The Prayer of Jesus

I am not praying for the world, but for those You have given me, for they are Yours (Jn. 17: 9).

Wisdom is the fruit of communion; ignorance the inevitable portion of those who "keep themselves to themselves," and stand apart, judging, analyzing the things which they have never truly known" (Evelyn Underhill: The Complete Christian Mystic, p.10).

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In studying the Prayer of Jesus this morning, I was struck by the fact that He said he was not praying for the world, but for "those you have given me, for they are yours."   But then he goes on to pray for "those who will believe in Me through their message....May they also be in us...."

Jesus has begun this prayer by acknowledging that the Father has granted Him "authority" over all people "that He might give eternal life to those You have given him."  The word here translated "authority" (power) is in the Greek the same word used in John 1:12 > Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right (power) to become children of God.

At the Last Supper, Jesus is praying not for the world, but for those who accepted His words and who believed that the Father had sent Him.  Jesus is praying here that the disciples might "be one as we are one," and that those who heard them might "be brought to complete unity....in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."

I think I began looking closely at His prayer because I was praying this morning for those "the Father had given me," in a sense:  those with whom I have experienced some sort of communion, or unity.  Of course, as we pray, we begin with those closest to us -- namely our families -- that they might have in them the same spirit that has been given to us -- the Spirit of Jesus.  That they might have eternal life, even now, beginning in this life.  That they may continue to be united with us and not separated by evil and the temptations that separate us from love and unity.  

We pray for them also because, of all the people in the world, we know who they are and what they need -- they are in us and we are in them.  While I do pray for the world in general, it seems that each one of us must have a special mission to pray for those "the Father has given us."  I would think that we have no "authority" or "power" or "influence" over those Evelyn Underhill describes as "standing apart, judging, analyzing things they have never known."  

I am often led to pray for my neighbors -- not for all of them, but for those "the Father has given me," for those who "accept my words" and "believe in me."  Not that I am teaching them, of course, but in ordinary conversation, we have communion and sympathy for one another -- I, in a sense, am truly "in them" and they in me.  We are united, not "standing apart, judging and criticizing" one another.  And I desire their good, their health, their peace, their joy in a way that is possible only at a distance to those neighbors I do not know and who do not know me.

I think the Prayer of Jesus encourages me.  While I am discouraged at the state of the world, at the state of our nation, at the condition of the poor, the lonely, the "human refuse" of the world, and while I pray "Thy kingdom come" over all  these conditions, it seems that my "authority" in prayer really rests over those the Father has given me.  I cannot reach beyond what has been given to me -- but I do need to take care of what has been given.  St. John the Baptist said of himself: A man can receive only what has been given to him by heaven (Jn. 3:27).

Jesus did nothing on His own; everything came to Him from the Father and was returned by Him to the Father.  If we think of and pray for those the Father has given us and return them into His hands, we do well.