1st Peter 4.12-14; 5.6-11; John 17.1-11
In the gospel, Jesus prays, “I am asking…on behalf of those whom you gave me…protect them in the name that you have given me.” The fact that Jesus is praying is, by itself, unremarkable. Jesus’ whole life was prayer, his whole life oriented to God. Prayer was central to his teaching: Jesus told parables on prayer; encouraged his followers, “to pray always and not lose heart;” and in the Lord’s Prayer, the Our Father, taught us how to pray, gave us words to pray. But the gospels say very little about the things that Jesus prayed for or the way he prayed. Today is an exception. The entire 17th chapter of the Gospel of John is a single, extended prayer offered by Jesus. And we have the privilege of listening in on it, overhearing how Jesus prayed and what he prayed for. Today, he is praying for the disciples’ lives of faith, their joy and holiness, and for their protection. “Protect them in the name that you have given me.”
Yet more than a prayer for the disciples only, Jesus is praying for you, too. In the verses right after the gospel reading ends, Jesus expands his focus, looks beyond the disciples who are with him, and prays “on behalf of those who will believe in me through the word.” Everyone who believes in him through the word read and spoken, through the word visible and present in the sacraments, through the word lived out in good works is included in this prayer. You are included in Jesus’ prayer.
Now if that sounds implausible or unlikely, consider what the New Testament letter of Hebrews says. Hebrews says that now in the time after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, “he lives to make intercession” for us and prays on our behalf. Jesus’ job in heaven is to pray for us. Or in Romans, St Paul tells us that nothing will separate us from the love of God because Christ is interceding for us, pleading our cause before God. Jesus himself is, as he says in today’s gospel, “no longer in the world.” But we are in the world. And, in the world, we are meant for a life of faith with the grace and good works, the assurance and strength, that go with it. Jesus is praying that for you. If you have ever known a sense of comfort and hope when a friend says, ‘I’ll be praying for you,’ how much more, then, when the Son of God is doing just that on your behalf? He lives to make intercession for us.
“Holy Father, protect them in the name that you have given me.” Only what do you suppose the answer to that prayer for protection looks like? We know that faith doesn’t safeguard us from difficulty or immunize us from pain. This is true for people in the Bible as well as for us.
Psalm 42 is an example in the Old Testament of a believer who trusts God, remembers good days with God, yet now is overwhelmed and far from joy. “My tears have been my food day and night…my soul is cast down within me.” St Paul, even with the assurance that nothing can separate us from the love of God, wrote of a time on one of his preaching missions when he and his friends were completely overwhelmed, the burden was more than they could bear. “It was so bad,” Paul says, “that we didn’t think we were going to make it.” He uses words like distressed, crushed in spirit. “We despaired even of life.”
And for us? Psalm 42 and St Paul are describing what we all experience when pain, bereavement, illness, and anxiety leave our bodies and spirits exhausted; when destructive behavior affects the people we love, or when personal, hidden battles seem impossible to overcome. Where is God’s protection in that, the answer to Jesus’ prayer? This is a biblical question, a question of faith asked by people of faith.
Today’s reading from 1st Peter offers an example of what it looks like when Jesus’ prayer for his followers’ protection is answered. “Cast all your anxieties on God because he cares for you.” Peter understands that in a broken and fallen world there are plenty of anxieties, plenty of reasons for worry and fear. This is as true in the Bible as it is for us. “Do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you,” Peter says today.
The scattered little congregations that Peter wrote to were a distinct minority across the territory north of the Mediterranean Sea. And, like minorities in many places, even minorities to this day, they were regarded with suspicion, blamed for all sorts of problems, made scapegoats, “reviled for the name of Christ.” They lived with the daily reality of challenges to their faith, suffering for their faith, and the prospect that violence could break out against them at any time. Now for most of us, that world of threat is far from ours both in place and time; but we also know all-too-well what that suspicion and scapegoating look like. Peter’s words are for each of us. “Cast all your anxieties on God.”
Behind the biblical word for ‘anxiety’ is the notion of being divided and distracted, of instability and uncertainty fueling our fears. This includes the fears and anxieties common to us all: health, work, family, finances, loneliness, failure, trying to find a place in the world. Add to that the daily challenge of living a life of faith: loving your enemies when anger and revenge are pervasive; having a humble spirit when self-promotion is applauded; of generosity in spirit and act when we are taught to protect ourselves at any cost. Or try sharing your faith, with someone who dismisses any notion of God with skepticism and disdain, as if it were a regressive relic of the past; it’s not easy to tell someone how much Jesus means to you at a cocktail party. And even if our fears and anxieties are irrational, they need to be contended with.
So when Peter says, “Cast all your anxiety on God,” it’s not just for the congregations he wrote to, but for you and for us all. We all need a place to lay down our fears and be protected in the strength of God’s peace.
“Father, protect them in the name that you have given me.” The disciples listening in on Jesus’ prayer, would have heard echoes of the Old Testament in this request to be protected in Jesus’ name. The book of Proverbs talks about the protective power of God’s name and says, “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the just person runs to it and is safe.”
Proverbs contrasts this protection in God’s name with people who trust in their own strength, wealth, and wisdom. This echoes Paul’s experience when he says, “It was so bad we didn’t think we were going to make it.” What made the difference, Paul says, is that through it all, instead of relying on his own strength or sensibilities, he trusted and relied on God. This sense of protection in God’s name is different than being safeguarded from difficulty or immunized from pain. It’s to find strength outside ourselves, a strength that holds us secure in all things and through all things, including difficulty, pain and, somedays, just the daily challenge to be a decent human being. “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the just person runs to it and is safe.” Or, to take up Peter’s invitation to “Cast all your anxieties on God because he cares for you…Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you.”
This is the answer to Jesus’ prayer, the protective power of God’s name. Our Lord prays protection for us who are in a world that bears the marks of sin and suffering from war and violence, poverty and injustice, loneliness and anguish, disease and death.
The temptation for us, when things aren’t going well is to say, ‘If you trust God enough, it will all go away and God will give you a nice, safe life again.’ But that’s not the gospel. The message of the gospel is that Jesus saves the world and offers it to God’s care through his death on the cross when protection seems most far away. Jesus’ prayer is not a baseless wish that you will be safeguarded from difficulty or immunized from pain. But that, in God, you will receive strength to sustain each day of your life.
“The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the just person runs to it and is safe.” “Cast all your cares on God because he cares for you.” Today Jesus prays for his followers—you among them—to have the sure and certain hope that in all things and through all things, God is utterly dependable. “Father, protect them in the name that you have given me.”
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