Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are. (John 17:11 NAS95)
I wonder what the disciples experienced doing life with Jesus? They formed a community for quite a while with unique characteristics. So when John recorded Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane, he loaded it with depth and meaning from his experience with Jesus. Remember, Jesus asked John along with James and Peter to come away with Him that Passover evening to pray. I think John overheard the words, and he easily remembered them because they summarized the reality he experienced with Jesus in the community of the disciples.
I come to this prayer regularly when my mind meanders on Kingdom, community and mission. As I have engaged in those things, God’s purposes, God’s mission comes to the forefront. I hear in Jesus’ prayer a sense of preserving God’s character, heart and desires in and through the disciples, even those disciples yet to enter Christ’s Kingdom. “Father, keep them in Your name.” God, as an expression of love, sent Jesus to redeem every person. He redeems them for relationship and love so fantastic, so significant, so meaningful, that they too desire to wear the character of God, to imitate Jesus, forming a very distinct community enjoying His mission and purposes. Life blows like fresh wind into the soul in such a community.
Jesus’ prayer pleas for God to form the community that results from people entering His Kingdom to become identified individually and collectively as a community with the character of God. I get up each day and ask God to make me a disciple, a learner and imitator of Jesus. I find I miss the mark regularly and resort to my old ways. Over the years, things have gotten much better (and the life God has given me boggles my mind), since the community of Jesus followers continues to remind me of the love and purposes of God so my heart can be renewed when I’m drowning in my brokenness and failures. In this way, Jesus’ prayer, “Holy Father, keep them Your name” continues with an answer that keeps my life in step with God’s desires and mission because of His incorruptible expressed through community. I trust it is the same for you.
For Reflection:
“O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt His name together.” (Psalms 34:3 NAS95)
- How has God utilized the gift of community to shape and form your life?
- What gifts does God extend to you through community that puts life into you?
