In several passages in the gospels we hear of Jesus finding a quiet place to pray but rarely do we know exactly what he prays for. Today’s reading from John’s gospel is different because within these verses we find Jesus praying for his disciples, giving us a very moving and personal insight into Jesus relationship with them.
Jesus begins by thanking God for giving him the men who were his original disciples and for their faith in him. Jesus goes on to ask for God’s protection on them and prays that they might be united in their mutual love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He also asks that they will know joy in their discipleship. Finally he prays that the disciples might be “sanctified”. In other words rather like a place of worship might be sanctified, made clean for service; that the disciples would be made clean by the forgiveness of their sins and kept pure by the guidance of the Spirit.
The word disciple means follower. So as Christians who follow the teaching of Christ, we too are disciples. I’m sure that Jesus prays to his Father, for all his disciples now today, just as he did 2000 years ago. He prays that we too will be united by our love for him and each other. He prays that we too will know joy on our path of discipleship and will be sanctified. Discipleship is not always easy and when it feels particularly difficult remember that, like the original disciples, God chose us to serve Jesus. So he isn’t going to let us struggle on our own. We will be in Jesus’ prayer today.
Yours in Christ,
Richard
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