet, when you look upon Him, you will find that He will still bear His scars. He will carry them as badges of honor, badges of His love for you for all eternity. You will be able to touch the place where the nails pierced His hands and the spear pierced His side; perhaps you will even take the opportunity to follow the example of the sainted woman of Luke’s gospel and wet His nail-scarred feet with your tears.

Today is a very good day to confess a savior like that.