A blessed Holy Week to you all. As we get closer and closer to the remembrance of our Savior's death and the celebration of His resurrection, I wanted to spend some time reflecting on the High Priestly prayer from John 17.
By this point, Judas has left. He will be returning shortly with a group of soldiers to arrest Jesus in the garden. Jesus knows all of this; he knows that His time is at hand. He knows what He is about to endure: the torment, the agony, the shame, the injustice.
He doesn't run, or hide. He doesn't gather together a group of people to fight off his enemies. Instead, He goes to His heavenly Father in prayer. He prays, first and foremost, that through His work, the Father would be glorified.
Then, He prays for His disciples. He knows what they are about to endure. He knows that they'll think that all is lost. They'll go into hiding, fearful for their lives. So, He prays that they would know and believe in Him, that they would be sanctified in the Truth.
The word for "consecrate" is ἁγίασον, meaning that they would be set part, made holy, by the work of God's spirit, His Word living in and through them, as they are sent into the world.
Then, finally He ends His prayer by praying for us:
20 “I do not ask for these only (meaning the disciples), but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
In the moments before His arrest, with what precious little time He had left, Jesus took time to pray for you, for me, and for all those that believe in Him.
He prayed that we would be one, as He and the Father are one. Perfectly unified in love. A love that transcends time and space. A love that is performative, that is powerful. A love that brought all of creation into existence.
That we would be one, even while we are in the world. That we would be one, even when we are physically separated, when we are isolated and quarantined from each other. It is a love and a unity, for the sake of the world.
So, my prayer is that you would know that you are loved. We are one. No matter what may physically separate us, we are united in Christ. My hope is that you, too, would take time in the midst of this situation to pray. Pray for your brothers and sisters in Christ. Pray for the world; that it would know that Jesus was sent for them, that they would know they are loved.
We are praying for you and with you. We are together, in all of this. And if we can help you, in any way, I pray that you would reach out and ask.
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