the reading
Jesus prayed for his disciples, “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.”
the sermon
Several years ago, my wife and I were facing a difficult decision. And it was something we really wrestled with for a while. It may sound crazy, but we struggled with whether or not to send our first-born child to [dramatic pause] public school.
It’s no secret that the school environment has been becoming increasingly difficult over the years as it relates to protecting our kids from non-Christian worldviews and perspectives.
And the church circles I was in held a pretty strong view that we need to keep the kids safe, and the only way to ensure that is to pull them out of the public school system and either home school them, or put them in a good private Christian school.
As Christian parents, we had the responsibility to put our children inside a protective bubble… a Christian bubble… so that we keep them from ever having to experience the harsh realities of this world, a world that hates and attacks them because they are Christian.
Listen, I get it. I would never intentionally put my children in harm’s way.
But I remember working with a small group of middle-school aged youth, and talking with them about the idea of inviting a non-Christian friend to youth group, and none of them even knew a non-Christian!
These kids were so far inside the Christian bubble that their bubbles were inside other bubbles! Nothing was going to get to these kids!
Well… until they grew up and left home for college, work, and just life…
And we wonder why so many kids fall away from church as they get older. Maybe it has something to do with how much we shelter them so that they don’t know how to live in the world that they’ll inevitably have to live in.
So, yeah… I had some strong feelings about this, and against the group-think of my church circles, we sent our son into public school. We figured how else is he going to learn how to cope in the real world if he can’t do it with the safety net of mom and dad at home helping him sort things out.
And Jesus’ priestly prayer in our Gospel reading today became our parental prayer for our children.
about Jesus’ priestly prayer (john 17)
This prayer of Jesus in John 17 is, to me, one of the best prayers in the entire Bible.
But let’s set this up first.
The timing of this in John’s Gospel puts it between the Last Supper and leaving for the Garden of Gethsemane.
Jesus takes the opportunity to stop and address the Father, in the hearing of his disciples. It’s almost as if he wanted to make his petition to the Father, and set an example for the ministry they were about to take over.
Matthew Henry, in his commentary on this passage identifies reasons for praying it this way:
- He says, “It was a prayer after a sermon; when he had spoken from God to them, he turned to speak to God for them.”
- Then he says, “It was a prayer after sacrament,” basically giving them an exhortation for how to live.
- He also says, “It was a family-prayer.” These disciples were his family now, and these are the words that he wanted to pray for these people who were so close to him.
- Also, “It was a parting prayer. When we and our friends are parting, it is good to part with prayer.”
- And finally he says, “It was a prayer that was a specimen of his intercession.” This is a model for us on how we should also pray for others.
So there’s a lot going on in the prayer in what Jesus is trying to show us, and in how we should then live as His followers.
how Jesus prayed for us
The part of the prayer that I’ll really focus on starts in verse 13…
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.
Jesus isn’t going to the Father to ask for himself to be glorified. He’s praying for the joy of the Lord in others. He’s praying that they may experience all of the fulfillment and peace and everything else that the Christian life would offer.
And remember, if we look at this as a model for how we should pray, we’re not praying for our own glorification, but for others to experience the joy of the Lord.
Jesus continues, verse 14…
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.
When he says, “I have given them your word,” I believe He must be saying that more for the benefit of the disciples listening in on this prayer than He is to the Father who knows exactly what His Son has done.
They need to know that Jesus has given them everything they need. He has equipped them to go do what they’re about to do.
And as a result, they are different.
But, let’s keep going, verse 15…
I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one.
Boom. And there it is.
Jesus isn’t asking for a bubble that separates them from the world. He wants to keep them here.
If you think about it, the easiest way to protect His followers from ever being harmed would be to just zap them out immediately into the heavenly places to live with Him in eternity as soon as they become a Christian.
But that’s not what He asks for.
He asks for them to stay.
He wants them to be there and to keep doing the work. If we’re all gone, how else are those who don’t yet believe going to discover the Good News?
We can speculate about this all day, but I believe that part of that joy that Jesus was wanting us to experience comes when we get to make disciples who learn and grow closer to God too, just as He did for them.
I can tell you that some of the proudest moments in my life are the times when I saw someone I cared about make a big change in direction in their life and start following Christ.
We cannot impact a world that we’re not part of.
Let’s keep going, verses 16 and 17…
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.
I think too many people look at this idea of us not belonging to the world as a reason for separating from it. And I believe that misses the intent.
Here we see Jesus asking to sanctify us. The original Greek for that more literally means, “set apart.” Here we go again… it doesn’t mean removed.
I have a family member who needs to eat gluten-free (due to Celiac disease). So when we cook, we may have some things set apart for those purposes. It’s not hidden away in the back of the cabinets to never be used. No. It’s saved for special purposes. We need it to perform specific jobs.
In the same way, Jesus sets us apart for a special purpose.
And what is he sanctifying us in? The truth. Our special purpose is to replace the lies of this world.
What lies? Here are just a few:
- A good job and money provides the happiness you need.
- It’s a free country; you can do whatever you please.
- It’s all about you.
We are here to speak truth and hope and life to people. And that message is going to counter what our culture would let us believe.
And there’s more to this prayer, but I’ll stop for now with verse 18…
As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.
The purpose of this prayer is the mission. We are to continue the very same work of healing and reconciliation and redemption that Jesus was here to do Himself.
so what?
When I work with the youth, I teach them a lot about how to study the Bible. And then we spend a great deal of time really digging in together. My goal is that they would be able to discover what the text is saying on their own, rather than have me show up every week telling them how I think they should live.
And at the end of every study, when we’ve successfully pulled out some deep meaning and principles from the text, I ask them one question.
So what?
We just got this great little (or big) nugget of Truth. So what do we do with that? How do we walk out of here today and do something different? How do we apply this to our lives right now, today?
And I think today it’s pretty simple.
We need to pop those Christian bubbles that we create to protect ourselves and those close to us. We’ll never reach the world from inside those bubbles.
We’ll be okay! In fact, the Son Himself is interceding on our behalf, right now! We don’t need to worry about our own self-made protective bubbles.
Our focus needs to be on the work we’ve been set apart and sent out to do.
And as we soon enter Ordinary Time (the season after Pentecost), the focus shifts from the life and ministry of Christ to the life of the Body of Christ, the Church… which is us. And that’s exactly what Jesus is praying for.
We can have no greater calling than to be messengers of truth and love and hope and healing in this broken and hurting world.
And if you’ve looked around recently, it’s hurting badly.
So, let’s go. We’ve got work to do.
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