Jesus' Prayer For You

The print version of the Sunday night message in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on February 18, 2024.  The Bible verses used are John 17:1-26.

            Every Sunday morning, we have a time where we ask for prayer requests.  Lots of churches do that.  It’s called “Joys and Concerns” or something similar.  It’s a time for people to express what they would like the church, and the people in it, to pray about.

            That’s a good thing.  We should pray for each other.  In fact, the Bible tells us many times that we should do that.  But in our Bible reading tonight, we have an example of Jesus himself praying for us.

            That’s a pretty awesome thing, don’t you think?  That Jesus Christ, the Savior, the divine Son of God, would pray for you?  And for me?  It’s another example of how much Jesus loves us.  After all, at the time of our Bible reading, Jesus had a lot on his mind.  The prayer we read tonight is, according to the gospel of John, the last thing Jesus said before he went to the garden of Gethsemane.  And of course, that is where he would be arrested, an arrest that would lead to his death on a cross.

            Jesus could certainly have been excused if, at that point, his thoughts were all on himself.  But they were not.  A little, yes, but not that much.  His thoughts were mainly on God and on his disciples and followers.

            So, what does Jesus pray?  First, he prays that God the Father will be pleased with what Jesus has done.  He says, “I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.  And now, Father, glorify me in Your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.”

            You know, when we talk about the sacrifice Jesus made, we immediately think of his death on the cross.  And of course that was a tremendous sacrifice that Jesus made.  But it’s not the only sacrifice Jesus made.  Jesus’ statement reminds us that Jesus gave up a lot just to come to earth in the first place.

            “Glorify me in Your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.”  Jesus, as God the Son, was with God the Father in heaven.  He always had been.  God the Son had glory with God the Father before the universe was ever created.

            Jesus gave up that glory to come to earth.  And he had a specific job to do while he was here.  Now, his work on earth is nearly finished, and he prays that God will be pleased with what he has done and will return that glory to him again.

            But again, Jesus does not spend much time on himself.  He goes on to pray for the disciples.  And it’s interesting, I think, to note that Jesus specifically says he is not praying for the world.  He is simply praying for those who are his, who follow him.

            What does he pray for them?  Maybe not what we’d expect.  Jesus does not pray that God the Father will make things easy for them.  He does not pray that they will have anything material.  He does not even pray that God will keep them from harm.  Instead, he prays that God would protect them from the evil one.  And he prays that God would sanctify them with God’s word, which is truth.

            Protect them from the evil one, and sanctify them with God’s word, which is truth.  What does that mean?  Why would Jesus pray that way?

Jesus knows that now the disciples have a job to do, just as Jesus had a job to do while he was on earth.  They are going to have to carry on the ministry that Jesus has started, spreading the good news of salvation.  And Jesus knows it’s going to be a tough job.  He’s already told them they’re going to have all kinds of trouble.  In fact, he’s told them that the world is going to hate them because of him.  And he knows he’s not going to be there any more to protect them.

But Jesus wanted the disciples to look at this the way he looked at it.  Jesus knew that, if he stayed firm, if he stayed with God the Father and with God’s truth, nothing the world could do could touch him.  Yes, they could kill his earthly body.  But they could not do anything to his eternal life.  If he stayed with God the Father, he would, as he said, return to his glory in heaven.

And that’s what he wanted the disciples to do.  Stay firm.  Stay with God the Father and with God the Son.  Stay with God’s truth.  And so, he prays that God the Father will protect them from the evil one.  Protect them from the temptation to compromise.  Protect them from the temptation to back off, to get along.  Protect them from the temptation to soften God’s truth to satisfy what the world wants to hear.  

Again, Jesus knows that, if they stand firm, they will get into trouble.  But he knows that, if they stay with God’s truth, there’s nothing the world can do to them.  Yes, the world could kill their earthly bodies.  But the world could not do anything to their eternal lives.  If they stayed firm, if they stayed with God’s truth, they would be sanctified.  They would be set apart, and they would go to heaven to be with the Lord.

As I thought about that, I realized that we don’t pray that way for each other nearly enough.  We pray for others’ good health all the time, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with that.  We should do that.  We pray, sometimes, for protection from storms.  We pray for favorable weather or for safe travels.  We pray for lots of things.  But we rarely pray that God would keep us strong in our faith.  We rarely pray that God will help us stand firm and stand with God.  We rarely pray that God would help us stay with God’s word and God’s truth.

That’s wrong.  And it’s at least partly my fault, as the pastor, that we don’t pray that way more.  I’m not saying every prayer we ever pray needs to be that, but we should pray that way more than we do.  And I’m going to try to do my part to correct that.

Because that’s something we all need.  You and I are every bit as tempted to compromise as the disciples were, if not more.  We’re every bit as tempted to back off, to get along.  We’re every bit as tempted to soften God’s truth to satisfy what the world wants to hear.  And we’re also tempted to convince ourselves that the “softened” version of God’s truth is the right one, because sometimes it’s what we want to hear, too.

But Jesus did not stop there.  Jesus continued, praying for all who will come to believe.  That includes you and me.

What was his prayer for us?  It’s a prayer for unity, but not in the way we might have expected.  Yes, he’d like us to be united, but united because we have God’s Holy Spirit in us.

Listen to what he says.  He prays “that all of them might be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.”  A little later he says something similar, “that they may be one as we are one--I in them and you in me.”

Again, Jesus does not pray for the whole world.  He prays for believers.  Jesus knows that there can be no unity between believers and non-believers.  We should love them, yes.  We should pray for them.  We should treat them as we would like to be treated.  But we cannot be unified with them.  As Jesus said earlier, his disciples are not of this world, just as Jesus himself was not of this world.  Trying to be unified with the world is what leads to the compromises that Jesus prayed his disciples would avoid.

As believers, we are to be unified with Jesus.  That’s our goal.  To live as Jesus told us to live.  To treat others as Jesus told us to treat them.  To believe as Jesus believed.  To think as Jesus thought.  To love as Jesus loved.  To have the courage and trust in God the Father that Jesus had.  We’ll do it imperfectly, of course, because we’re imperfect people.  Even the disciples did it imperfectly.  But they did it, and we can, too.  And if we’re unified with Jesus, we can be unified with each other, too.

And Jesus prayed for one more thing for us.  He prayed, “Father, I want those you have given me to be where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.”

Jesus wants us to be with him.  To be in heaven.  To be with God the Father.  To see His glory.

            And when that happens, we truly will be unified with Jesus.  We will be perfect, just as God intended in the beginning.  Not because of anything we’ve done, but because the death of Jesus, and our belief in him, washes away our sins.  What an awesome thing.  What an amazing thing.  What an incredibly loving thing.  To be one with each other and one with Jesus in the presence of God in heaven.

            We should pray for each other.  But when you get down, when you get discouraged, when it seems like things are not going the way they should, remember this:  Jesus has prayed for you.  Jesus is still praying for you.  With Jesus on our side, there is nothing we cannot overcome.  We can stand firm in our faith.  The world may not love us for that.  But if we stand firm in our faith, we can be unified with Jesus, on earth and in heaven.