Sunday's lection is part of what scholars call Jesus’s Farewell Discourse (chapters 14-17). Jesus knows he will be separated from his friends very soon. Imagine a line, a boundary, a threshold that Jesus had to cross, alone. A line his friends could not cross--not yet.
What does Jesus do? He prays for his friends. More importantly, he asks God to protect his friends. He asks God three times in his prayer.
I believe most of us read our Bibles and pray every day. Many of us pray several times a day. There are those among us who pray without ceasing. Oftentimes, our long prayers are often only about ourselves. There are also those who pray for those whose only hope is God. Then there are those, in these trying times, who need to cross lines, boundaries, and thresholds who need our prayers.
In all of these, we pray to Jesus. We ask. We beg. We cry. We are the ones praying.
Thus, many among us miss the point of our lection. Jesus is praying for his friends--not for himself. He prays for his loved ones when he, a man slated for execution by the state, has every reason to pray for himself!
In the midst of hopelessness and despair when we are most vulnerable and alone, Jesus lifts us in prayer. Good news indeed! JESUS. PRAYS. FOR. US!
*art, "The Ascension," JESUS MAFA, 1973 (Cameroon), from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.
