John 17:13-19 (NIV)
“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. 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. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.”
There are three main themes in this section of Jesus’ prayer for His followers: protection, setting apart and making holy, and sending out.
As shown earlier, Jesus had protected the disicples from both persecution and spiritual attack while He was with them, often by placing Himself between them and their attackers. But now Jesus was going away, returning to the right hand of the Father. So, He asked the Father specifically that He protect them from the machinations of the evil one, which would include protection from satan-inspired persecutions.
In talking about setting apart and making holy, Jesus begins by noting that He had called His followers out of the world. Now, because they had chosen to follow Him wholeheartedly, they were no longer “of the world,” but had become part of the kingdom of God. The downside of that shift in identity was that the world system of which they had formerly been a part now considered them enemies, turncoats, and worthy of marginalization, persecution, and even destruction.
But Jesus’ solution was not to pray that these followers be taken out of the world so that they would be protected. There was still vital work to be done. Instead, He prayed that God would sanctify them by the truth. The word sanctify means at its root “to make holy.”
Some focus on the aspect of holiness that signifies that a thing has been set apart for divine use. Others focus on the moral purity aspects of the word. Both are true and should be emphasized evenly. When God sets someone apart for His use, calling them to work as representatives of His kingdom He also calls them to a life of moral holiness, purity, and righteousness. And He provides that holiness Himself through the purifying work of the Holy Spirit, often symbolized by fire (Matthew 3:11, Luke 3:16-17, Acts 2:3).
The final focus of Jesus’ prayer is sending out. Just as Jesus was sent into the world to show people the love of God and to make a way for them into God’s kingdom, so Jesus was sending out these apostles, commissioning them to go into the world to proclaim God’s love, and to show them Jesus, the way into God’s kingdom that He had provided. This would be a dangerous mission for them, just as it had been for Jesus. Ten of the eleven would ultimately die at the hands of those they were trying to reach with the good news. The eleventh, John himself, would be persecuted and exiled for the sake of the gospel.
All of this fits together into a single piece. These followers of Jesus had been called out of the world and set apart for God’s use in growing His kingdom. As part of that work, they would be empowered and purified by the soon-to-come Holy Spirit, and then be sent back into the world to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:18-20), where they would have to rely on God’s guidance and protection. And the whole time, they would do so with the words of Jesus’ prayer still ringing in their hearts and encouraging them to keep going when times got hard.
Father, just as the mission of those disicples then is our mission today, we, too, need to realize and live out these same things in our own lives. We need to understand that we have not been simply “saved,” but that in that salvation is a calling out of the world to live in Your kingdom as a here and now reality. A big part of living in Your kingdom is the realization that we have been set apart to be used by You to grow Your kingdom by being sent back into the world from which we were saved, this time as Your emissaries. And a big part of the preparation for that work is allowing Your Holy Spirit to completely fill us, empower us, and purify us. Finally, as we do this work of the kingdom, we need to look to You for protection from the evil one so that we can move forward with great boldness, just as those first disciples did. Thank You for providing all we need to do the work to which You have called us. Amen.
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