GOD-ESTEEM
Prayer
Praying On The Journey With Christ
A Commitment To Encounter Christ Through The Gospel Of John
Object:
John 17:6-19
"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. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth."
COMMENTARY
The words that we use in prayer reveal what is most important to us. These words of Jesus are his prayer words, and they are all about us and for us. The only way it is possible for us to know what Jesus said in this prayer was either for him to tell his disciples what he prayed, or for John to have overheard him in vocal prayer.
For reasons attributable only to love, we have become the apple of his eye. He reminds the Father how he has protected us from the evil one, has kept the disciples together as one, and he asks him to do the same for us. Jesus wants us to be unified in our mission to the world. He wants us to understand that we are sent people, just as he was sent to us. He speaks of us as though we are in the world, but not of it, and on that basis alone, joy is possible.
PRAYER
Lord Jesus Christ, you are the word-giver. You are the Word and you delivered the words given you by the Father. Because you have done this, you expect us to be in the world, but not of it, and to have a joy that is described as "full joy."
Lord, we Christians are often joyless in our demeanor and somber in our faith. We don't like the backslapping, ever-smiling Christians, who seemingly deny there is real pain and sorrow; nor do we like to be so gloomy ourselves that your spirit is always hidden behind a neutral face, if not a frown. We want to be authentic. We want to exhibit real love, not make-believe happiness. We don't want to be shallow in our knowledge or trite in our compassion.
What does peace look like on a Christian, Lord? Surely it is not glazed eyes and stoic smiles. Surely you don't want us to live lives of denial. Did you find peace on the night you prayed this prayer? You prayed these words on the same night you prayed in Gethsemane. There you had sweat on your forehead, like big drops of blood. You did not look serene.
Lord, we are all wrapped up in desire for self-esteem and peaceful thoughts. We want to think well of ourselves, even if others don't. We want to believe that we have proven ourselves to you as your lover, without bearing the cost of true discipleship; and if we have borne some of that cost, then we are apt to rely upon that suffering as our ticket to earned joy and peacefulness from you.
You won't let us get it that way, Lord. You keep pulling us away from our life experiences, tragic or blissful as they may have been to date, and you keep pointing at the cross and saying: "You need this. You need this death. Without it, you cannot be happy, cannot know joy, cannot be saved." You keep pointing at the cross and saying: "This is how much my Father would let me suffer, to convince you of your need of a Savior."
Lord, you won't let us save ourselves. Either you do it, or it isn't done. How humiliating. Our best efforts fall short. At the end, we have nothing to offer except a plea for mercy.
Lord Jesus, word-giver, listen to our prayers. Save us from ourselves. What good are we to you if we could save ourselves? How can we ever learn obedience if we can bypass the indignity of it all? How can you use us as your person, if we are still trying to do it all ourselves?
We know the answers to these questions. We just don't like the answers very much, because they feel demeaning. Yet you tell us that you listen, restore, and renew. You, the word-giver, have given your Word. On those promises, and by your cross, dear Savior, grant us peace. Amen.
"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. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth."
COMMENTARY
The words that we use in prayer reveal what is most important to us. These words of Jesus are his prayer words, and they are all about us and for us. The only way it is possible for us to know what Jesus said in this prayer was either for him to tell his disciples what he prayed, or for John to have overheard him in vocal prayer.
For reasons attributable only to love, we have become the apple of his eye. He reminds the Father how he has protected us from the evil one, has kept the disciples together as one, and he asks him to do the same for us. Jesus wants us to be unified in our mission to the world. He wants us to understand that we are sent people, just as he was sent to us. He speaks of us as though we are in the world, but not of it, and on that basis alone, joy is possible.
PRAYER
Lord Jesus Christ, you are the word-giver. You are the Word and you delivered the words given you by the Father. Because you have done this, you expect us to be in the world, but not of it, and to have a joy that is described as "full joy."
Lord, we Christians are often joyless in our demeanor and somber in our faith. We don't like the backslapping, ever-smiling Christians, who seemingly deny there is real pain and sorrow; nor do we like to be so gloomy ourselves that your spirit is always hidden behind a neutral face, if not a frown. We want to be authentic. We want to exhibit real love, not make-believe happiness. We don't want to be shallow in our knowledge or trite in our compassion.
What does peace look like on a Christian, Lord? Surely it is not glazed eyes and stoic smiles. Surely you don't want us to live lives of denial. Did you find peace on the night you prayed this prayer? You prayed these words on the same night you prayed in Gethsemane. There you had sweat on your forehead, like big drops of blood. You did not look serene.
Lord, we are all wrapped up in desire for self-esteem and peaceful thoughts. We want to think well of ourselves, even if others don't. We want to believe that we have proven ourselves to you as your lover, without bearing the cost of true discipleship; and if we have borne some of that cost, then we are apt to rely upon that suffering as our ticket to earned joy and peacefulness from you.
You won't let us get it that way, Lord. You keep pulling us away from our life experiences, tragic or blissful as they may have been to date, and you keep pointing at the cross and saying: "You need this. You need this death. Without it, you cannot be happy, cannot know joy, cannot be saved." You keep pointing at the cross and saying: "This is how much my Father would let me suffer, to convince you of your need of a Savior."
Lord, you won't let us save ourselves. Either you do it, or it isn't done. How humiliating. Our best efforts fall short. At the end, we have nothing to offer except a plea for mercy.
Lord Jesus, word-giver, listen to our prayers. Save us from ourselves. What good are we to you if we could save ourselves? How can we ever learn obedience if we can bypass the indignity of it all? How can you use us as your person, if we are still trying to do it all ourselves?
We know the answers to these questions. We just don't like the answers very much, because they feel demeaning. Yet you tell us that you listen, restore, and renew. You, the word-giver, have given your Word. On those promises, and by your cross, dear Savior, grant us peace. Amen.
