Today Jesus prays, “Holy Father, protect them in the name that you have given me…I protected them…I guarded them…I ask you to protect them.” That today’s reading from the Gospel of John tells us about Jesus praying is hardly remarkable. Jesus’ whole life was prayer, his whole life oriented to God. And prayer was not only central to who Jesus was but to his teaching, too. Jesus told parables on prayer, encouraged his followers “to pray always and not lose heart.” He gave us words to pray, the Lord’s Prayer, “Our Father.” But the gospels say hardly anything about what Jesus prayed for or how he prayed. Except today. Today’s gospel reading is just a portion of the 17th chapter the Gospel of John. That entire chapter is about Jesus praying. And we are listening in on his prayer as if we’re in the room with him, overhearing how he prayed and what he prayed for: for the disciples, for 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 prays “on behalf of those who will believe in me through the word.” He’s praying for everyone who will believe 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. Jesus is praying for you. Because of his ascension, Jesus will no longer be in the world as he has been. But we are in the world, not taken out of the world, and in the world we are meant for a life of faith. So Jesus prays for us, for you. Now you know the sense of comfort, hope, even encouragement when a friend says, ‘I’ll remember you in prayer.’ The prayer of others as they hold your life before God is a true gift. How much more, then, when the Son of God is praying for you?
“Holy Father, protect them in the name that you have given me.” Jesus prays this for the disciples and for you. Only what do you suppose the answer to that prayer looks like? We know faith doesn’t shield us from difficulty, isn’t a charm to ward off pain. This is as true for people in the Bible as it is for us. St Paul talks about a time on one of his preaching tours when he and his friends were completely overwhelmed, the burden more than they could bear. “It was so bad we didn’t think we were going to make it.” He uses words like distressed, crushed in spirit. Where is the protection in that? Today’s psalm lays out two clear paths for life, the way of the righteous and the way of the wicked. And the psalm promises that the righteous will flourish. Maybe so. Ultimately. But other psalms puzzle over the fact that there are times when people do the right thing and suffer for it and when people who make wickedness a way of life get away with it. Where is God’s protection in that?
You, no doubt, know these questions, too. We all go through times of distress when our spirits are worn down: experience pain, bereavement, disease. Destructive behaviors affect the people we love; maybe addiction touches your life directly. Where God’s protection in that? We find it difficult to forgive others for the ways they’ve hurt us and instead find that bitterness gnaws away at our spirit. Where is God’s protection in that? Attempts to share faith with others are met with apathy or resistance from people who think faith is absurd, foolish—a hint of what Jesus means today when he says that the world hates his followers because a faith-filled way of seeing and living in the world often stands in stark contrast to what drives and motivates many people around us. If Jesus is praying for me, why don’t things always go well? If that is your question, it is also a biblical question, a question asked by people of faith in the Bible.
The prophet Jeremiah, in one place, sounds very much like today’s psalm. “Blessed are those who trust in the Lord…They shall be like a tree planted by water.” But Jeremiah also wonders where God’s blessings have gone when the way is rough. Even though he was a faithful prophet of God, he suffered and experienced abuse and distress. Yet Jeremiah found hope and life in God and wants to draw us to that same life and hope. Like a tree close to water, close to its source of life, “In the year of drought it is not anxious and it does not cease to bear fruit.” With life close to God, we need not fear; anxiety can give way to calm. Remember the parable Jesus tells of two people who build houses: one on sand and one on rock. Storms will come. But the one who builds on the rock will endure. When Paul described his afflictions and wasn’t sure how he’d make it through, he said that instead of trusting his own strength or resources he trusted and relied totally on God. His circumstances didn’t change; things were stormy. Yet he knew his life was held in God, a strength outside himself that holds us secure through all things.
“Holy Father, protect them in the name that you have given me.” The protection that Jesus prays for is something St Augustine knew in his life. And he describes it with an unusual image. Augustine called Jesus ‘the Mother of Light.’ Now this image expands the way we generally think about Jesus: Mother of Light. Maybe Augustine had this image in mind because his own mother Monica was, in many ways, a source of light in his own dark days, a sense of stability when he was anything but stable. In his youth, Augustine was pretty wild. He describes himself as a persistent sinner. For instance, he stole things not because the things mattered; he didn’t need or want them; he just liked the thrill of stealing and the adrenaline rush that came with it. As for what else thrilled Augustine? You may have heard the story of one of Augustine’s youthful prayers, ‘Lord, make me chaste. But not yet.’ He enjoyed the allure of sin. Yet through it all, his mother Monica prayed for him. I can’t imagine the hurt she must’ve felt. She stayed close to her source of life in God. Augustine would later credit his mother’s prayers for bringing him back to faith, leading him on a path to being a priest, bishop, and theologian.
“Holy Father, protect them in the name that you have given me…I protected them…I guarded them…I ask you to protect them.” Like Augustine’s mother praying for her son, today we listen in on Jesus praying, praying for his disciples, praying for all who believe in him through his word, praying for you. This, the New Testament says—prayer—is what Jesus now does for us after his resurrection and ascension. He lives to pray for you, prays for you today, prays eternally. The book of Hebrews says Christ, now raised to God’s right hand, is always praying for us. In Romans, St Paul says that nothing can separate us from the love of God because Jesus is interceding for us. If there is comfort in someone saying they are praying for us, in Jesus we are being prayed for by a person who is indeed very good at prayer. Jesus prays protection for us in God so that, in whatever we live through and whatever is to come, we will be kept close to the source of our life, Jesus the Mother of Light.”
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