Kids do listen! My kids picked up and carried home the May sermon series, “Open Our Eyes” which continues with lyrics, “we want to see Jesus.”
I know they were listening because I overheard a very serious conversation my daughters were having at the kitchen table. They were talking about what Jesus looked like.
This made me think about how I have never given thought to Jesus’ physical presence. His inner self, however, the very being of who He is and how He is? Well, this has been my own inner conversation for years and years.
In the text we will together open this Sunday, May 12th, we are gifted with who and how Jesus is. In a way, we can “see” Jesus here.
This lectionary text is a prayer between Jesus has His Father. The prayer is overheard and enables us to really see Jesus—from the inside, the very best side of who and how our Savior is.
In this text, we hear of Jesus’ love for His disciples. We cannot miss His care for them.
Jesus also expresses His deep love and concern for all His followers. Of course, He is praying over His disciples. Yet there is more. Because Jesus sees into His future, we also see and feel that He is praying for us, too.
In this prayer, Jesus acknowledges the hour has come for Him to be glorified which falls before His death. He prays for God to glorify Him so that He, in turn, can glorify the Father.
Jesus emphasizes what we need to emphasize—that eternal life is knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom God has sent.
Jesus affirms everything He has received has come from God, and He shares God’s words with His disciples. He emphasizes that they are not of the world but are sent into it. He acknowledges that we are not of this world but are sent into it not alone, but with His protection. He speaks of evil and knows about the world in which we live today.
As we move toward Sunday, let us be mindful of the power of Jesus’ prayer here. Let us be encouraged that we are indeed His. We can see Jesus because we are made holy not by our merits but His truth.
John 17:6-19, NLT
6 “I have revealed you to the ones you gave me from this world. They were always yours. You gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything I have is a gift from you, 8 for I have passed on to them the message you gave me. They accepted it and know that I came from you, and they believe you sent me.
9 “My prayer is not for the world, but for those you have given me, because they belong to you. 10 All who are mine belong to you, and you have given them to me, so they bring me glory. 11 Now I am departing from the world; they are staying in this world, but I am coming to you. Holy Father, you have given me your name; now protect them by the power of your name so that they will be united just as we are. 12 During my time here, I protected them by the power of the name you gave me. I guarded them so that not one was lost, except the one headed for destruction, as the Scriptures foretold.
13 “Now I am coming to you. I told them many things while I was with them in this world so they would be filled with my joy. 14 I have given them your word. And the world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 15 I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one. 16 They do not belong to this world any more than I do. 17 Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth. 18 Just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world. 19 And I give myself as a holy sacrifice for them so they can be made holy by your truth.
Dear Lord God,
As You send us into the world in these days leading to Sunday, help us hold and affirm this prayer You have prayed. In what we will experience, may the most obvious experience we have be that You, our love and guide, are continually with us. Amen.