5th Saturday of Lent (March 28). Protection and unity

Prepare to Listen.  You are the light of the world.
 
Prayerfully Read John 17:6-12
6“I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world.  They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.  7Now they know that everything you have given me is from you, 8for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me.  9I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours.  10All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I have been glorified in them.  11And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you.  Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.  12While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me.  I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled.
 
Prayerfully Wonder
“I am not asking on behalf of the world.”  Did that surprise you?  Jesus not praying for the world?  But there it is.  His longest prayer isn’t for the world.  It is for his disciples who daily live surrounded by “the world.”
 
“The world” isn’t the physical universe, an earthly space.  It refers to what’s in rebellion against God, distorting God’s ways, choosing darkness over light, hatred over love, lies over truth.  This is the world Jesus left his disciples, including you and I, to live in every day.  You’d think he’d pray for it to change so that we’d be safe and secure.  Instead, he prays on behalf of his disciples, those whom God gave him, for protection and oneness.  “Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.”
 
Protection and oneness with each other are serious requests, ones the church, Christians, today urgently needs.  We’re bombarded through a variety of means with attractive yet subtle distortions of Christianity.  Daily we hear more bad news, losses to lament.  We need protection to avoid becoming overwhelmed with discouragement that we close ourselves off from the suffering in the world.  We need unity to support each other instead of cutting ourselves off from others.  Holy Father, protect us.  Jesus left his church in a messy world, trusting it to the Father’s safe keeping.
 
What specifically do you think you, or those you know need protection from today?
 
Prayerfully Respond
Jesus, I pray with you, ‘Holy Father, protect us and make us one.’  Amen.
 
Live obediently.  Pray with Jesus for protection and oneness.