Daily Devotion – May 13, 2021 – Len Halvorson

John 17:6-19 (NRSV)

“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. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for 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. I 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. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them.

And 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. While 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. But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.

Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.

Devotion

Today’s reading from the Gospel of John is part of a chapter-long prayer in which, in anticipation of his coming death, resurrection, and departure from this world, Jesus prays for himself, for his disciples, and for the church. In these verses in particular Jesus prays for the joy, protection, and holiness of those whom he claims as his “own” because they have been entrusted to him by the Father. These are mine, says Jesus, because of his close relationship to the Father. They are his, not in a sense of ownership as when referencing a toy or a car, but rather in a sense of love as when referencing a child, a friend, or a partner. Jesus is praying for the ones he loves and whom he calls his own out of concern that they will continue to be protected from evil in the world. Sometimes simple words speak to me the best, and here is the simple word: to believe is to be one whom Jesus calls his own.

Prayer

God of grace, we believe. Help our unbelief. Continue to claim and call us as your own. Amen.