“Protect Them” (John 17:1-19)

John 17:1-19

^17:1After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:

“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. ² For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. ³ Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. ⁴ I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. ⁵ And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

⁶ “I have revealed you ^u to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. ⁷ Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. ⁸ For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. ⁹ I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. ¹⁰ All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. ¹¹ I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. ¹² While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.

¹³ “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. ¹⁴ I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. ¹⁵ My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. ¹⁶ They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. ¹⁷ Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. ¹⁸ As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. ¹⁹ For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. ^[1]

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What is on Jesus’ mind as He prepares to go to the cross?  He is concerned for His disciples, so He prays to His Father on their behalf.  What stood out to me in this prayer is the twice-mentioned petition for protection.  “Protect them,” Jesus prays in verses 11 and 15.  He prays that the Father would protect them by the power of the His name, so that they might be one, and that He would protect them from the evil one.

As we saw in the verse from yesterday, Jesus is very matter-of-fact and realistic about the difficulties His disciples would face.  He told them clearly that they would have troubles.  Now they hear Him praying for the Father to protect them from the evil one, and from forces that would destroy their oneness with Him and with each other.  This leads me to think also of the prayer He taught them to pray, which concludes with a petition of deliverance from the evil one and all evil.

This prayer shows us Jesus’ heart for His followers, but also show us our need for the Father’s protection and power.  There are forces at work in our lives, in our world, in ourselves, that are greater than our strength to overcome.  We have an enemy – defeated but not done – who seeks to destroy the effectiveness of our discipleship, if not our discipleship itself.

And so in giving us “the Lord’s Prayer,” Jesus invites us to join Him in praying for protection and deliverance from evil.  So this is my prayer today, that the Father would indeed protect Jesus’ followers today and deliver us from all evil.

 hat is the Word leading you to pray about today?

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^[1] The New International Version. (2011). (Jn 17:1–19). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.