Holy Father, Keep Them
[Jesus said:] Holy Father, keep them in Your
name, which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as We are one” (John
17:11b).
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the
Lord Jesus Christ!
“The Bucket List,” tells the story of two men
who have little in common except the room they share while they await treatment
for terminal cancer. As their friendship develops they compile a “bucket list,”
or things they want to do before they “kick the bucket.” You can tell a lot
about what a person thinks is important by what they choose to say and do in
their final days or hours on this earth.
Jesus is no exception. In addition to teaching
His disciples about true greatness through serving, telling them one more time
that He was going to return to the Father, and instituting the new covenant of
His body and blood, Jesus prayed—first for Himself, then His disciples, and
then for all believers to come.
In our text, Jesus prayed specifically for His
disciples. The disciples were His special charges, and they needed help and
strength to face what was coming. Jesus was going to leave the world and go to
the Father, but His disciples had to remain in the world. So Jesus prayed for
them.
“Holy Father,” Jesus prayed, stressing the
reverence that is due God’s name. Then He called for the Father to keep and
guard the disciples in His name. God’s name is everything we can know about
Him: His person, His power, His character—His entire revelation of Himself
through the Word. Here God’s name clearly implies His power that saves His
followers from the forces of evil.
Jesus was given the Father’s name to guard and
to proclaim in word, and to display in deed, as the incarnate Word of God. Through
it all, He revealed and implemented the saving love of His Father. Now as He
was completing His work, He was assigning the guarding and proclaiming of the
name to His apostles.
“Keep them in Your name,” Jesus prayed, “that
they may [continue to] be one as We are one.” All who believe and follow Jesus
enjoy a God-given spiritual union in Him, reflecting Jesus’ own eternal oneness
with the Father and the Holy Spirit as God in three persons. This oneness helps
us as we are sent into the world.
Jesus had used the power of God’s name to
protect His disciples. It worked. They were kept safe. Not one was lost, except
the one foretold by Scripture. Instead of remaining a child of God by faith in
Jesus, Judas Iscariot was headed for damnation. Even as he received the bread
of the Last Supper from the Lord’s hand, Satan had entered into him. At that
moment, even as Jesus prayed for His disciples, Judas was betraying his Master
for thirty pieces of silver.
That one of the Twelve was doomed to
destruction by his negative role in God’s will for His Son is hard to
understand. But let us remember: Judas was not a puppet on a string manipulated
by God to be the villain in the drama of Jesus’ saving mission. He was chosen
by Jesus to be an apostle out of the same gracious intention that He had for
all the others. Judas was evidently a believer—but in the dreadful moment of
having to choose, he chose to implement his own desire and will over that of
the Lord. All of this, foreknown by God, made him the “son of perdition,”
“doomed to destruction.” The lesson should not be lost on us. By the name of
God, Jesus’ disciples are kept for God. But those who reject His name in
unbelief are on the road to destruction.
Jesus’ time had come. He was to complete His
work of salvation and return to His Father. But now while He was still on earth
with the disciples, He prayed that they might have the fullness of Jesus’ joy
in themselves. Just hearing the prayer would help sustain the disciples in the
troubled hours ahead, and it laid the foundation for the joy to follow. Jesus’
joy was to complete the work the Father gave Him and return to His glory. The
disciples received the full measure of that joy in the assurance that Jesus
succeeded for them and all people.
The disciples could depend on Jesus’ Word,
which was also the Father’s Word. Through that Word, Jesus’ disciples were
separated from this unbelieving world and consecrated for God. They were not
part of the world any longer, just as Jesus was not part of the world. They
needed the Father’s protection. They would face hatred from the world for the
same reason the world hated the Lord: God’s Word exposes and judges human sin
as it calls people to forgiveness in Christ.
But please notice: Jesus did not pray for God
to take the disciples out of the world and keep them safe. They had work to do
for God following Jesus’ departure. As the disciples carried out their mission,
they would face fierce, hellish opposition, no less than Jesus had encountered.
They needed Jesus’ prayer.
We must never underestimate the power of the
evil one. On the night when He was betrayed, Jesus made this clear to His
disciples. “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you [all the disciples] as
wheat. When Peter declared that he would remain at Jesus’ side even if all the
others left, Jesus added: “But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith
may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers” (Luke
22:31-32). When Peter insisted he was ready to go with Jesus to prison or
death, Jesus was more blunt: “I tell you Peter, before the rooster crows today,
you will deny three times that you know Me” (Luke 22:34).
Later, St. Peter could draw from his own
personal experience of the destructive power of the evil one as he wrote: “Be
self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring
lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith,
because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same
kind of sufferings” (1 Peter 5:8-9).
Peter knew the sting of Satan’s bite, but he
also knew the restoration of the Lord. That’s why he could continue: “And the
God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, after you have
suffered a little while, will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm and
steadfast” (1 Peter 5:10-11).
Although Peter failed to live up to his
prideful boast, by God’s grace his faith did not fail, as Judas’ had. Rather
than fall into despair after his shameful denial of Christ, Peter turned back
in repentance. The resurrected Lord forgave Peter and restored him to
leadership, as we see in our First Lesson for today.
As you prepare to battle Satan each day, keep
the following precious promise in your heart and mind: “No temptation has
overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not
allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will
provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it” (1
Corinthians 10:13).
To this end, God also gives you His Sacraments.
Through Baptism, Jesus protects you from Satan’s destructive powers. When you
are baptized into Christ, the incarnate Word of God, Jesus Christ comes to live
within you. He is someone the devil definitely wants to avoid. St. Paul
explains, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live,
but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by
faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
God also gives His devil-defeating power to His
children in a special way in Holy Communion. Communion is more than a mere
ritual of remembrance. Jesus’ body and blood are a living, spiritual medicine,
which is able to suppress the devil and control the power of sin. Receiving the
Lord’s Supper regularly is especially important at the time of illness and near
death. Luther writes: “As long as I am living, it is necessary for me to go to
the Sacrament in order to strengthen my faith so that death (in case it comes
swiftly) may not scare me and cause me to despair.”
Pastors today need to explain the benefits and
blessings of frequent and regular distribution and reception of Holy Communion
to their people so that always and particularly, at the hour of death, these
children of God may desire Communion, especially to fight the devil’s final
attacks.
For every Christian, each day is a struggle
against the demonic power of sin. Thank God daily that Jesus has given you
another special weapon to fight the power of sin: His gift of prayer. When His
disciples asked for advice on how to pray, Jesus said to pray: “Lead us not
into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Pray the Lord’s Prayer daily, with
the confidence that God will not only hear you, He will surely answer your
prayer for protection from sin and every evil.
Using prayer for protection from the power of
sin is not a human idea. In our text, Jesus prays that very thing for His
disciples: “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that You keep
them from the evil one.” Jesus told His disciples also to use this divine
weapon, and now He commands you: “Pray that you may not enter into temptation”
(Luke 22:40).
And as you pray, don’t forget to ask for help
from God’s holy angels. Angels are “ministering spirits, sent out to render
service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation” (Hebrews 1:14). The
psalmist writes: “[The Lord] will give His angels charge concerning you, to
guard you in all of your ways. They will bear you up in their hands, lest you
strike your foot against a stone.”
The devil may try to tempt or even destroy you,
but God provides His holy angels to be present at your side at all times to
strengthen and deliver you! Even when you sometimes stumble and fall, your
heavenly Father sends His angels to protect and bring you new hope and
strength.
No wonder, Luther, in his Small Catechism, gave
this example of prayer for the head of the family to teach his household to
pray each morning: “I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Your
dear Son, that you have kept me this night from all harm and danger; and I pray
that You would keep me this day also from sin and every evil, that all my
doings and life may please You. For into Your hands I commend myself, my body
and soul, and all things. Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may
have no power over me. Amen.”
Your help and only hope to overcome the evil
one is in your Savior, Jesus Christ. When you are baptized, Christ lives within
you to guide your thinking and to fight the devil every time he tries to tempt,
control, or destroy you. Through His Supper, our Lord strengthens your faith
that you might resist temptation. Just as He prayed for His disciples, our
ascended Lord is at the Father’s right hand interceding on your behalf. His
Holy Spirit helps you to pray that you would not be led into temptation, but
delivered from the power of the evil one.
And should you fall into temptation, repent and
take heart, trusting that this sin has also been paid for. You have been
redeemed by the holy, precious blood of Christ, and His innocent suffering and
death. Indeed, for His sake, you are forgiven for all of your sins.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Unless
otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, English
Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of
Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Comments