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June 1, 2003
7th Sunday of Easter
John 17:11-19
Pastor Joel Zank

YOUR HIGH PRIEST PRAYS FOR YOU

(John 17:11-19) Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name--the name you gave me--so that they may be one as we are one.12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.13 "I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

In Christ Jesus, our great High Priest who has gone through the heavens, dear fellow redeemed,

"I'm praying for you." I'm sure that you've spoken those words to someone in his or her time of need. But as you did so, was there a hint of an apology in the tone of your voice, as if to suggest that while you couldn't do anything to really help the poor soul, at the very least you could pray for that person?

I'm afraid that our lack of faith in God's promises sometimes causes us to think of prayer as a last resort. But that's not how God speaks of prayer. He says, "The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective" (James 5:16). Since God is willing to put so much value on the petitions we offer him through faith in his Son, can you imagine how powerful and effective are the prayers of the Son himself who is the righteous man, Jesus Christ? Well, today we get to do more than imagine such a thing. Today we actually hear one of our Savior's prayers; and as we listen, his words will not simply stir our imaginations, but they will speak to and strengthen our faith in his saving love. So take heart dear Christian because Jesus, YOUR HIGH PRIEST PRAYS FOR YOU. He prays, asking God to protect you by the power of his name; and he prays, asking God to sanctify you by the truth of his Word.

The Bible calls Jesus our high priest because God the Father sent Jesus to do the work of a priest, that is the work of sacrificing and praying on behalf of God's people. In the Scripture before us we find Jesus doing the one even has he gets ready for the other. He's praying as he prepares to sacrifice his own life for sinners. In fact it is only on the basis of his upcoming sacrifice that he can pray as he does.

It is Maundy Thursday evening. Jesus is in the upper room with his disciples. Judas has gone; the hour of betrayal is nearly at hand. So Jesus prays, not as a last resort, but as the first and best thing he can do for his followers: "Holy Father," he prays, "protect them by the power of your name--the name you gave me--so that they may be one as we are one" (John 17:11b).

Jesus prays for unity-a very special kind of unity. This is an amazing request given the fact that he's praying on behalf of sinners. Remember sin is the great divider. But, then again, I suppose I don't have to tell you that. You know this from personal experience. You know how your sin destroys relationships. Sin comes between husbands and wives; it builds barriers between parents and children, between brothers and sisters. Sin turns best friends into bitter enemies. But worst of all, sin turned all of us into God's enemies, and made us deserving of nothing but his eternal wrath an punishment. The truth is, we were so lost in sin, so far removed from holiness, that we had neither the power, nor the desire to even plead for God's mercy. So in love, Jesus, became our High Priest and prayed for us, asking his Father to extend his own holiness to us and so protect us from hell's destruction by the power of his name.

God's name is his reputation. It is everything that God tells us about himself in the Bible. And what does God tell us, except that he sent his own Son to be holy in our place and to serve as our payment for sin. The Bible names God as our Savior God, a name that is shared equally by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is the name by which God made himself known to you in Baptism. As water was placed upon your head and God's name was spoken over you, God worked in you the miracle of faith to believe all of the promises for which his name stands. In the very instant when faith became yours, you were joined with every other believer in Christ. You became a member of the one Holy Christian Church in answer to the prayer of your High Priest.

But there is more to the Savior's prayer. Jesus not only prays that we become one with each other, but that we remain united. When he first offered up this petition he knew that he would soon be leaving this world. During the time he spent with his disciples on earth, he had successfully protected their unity by strengthening their faith with his teaching. As he says here, "None [had] been lost..." (John 17:12). But after his death, resurrection and ascension, he would no longer be visibly present to teach his followers. They would be in grave danger as their unity would come under attack from enemies inside and outside of the church. Even before that Thursday evening came to an end, the disciples would experience such danger firsthand. They would watch one of their own betray Jesus with a kiss. They would see Peter succumb to temptation and in the face of the world's hatred deny any connection to Christ. In fact, the evil one, Satan, would tempt them all to run away from Jesus and never look back.

All of us face the very same dangers. The unity we enjoy through the faith we share is always under attack. Like Judas, all of us have an enemy within us, our sinful nature-a nature that is not beyond selling out Jesus for nothing more than a few pieces of silver or some other sinful pleasure. Be warned of the danger this nature poses by what Jesus says of Judas. He refers to his lost disciple as "...the one doomed to destruction so that the Scripture would be fulfilled" (John 17:12). Actually the word doomed doesn't appear in the Greek. Jesus actually calls Judas "the son of destruction," making clear that his fate was not predetermined by God but rather was a course chosen by Judas himself, a course that God was sad to know ahead of time and about which he gave clear warning through the prophecy of Scripture. Our High Priest prays for you and me so that we do not make the same wrong turns in our spiritual life; for Scripture prophesies that all who disown the Savior will suffer the same fate as Judas in hell.

Jesus prays for us because he knows the self-destructive power of our sinful nature; and he prays for us because he knows that the unbelieving world together with Satan hate us as much as they hate him. Speaking to his Father he says, "I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one" (John 17:14-15).

Ultimately Jesus will deliver us from evil by removing us from this world and taking us to our real home in heaven. But that is not his prayer for us at the moment. Right now our great High Priest has plans for us to remain in the world, so he prays that his Father would protect us here by the power of his name, that is by the power of Holy Scripture. Jesus is asking his Father to give all of us such a love for his Word that we spend our days, poring over his saving promises so that through them our faith and the bond of our unity with each other and God might become stronger and stronger. The very word of forgiveness to which we cling, that same Word which causes the world to hate us, offers us all the protection we need to remain God's children now and forever. The words and promises of Jesus offer us the same divine safety as that which Jesus offered his disciples when he was visibly with them. He wants us to believe and find joy in this truth, for he prays to his Father, "I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them" (John 17:13).

What more reason do we need to be daily students of God's Word than to know that the Word will keep us safe and see us home to heaven? And yet Jesus does offer us another reason. Listen as YOUR HIGH PRIEST PRAYS FOR YOU, asking God to sanctify you by the truth of his Word. God's Word not only protects us, it equips us to live a holy life of thanks to our Savior. Jesus petitions his Father, "Sanctify them by the truth; your Word is truth" (John 17:17). To sanctify means "to set apart as holy." God uses the truth about his love and forgiveness in Christ to draw us sinners away from the unbelieving world into the church of believers. So while we are still in the world, we are no longer of the world. By that I mean, we're not made up of the same stuff as the people of this world. They are filled with hatred for God and each other. Thanks to Jesus, that's no longer true of us. Through faith in him, we have a new nature, a Christ-like nature that wants to be more and more like Jesus every day. Our new nature wants to live and love as Jesus does. Opportunities for it to do so abound, for Jesus prays: "[Father,] as you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified" (John 17:18-19).

Jesus separated himself from the sin of this world. He lived above sin, always keeping himself pure; and for what reason? So that he could share his holiness with the very people who have hated him. That is what he has done for us. He has declared us sinners holy by reason of his life and death and resurrection as our substitute. And by the truth of this declaration in Word and Sacrament, he has turned our hearts from unbelief to faith, from hatred to love, from ungratefulness to thankfulness. And by this same truth he inspires and empowers us to follow his example, not so that we may become more sure of our salvation, but so that we may thank him for promising us that our salvation is already sure and certain because of his works alone.

How will we thank our Savior for all this? By carrying out the mission on which he has sent us. God sent Jesus to a world that hated him, so that he might save the world. Now Jesus sends you and me to a world that hates us, so that we might proclaim his name to the world and by its power rescue more and more souls from eternal death and destruction. It's not easy to do such a loving thing for such a hateful world, but our High Priest is praying for us. He's asking God to give us the love we need through the truth we possess. So, friends, we can't fail, for it is our Lord who prays it and our Father who grants it, for Jesus' sake. Amen