Does
it make a difference to know that Jesus prays for you?
That is what this big long prayer is after-all, it is a prayer for us, Jesus followers. So, I ask again, does it make a difference knowing that Jesus prays for you?
You see, Jesus’ prayer in John 17 is worth so much more than receiving the praying hands in a text, or a long list of people typing “praying for you” at the bottom of your social media post. Now, I understand that some people really mean it when they do this; some people actually stop and pray when they post such a thing, but I am suspicious that many of these posts are people who just want to be nice, but do not actually pray anything. Is that too pessimistic?
You see, I was first clued in to this when an atheist friend posted some praying hands to me. Seeing those praying hands actually made my day, because I knew the person most definitely was not praying for me. But, I loved it all the same because I was struggling and I just needed something really funny that day. My atheist friend came through.
For those of you who do not text or use social media, what we are talking about is akin to saying, “I’ll be praying for you,” at the grocery store, not because you are actually going to stop in the middle of the grocery store and pray with them (which would be great), but because you are both holding up the checkout line and you just need the other person to stop talking. “I’ll be praying for you!”
If we had some sort of futuristic, universal language translator, “I’ll be praying for you,” in most cases would simply be translated as “Goodbye.”
But, when Jesus prays for us, it means so much more. I imagine that when Jesus prays for us, it is a lot like when my elderly neighbor in Dubuque, Iowa said that she would be praying. While sitting and talking with her one afternoon (she had a tendency of luring Randele and I over to her house with cookies…that works for college students) she reached over, opened her worn out, about to fall apart Bible, and retrieved her “bookmark.” It was a grocery receipt, and on the back of it was a list of names.
“Come here, I want you to see this,” she said.
So, coming near and looking at the slip of paper, I immediately recognized two names at the top of the list: “Jira” and “Randele.” We were prayed for.
I do not know if the adults out there ever struggled in your early twenties with finances, or keeping cars working, or finding a job that you can actually pay the bills, or struggled with just knowing who you were in the world, but I did. And, it really meant something to me that Dorothy, our Christian neighbor, took time out of her day to actually pray for Randele and me.
In truth, the prayer emoji does not really draw me closer to anyone when I see it, though I certainly appreciate the kind gesture…do not get me wrong. But seeing that piece of paper meant of Dorothy’s that we were someone special to her. It drew us closer to her. We were more than neighbors. We were worth being prayed for.
Dorothy understood prayer. Dorothy understood Jesus. Dorothy knew what it meant to be prayed for by her savior, Jesus Christ.
Instead of being intimidated by these many, many, many, many words of Jesus, and before we try to dig in deep and tackle them all, I just want you to note that Jesus spent all of those words on you, his friends.
If time is worth something, then the time that Jesus spent in prayer for you means that you are very, very, very, very valuable.
Jesus desires more than anything to be close to us, his friends. And, prayer is a way to do just that. In fact, that is a part of the prayer. Jesus prays to God the Father, “All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them.” Everyone who belongs to God, belongs to Jesus. We are his.
I like that. It reminds me of the first words out of my Bible camp counselor’s mouth. When the intake woman asked my name as I held onto my sleeping bag, a woman in red shorts, a baseball t-shirt with the words, “All we need is glove,” and a baseball cap on her head turned instantly at the sound of my name, pointed right at me and declared with a smile, “You are mine!” I did not know if I should feel frightened or loved, but I took a chance on love.
“All yours are mine,” Jesus says. We belong to Jesus Christ. We are his. We are worth being prayed for. Salvation in the gospel of John is not so much about the cross, but rather being near Jesus. We are saved because we are his.
I want to go back to that camp counselor, because I really was hers, for the week anyway. She was a good mentor, and became a good friend during that week. She talked with us. She sang with us. She told ghosts stories with us. And, one time while I was talking constantly and not paying any attention to where I was going along the trail, she suddenly grabbed me, placed me safely with the rest of the group and saved me from a horrendous patch of burning nettles. I was just inches from an itchy, burning week. She protected me.
I only mentioned that because that is precisely what Jesus prays for us. Well, not the burning nettles part, rather the protection part. Jesus prays, “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.”
This protection is so much more than pulling us from burning nettles though. It is a prayer of protection against being divided against each other. Though this prayer was prayed two thousand years ago, I am certain that Jesus is still praying it today. He is still praying it because we are not one with Jesus Christ when we are divided against each other.
The last few years have been nothing but division, and disagreement, and disillusionment on the world. But, God’s people are not made stronger by divisions. No matter what the world says.
No matter if the world says that ideals should rule the day. No matter if the world says that political ideations are what are ultimately important. No matter if the world says, love your friends and hate your neighbors.
We have a prayer right from Jesus Christ himself, where he earnestly prays that we not fall prey to the lures of the divisions of the world, and, through sweat and tears, prays instead that God the Father, “protect them…so that they may be one, as we are one.”
Jesus’ arms are opened wide on the cross to gather us in, not to spread us apart.
It is the way of the world that would interpret Jesus’ spread out arms to mean keep your distance…keep apart.
Do not get too close, you might start thinking like them, the world says.
Do not get too close, you might love the wrong person, the world says.
Do not get too close, love just may break you the world warns.
But, I have to tell you brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus went to the cross with love as his companion. He went to the tomb with love. And, love broke through the stone of that tomb on the third day. Jesus’ wide open arms cannot be pushed together. We are gathered into the arms of Jesus Christ our Lord who holds us together with an eternal sort of love that overcomes the suspicions and condemnations of the world.
We belong to Jesus. We do not belong to this world. Jesus prays, “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.”
Indeed, Jesus does not pray that we be taken from this world. Nor does he pray that we become a part of the world. Rather, Jesus prays that we be in the world, but not of the world. We are Jesus’ hands and feet in the world. We are the ones Jesus has called to proclaim the promise of John 3:16, “for God so loved the world…”
For that reason, Jesus prays that we be protected from the evil one; not so that we can live a sheltered life, like a butterfly in its cocoon, but so that we can spread our wings and follow Jesus; so that we can bring God’s love to the world; so that the world can know Jesus’ love through us; so that we can glorify Jesus; so that we can lift Jesus and his love for the world high like a baseball team lifts high on their shoulders the hitter who won the game with a homerun.
Jesus prays that we be protected, in order that we can continue to lift him high; so that we can continue to lift high God’s grace.
After-all, you have been “sanctified” for this. You have been “set apart” for this. That is what Jesus means by sanctify here: “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.” We have been set apart to draw others close to God, just as we have been drawn close to God.
How do we do that? What has this much too long prayer and this similarly much too long sermon taught us about drawing others close to God?
Well, I know a great place to start, “prayer.” Pray for people. Really pray for them. Pray much too long. Pray like they matter, because they do. Because, when you pray like they matter, you will find that they actually do matter. You will give them cookies and teach them the importance of prayer and love them until they move away. The world shoves people aside. We pray them into unity with God the Father, and with Jesus, and with us.
I know another great place to start. Like my camp counselor, tell people that they belong to you, because, they do. As followers of Christ, these tender souls of the world have been given to us. And, when these tender souls know they belong to us, they will know that they belong to the one who sent us, Jesus Christ our Lord. Include them too much. Ask them to join with you obnoxiously. Be there for them too much, because Jesus is there for them, just as he was there for you.
And, when you can, protect them, just as Jesus protects you. Protect them from the evil one. Protect them from those who do not care about God’s love. Protect them from those who do not know how to forgive or empathize. Protect them from those who can only criticize. Hold them close as if they were a precious child of God who does not deserve all of the evil that the world inflicts, because they are.
Pray, Include, and Protect. That is the way of Jesus Christ.
No comments:
Post a Comment