He Prays For Us!
A reading for Friday, March 7, 2014: John 17:9-19.
Last Sunday we celebrated the Lord's supper at HPC. As part of that sacrament, we share the Great Prayer of Thanksgiving, and part of that prayer is a statement about Jesus. "Dying on the cross, he saves us. Risen from the dead, he gives new life. Living with you, he prays for us." It's a powerful statement about what Jesus has done, and is doing for us even now.
What would Jesus pray? Since Jesus prays for us even now, what would that prayer sound like?
Perhaps today's lesson from John are the themes of such a prayer, paraphrased: We belong to the Lord God, because we have been given to Christ and Christ vouches for us. Because we are one with Jesus, and Jesus is one with God, then we are protected from harm and saved from death just as Jesus was saved. People will hate us, just as they hated Jesus, and yet the word is our source of strength and truth. We are not of the world in which we live but are in the world, and remain so even now. Our mission is to enter our world with the truth of Christ to declare peace. So Jesus prays that we be protected from anything and anyone that would try and separate us from God, and diminish our mission to share the truth and the peace of God. We are set apart for a reason, just as Jesus was set apart for a reason.
This is the truth of the gospel, and a truth that isn't ancient or left behind, but the truth that is present for us today, right now, as Jesus continues to pray for us today, right now.
May you live this day in the power and the prayer of Jesus our Christ who prays for us still. Thanks be to God!
Last Sunday we celebrated the Lord's supper at HPC. As part of that sacrament, we share the Great Prayer of Thanksgiving, and part of that prayer is a statement about Jesus. "Dying on the cross, he saves us. Risen from the dead, he gives new life. Living with you, he prays for us." It's a powerful statement about what Jesus has done, and is doing for us even now.
What would Jesus pray? Since Jesus prays for us even now, what would that prayer sound like?
Perhaps today's lesson from John are the themes of such a prayer, paraphrased: We belong to the Lord God, because we have been given to Christ and Christ vouches for us. Because we are one with Jesus, and Jesus is one with God, then we are protected from harm and saved from death just as Jesus was saved. People will hate us, just as they hated Jesus, and yet the word is our source of strength and truth. We are not of the world in which we live but are in the world, and remain so even now. Our mission is to enter our world with the truth of Christ to declare peace. So Jesus prays that we be protected from anything and anyone that would try and separate us from God, and diminish our mission to share the truth and the peace of God. We are set apart for a reason, just as Jesus was set apart for a reason.
This is the truth of the gospel, and a truth that isn't ancient or left behind, but the truth that is present for us today, right now, as Jesus continues to pray for us today, right now.
May you live this day in the power and the prayer of Jesus our Christ who prays for us still. Thanks be to God!
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