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
“Why is this happening to me?” I have had many pastoral conversations over the years that have raised this question. Sometimes the question is plural: “Why is this happening to us?” But in all cases the issue is the same: life has taken a difficult turn, and we feel the unfairness of our hardship.
In his “high priestly prayer” in John’s Gospel, Jesus includes an acknowledgement of such moments. In verse 15, Jesus makes it clear: he does NOT ask for his followers to be spared from life’s difficulties—to be taken out of the world. Rather, he prays that we might be protected “from the evil one.” I take that to mean that the power and presence of God surrounds us so that we are not overcome by despair.
We often don’t have good answers to why this is happening to me or us. But Jesus has promised to pray for us that we will experience God’s protective presence in those times. Thanks be to God!
Prayer
Son of God, we turn to you in the midst of our hardships. Help us to experience your power and strength to help us get through them. Amen.
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