John 17:6-19 (NRSV)
Read John 17:6-19 on biblegateway.com
Verse 6"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. Verse 7Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; Verse 8for 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. Verse 9I 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. Verse 10All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them.
Verse 11And 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. Verse 12While 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. Verse 13But 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. Verse 14I 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. Verse 15I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. Verse 16They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.
Verse 17Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. Verse 18As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. Verse 19And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.
Devotion
In the verse that follows today’s reading, Jesus makes that his prayer extends beyond those disciples who are gathered with him before his passion and death. He of course is praying for those who are now with him, have heard his words, and who love him. But he is also praying for those who will come to believe because of the witness of these first believers. He describes all believers, those first believers and us who have come to believe because of the continuing witness to the word of truth, as ones who do not belong to the world because we belong to him. What a great promise: that all believers, from the past to the future, belong to Jesus. What great comfort: that the Risen Jesus continues to pray for us, not that we are to be taken out of this world, but that in the midst of the world’s dangers and risks, we might be protected by the combined love of the Father and the Son.
Prayer
God of grace, we pray to the Father because the Son prayed for us. May the Spirit grant us the faith to believe that our prayers are heard and that the prayers of Jesus for our protection are answered. Amen.