“Jesus Prays For Us”
John
Intro.: A friend of mine once told me the story of an
incident that happened at his church. It
seems that there was a young child who was “acting up” during the worship
service. The poor parents were trying
their best to keep a handle on him, and maintain some sense of order in their
pew, as the pastor was being drowned out by the rumblings of their sweet child,
but they were losing the battle.
Finally, after getting a number of looks from their fellow worshipers
the father picked up the little guy and sternly walked down the aisle toward
the door. Most of us who have been in
that situation know what was going to happen next. Well, so did the child, and just before
reaching the narthex, the little boy cried out to the congregation: “Pray for me!
Pray for me!”
While we may find the pleadings of that
child to be cute, in our time of danger and trouble it is comforting to know
that the prayers of the faithful are being offered on our behalf. Even more comforting is to know that our
Great High Priest, Jesus Christ, constantly intercedes for us at the Father’s
right hand. One such prayer of Jesus is
recorded in our Gospel reading, so let us listen in as Jesus prays for us.…
Knowing that soon He was going to be
ascending into heaven, and leaving His disciples in a hostile world, the first
thing Jesus prays is…
A. Jesus knows very well our tendencies toward
jealousy, hostility and disunity. How
often did He turn around to see his disciples bickering and arguing? And yet Jesus managed to keep them with His
Father, and hold them together by uniting them around Himself. But soon He would not be able to protect
their fellowship with His visible presence, because He was going to His Holy
Father. Jesus perceived what was going
to happen to them. He told His disciples
that when he would be taken away to be crucified they would scatter like sheep. (Matt. 26:31) How much worse
would it be for them following His ascension?
What could hold them together then?
In His prayer Jesus reveals that he
understands how dangerous life in the world can be and how easily it can lead
us away from Him and one another.
How many times does He turn around and look
at this congregation to see bickering and arguing over selfish and entirely
unspiritual issues? How often does He
look at our synod to see the sad disruption of fellowship which results when
people chose to argue from ignorance rather than seek clarification directly
from Him. And
how frequently does He look upon the modern church and lament the terrible
scattering which is taking place because of the world’s encroachment?
But it is not only what others are
doing. He knows the things you have done
to hurt and drive away those whom He wants you to call brothers? He knows how shallow and petty you have been
by allowing yourself to be driven away from those whom He has chosen to be your
sisters?
He understands how difficult it is to hold
a family together in this world; the desires that lead children away from
parents, the needs and concerns that cause parents to distance themselves from
their children, the lusts that lure husbands and wives away from each another,
and the jealousies that divide siblings.
Sadly, he sees it all, and sees it at work in His own family?
B. So in His prayer our Lord Jesus asks the
Father to make us one as He and the Father are one.
It was once pointed out to me that there
is a problem with our congregation’s vision statement, “Growing a loving
Christian family!” The problem is that
it gives the impression that this is something we can do, but it’s not? Creating true unity and love as a family in
Christ is something only God can bring about.
Christians can only discover it, experience it, and celebrate it when
they compare with one another what it is they believe, confess and
practice.
Since it is
something that only God can do, Jesus prays in our Gospel that the Father would
make us one by keeping us in His holy name.
Of course we know that there is more to His name than just letters and
sound. The Father’s name incorporates
all that He has revealed about Himself in His the incarnate Word, His Son Jesus
Christ, and everything He has said about Himself by the Holy Spirit speaking
through the prophets, evangelists and apostles.
His name is His Word! And that Word is the only thing that can
truly unite us with Christ and one another.
Think about it. In the waters of
Baptism we were united with Christ and with one another to as one body and
family in Christ. As stated in Ephesians
4: “There is one body and one Spirit just
as you were called to one hope when you were called – one Lord, one faith, one
baptism, one God and Father of all..” (Eph. 4:4-6)
Again when we share in the family meal
Christ makes us one in His body, as the apostles
writes: “Is not the bread that we break a
participation in the body of Christ?
Because there is one loaf we who are many, are one body, for we all
partake of the one loaf.” (1 Cor. 10:16b-17)
And here, gathered in the name of our Holy
Father, hearing the message of peace through His Son, we are bound together in
one true faith by the Holy Spirit, as it is written, “He came and
preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the
Father by one Spirit. Consequently you
are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and
members of God’s household.” (Eph.
2:17-19)
Thank God, as much as the world would try
to rip us apart here we are united with Christ and one another in our Father’s
Holy name; united by His Word, because Jesus loves us and prays for us.
Transition: Jesus
reports that while He was with His disciples in the world He had protected
them, but knowing that He would be ascending into heaven He pours out His
concerns for them and for us. He knows
that this world is not only dangerous to our unity in faith, but also to faith
itself, so…
II. He Prays That We
May Be Protected From The Evil One. (vv.13-16)
A. Jesus knows the dangers to our faith that are bound to come because of the evil one at work
in the world.
In offering this prayer Jesus had a clear
vision of what was going to happen to those He loved and had received His Word;
that throughout the ages they would be treated just as He was - betrayed by
their own friends and family, falsely accused, rejected, beaten, imprisoned,
tortured and murdered. He knew what was
going to happen to His disciples in the world, that all except perhaps one,
would be murdered because of the Word He gave them. And He knows what you have or will experience
also because of Him. The hatred the
world has for Him and His strong Word will be turned against you.
In offering His prayer Jesus knew that the
devil would stop at nothing to put an end to the Gospel which had left the
ancient serpent crushed and powerless.
He will attack your faith from within and from without. He will attempt to lead you to doubt through
lies such as those published and depicted by such things as the DiVinci Code or the Last Tempation
of Christ.
And He will try to lead you to despair
under the weight of this world’s hatred towards the truth of God’s Word. In this world you will weep and morn while
the world rejoices. You like so many
before you will be tempted to cry out, “Just end my life, O Lord, and take me
away from all of this!” You like so many
will be pressed in on every side, and like a fragile
clay jar feel like you are ready to break.
And Jesus, your High Priest, knows what this feels like, because He was
tempted in every way just as you are, yet was without sin. He was tempted by the devil in the
wilderness, in the garden, and upon the cross.
He was pressed hard, to the point of being crushed under the load of
your sin, and under the hatred of the people He loved and longed to save. And because He can
sympathize with our weaknesses…
B. He asks the Father to protect us.
For the sake of His disciples He offered
this prayer in their hearing, and shared the Gospel promise with them, so that
they may know the joy the enabled Him to endure the cross for them. He wanted them to know the fullness of His
joy in their salvation. And so He prayed
for them, even as He prays for us that we would be filled with His joy and be
kept from the evil one.
Through the Word Jesus spoke His joy
continues to be fulfilled in us. His
message is the message of His love for us, a love so great that He was willing
to lay down His live to give us eternal life.
He promises us that when we remain in His love His joy will be in us and
our joy will be complete. (cf. John 15:9) He promises us that even though we may now
suffer grief in all kinds of trials, He will give us a joy that no one will
ever be able to take away from us. (cf. John 16:22)
Jesus does not ask that we be taken out of the world,
because he knows that the world needs us, and the love of Christ we have to
share, but He asks that we be kept safe from the evil one. And truly, by the joyful Word of the Gospel,
that same Word which the devil despises and the world hates, we are kept safe
from the evil one. Through this Word we
are equipped with the full armor of God, it is the
sword which strikes down the devil whenever He tries to attack us, because
through this Word we have a sure defense.
Christ has taken away our sin and given us the victory. In His letter John writes: “I write to you…because you are strong, and
the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.” (1 Jn. 2:14)
Transition: Praise God,
under the worst trials this world can bring, and under the most severe attacks
of the evil one you are protected, though you are like fragile clay jars and
are hard pressed on every side you will not be crushed because Jesus prays for
you, and His Father has placed in you the treasure of His Word. The last thing for which we hear Jesus pray
in our Gospel lesson is…
III. (He Prays) That We
May Be Holy And Consecrated. (vv. 17-19)
A. Jesus knows our struggle with sin and worldly
entanglement. It is so hard to be in the
world, and not of it, to be instruments for transforming the world, and not
lumps of clay conforming to it, to be holy and set apart as God’s own children,
and not just more unruly brats in the devil’s playpen.
In His prayer
Jesus notes that as He was sent so he sent His disciples, and by extension has
sent us into the world. We have been
sent to be light and salt; to bring the message of the Gospel to others. As our epistle relates in a hate filled world
we are called to stand out and step forth with the love of God. We are to be like the Lord, or as Luther
said, “Little Christs”.
And yet Jesus knows that our sinful nature
still wages war within us, and that we are far from being an acceptable
reflection of God’s love.
Jesus knows that we come under the influence of the
world. He said, “Woe to the
world because of the things that cause people to sin!” (Matt. 18:7) and on another occasion warned that among us who have
received the Word often “the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth
and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, making it
unfruitful..” (Mark
B. And so in this prayer Jesus asks His Holy
Father to make us holy and consecrated to Him.
He prays the Father to sanctify us which means to make us
holy and set us apart for the Lord Himself.
This is Christ’s will for us as expressed in our epistle, that God’s
love would be perfected in us, as He lives in us and we live in Him without
fear, but in the full confidence of God’s love.
He prays that we be set apart by and for the perfect love which God has
shown us by giving His own Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
In His prayer Jesus asks the Father to “sanctify us by
the Truth” and adds, “Your Word is truth.”
Jesus knows that none of us can make ourselves holy, and none of us have
the strength of will to set our selves apart to God. Only God’s Word of truth can do this for
us. Only the Word that declares us to be
truly hopeless sinners in need of God’s mercy, and the Word that declares us to
be truly forgiven saints who have received the gift of salvation by grace
through faith in Jesus Christ can make us holy, and set us apart as God’s
people chosen to be royal priests, a holy nation, and a people who belong to
God, for the proclamation of His praises.
In His prayer Jesus reminds the Father that He, Himself,
would accomplish our sanctification. He
would do it by sanctifying Himself in perfect obedience to the law and by
setting Himself apart as the sacrifice for our sins. The writer to the Hebrews puts it this
way: “Therefore when Christ cam into the
world, he said: ‘Sacrifice and offering
you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me…’ He said, ‘I have come to do your will.’ And by that will, we have been made holy
through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Heb. 10:5, 9-10)
Praise God, the Holy Father has answered
the prayers of His beloved Son, and has made us, everyone of us, holy in Christ. You have been set apart by the Holy Spirit to
belong to God and live with Him in glory everlasting.
Concl.: What a blessing to know that
we have a Savior who loves us, sanctified Himself for us, and gave us His
powerful Word to unite us, protect us, and make us holy. How comforting to know that even now, Jesus
prays for us.