Post by Drakee on Aug 25, 2004 17:32:59 GMT -5
This is the great prayer Jesus prayed before he went to the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus is leaving these disciples by means of the garden, the betrayal, the judgment seat of Pilate, and the cross, and to them it appeared that he was abandoning them. They felt frightened, helpless, alone, and unable to understand what was taking place. They could not see that our Lord was merely introducing a higher and a better relationship to them.
Do we not feel this way? God leads us to a place of change and we are frightened by it. We wonder if we are not losing everything we held dear in the past. We scarcely realize that God is but leading us to a higher, a newer, and greater relationship. Like these disciples, we are frightened and fearful.
As we come to these words my concern is how to convey to your hearts something of the gripping reality of these requests of Jesus, something of the intense practicality of what he is saying. I am so afraid that we will listen to these words, as to beautiful poetry or moving drama, and, entranced by their similarity and beauty, fail to realize that Jesus here is actually praying for us -- for what he prays for his disciples he prays for us. I am afraid that we will fail to see behind the beauty of these words to the terrible and glorious realities. This prayer ought to hit us like a punch in the jaw. Or, perhaps, like a hand that grabs us as we are going down for the third time. These words ought to both sober us and comfort us. These are not soft, beautiful words, prayed in a great cathedral. These are earthy, gutty words, uttered on a battlefield in which our Lord is coming to grips with life as it really is, and, as such, they ought to strike that note of reality with us.
The first thing that arrests us is the plea that Jesus utters for his disciples. "Holy Father," he says, "Keep them," {John 17:11b RSV}. Later he said, "I do not pray that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them," {John 17:15a RSV}. This is the theme of his prayer: That they might be kept.
Why? There are so many things that I would pray for if I were in his place (if any man could be in his place). They are the usual things we pray for one another. Why didn't Jesus pray, "Use them, or strengthen them, or teach them, or guide them?" This is what we would pray for each other. But when he comes to this place where he is leaving them and he wants to put into one brief phrase all that is his heart's urging and desire for them, he sums it up in those two little words: keep them.
As I thought this through, I found that this is what I pray when I am about to leave my family or am away from them. When I am with my loved ones I can pray more specifically for them, but when I am away I find I am continually praying, "Lord, keep them, keep them."
All of this simply points up the fact, highlighted for us here in this prayer of Jesus, that relationship is the supreme thing. Whom we are with is far more important than what we do. And our Lord, aware of that, gathers all of these requests together in this one word, "Keep them, Father, keep them." Whom you fellowship with determines what you are, so his prayer is that our relationship with the Father remain intact, for then all else he desires will come from that. So he prays, "Keep them."
This is uttered in view of the peril which he sees, set forth for us briefly in Verses 14 and 15:
"I have given them thy word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not pray that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil one." {John 17:14-15 RSV}
Our Lord saw very clearly into the nature of life as it is, the nature of reality. He realizes that Christians, believers, are facing a hostile world, behind which is a sinister being of incredible subtlety, whom we call the devil. We do not see the devil, it would be helpful if we did. He would be much more easily dealt with if he would become visible, but unfortunately he does not. He keeps himself behind the scenes, and, as such, has created the myth that he does not even exist. But in the eyes of Jesus who saw things as they really were, the devil was a very real being. He realizes that, as human beings, we simply do not see the devil but what we see is the devil's front, which Jesus calls "the world."
Christians have struggled with this problem of "the world" all through the twenty centuries of this Christian age and wondered what this means.
There are some who have made the mistake of thinking it is the world of nature and that Christians ought not to have anything to do with enjoyment of natural beauty, the glories of the mountains, and the sea, and the world of natural life. This is certainly not true.
Others have wondered if it means the world of natural relationships, our family life, the joys of family living, of friends, of home, of mothers and fathers and children and their relationship together. No, this is not "the world" of which our Lord warns.
The world, in the evil sense, in which this word is used here, is preeminently the basic assumptions that men and women make who live without God. In other words, the underlying philosophy of life that men make as they face life, this is the world.
It is rather difficult to spell it out in specific terms.
Do we not feel this way? God leads us to a place of change and we are frightened by it. We wonder if we are not losing everything we held dear in the past. We scarcely realize that God is but leading us to a higher, a newer, and greater relationship. Like these disciples, we are frightened and fearful.
As we come to these words my concern is how to convey to your hearts something of the gripping reality of these requests of Jesus, something of the intense practicality of what he is saying. I am so afraid that we will listen to these words, as to beautiful poetry or moving drama, and, entranced by their similarity and beauty, fail to realize that Jesus here is actually praying for us -- for what he prays for his disciples he prays for us. I am afraid that we will fail to see behind the beauty of these words to the terrible and glorious realities. This prayer ought to hit us like a punch in the jaw. Or, perhaps, like a hand that grabs us as we are going down for the third time. These words ought to both sober us and comfort us. These are not soft, beautiful words, prayed in a great cathedral. These are earthy, gutty words, uttered on a battlefield in which our Lord is coming to grips with life as it really is, and, as such, they ought to strike that note of reality with us.
The first thing that arrests us is the plea that Jesus utters for his disciples. "Holy Father," he says, "Keep them," {John 17:11b RSV}. Later he said, "I do not pray that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them," {John 17:15a RSV}. This is the theme of his prayer: That they might be kept.
Why? There are so many things that I would pray for if I were in his place (if any man could be in his place). They are the usual things we pray for one another. Why didn't Jesus pray, "Use them, or strengthen them, or teach them, or guide them?" This is what we would pray for each other. But when he comes to this place where he is leaving them and he wants to put into one brief phrase all that is his heart's urging and desire for them, he sums it up in those two little words: keep them.
As I thought this through, I found that this is what I pray when I am about to leave my family or am away from them. When I am with my loved ones I can pray more specifically for them, but when I am away I find I am continually praying, "Lord, keep them, keep them."
All of this simply points up the fact, highlighted for us here in this prayer of Jesus, that relationship is the supreme thing. Whom we are with is far more important than what we do. And our Lord, aware of that, gathers all of these requests together in this one word, "Keep them, Father, keep them." Whom you fellowship with determines what you are, so his prayer is that our relationship with the Father remain intact, for then all else he desires will come from that. So he prays, "Keep them."
This is uttered in view of the peril which he sees, set forth for us briefly in Verses 14 and 15:
"I have given them thy word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not pray that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil one." {John 17:14-15 RSV}
Our Lord saw very clearly into the nature of life as it is, the nature of reality. He realizes that Christians, believers, are facing a hostile world, behind which is a sinister being of incredible subtlety, whom we call the devil. We do not see the devil, it would be helpful if we did. He would be much more easily dealt with if he would become visible, but unfortunately he does not. He keeps himself behind the scenes, and, as such, has created the myth that he does not even exist. But in the eyes of Jesus who saw things as they really were, the devil was a very real being. He realizes that, as human beings, we simply do not see the devil but what we see is the devil's front, which Jesus calls "the world."
Christians have struggled with this problem of "the world" all through the twenty centuries of this Christian age and wondered what this means.
There are some who have made the mistake of thinking it is the world of nature and that Christians ought not to have anything to do with enjoyment of natural beauty, the glories of the mountains, and the sea, and the world of natural life. This is certainly not true.
Others have wondered if it means the world of natural relationships, our family life, the joys of family living, of friends, of home, of mothers and fathers and children and their relationship together. No, this is not "the world" of which our Lord warns.
The world, in the evil sense, in which this word is used here, is preeminently the basic assumptions that men and women make who live without God. In other words, the underlying philosophy of life that men make as they face life, this is the world.
It is rather difficult to spell it out in specific terms.