November 20, 2022
May 27, 2020
John 17:11B-19
Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed, saying:
“Holy Father, keep them in your name
that you have given me,
so that they may be one just as we are one.
When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me,
and I guarded them, and none of them was lost
except the son of destruction,
in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
But now I am coming to you.
I speak this in the world
so that they may share my joy completely.
I gave them your word, and the world hated them,
because they do not belong to the world
any more than I belong to the world.
I do not ask that you take them out of the world
but that you keep them from the Evil One.
They do not belong to the world
any more than I belong to the world.
Consecrate them in the truth.
Your word is truth.
As you sent me into the world,
so I sent them into the world.
And I consecrate myself for them,
so that they also may be consecrated in truth.”
How blessed are we? I mean, Jesus is praying to the Father about – us. He isn’t asking anything for himself. He’s acknowledging the gifts the Father gave him. He has dominion over everything but he’s not caught up in that. No “let me smite the evil” talk but rather reminding the Father, “you gave them to me.”
He reminds God that he protected what was given to him while he was here. Now, he’s telling God that God needs to protect us.
Jesus knows why he was to die – because he was not of this world. Anything different is usually attacked. Because we follow Jesus, we, too, are different. By that fact, we will be attacked.
But Jesus trusts us with his mission. He sends us to complete his work.
H consecrates himself to his saving the world and so consecrates us. Why? Because we belong to him.
Will you join me?
What I Heard Him Say 