I have a 3-year-old daughter who is very independent. She loves to make her own food, brush her own teeth and dress herself every morning. However, as independent as she feels, I know that she would not survive on her own. This is why, when my wife and I have to travel for a few days, we do not leave her home alone.
We are lucky to live near my parents, so
we have the option of leaving our daughter in the loving care of her grandparents when we are out of town. I trust she will be cared for adequately because I have experienced my parents’ love and care in my childhood.
Jesus' prayer in John 17 grows out of the fact that he will soon be going away. He is entrusting his disciples to the Father he has known and loved throughout his earthly life. The Father, he knows, will care for them every bit as much as he has
done himself. He is very aware that the disciples will be hated as he was hated and will be abused and threatened. They will need to be protected, which is what Jesus' prayer here is about.
Jesus has looked after them like a shepherd with his sheep. Now, because he is leaving them (in a sense), he is entrusting them to the Father, who will continue to keep them safe.
This entrusting to the Father will be a small change as Jesus
has always entrusted them to his Father. It is different from a parent entrusting their children to someone they've never heard of and whose house will be run on rules different from their home. Jesus has already taught them the table manners appropriate to the Father's house. In praying for them now, he is simply praying that the Father will gloriously complete what he has begun.
How does it make you feel that the same God who sustained Jesus throughout his
ministry on earth has also promised to sustain you? How can we learn to trust in God as Jesus trusted in God?
Reflections by Rev Joe Taylor
