What a Night: A Night of Prayer

John 17:20-24

So you’re Jesus. You’re about to be taken captive. You’re about to be tortured. You’re about to be put on trial. You’re about to be charged with the sins of the entire world. And you’re going to suffer an excruciating death. Do you think he might have had a few things on his mind? And what does he take time to do? He takes time to pray. But for who? He prays for his disciples. There’s a lengthy prayer for his disciples. But then can you imagine? He prays for you and me. We’re the ones who believe in Jesus through the message of the disciples that has gotten passed down through the years and came down now through the years to us. Can you imagine? On this night with all this stuff going on, Jesus is praying for you. And the content of the prayer, oh my. He’s praying that you and I would be as united to each other and as united to God as Jesus and the Father are united to each other. How close is the unity between Jesus and the Father? You can’t get any closer than that. And he’s praying for you and for me that our unity would be like that and that our unity with him would be like that. That’s astounding, isn’t it? That Jesus would take the time to pray at all for you and for me is astounding. And that we would pray that we would have that kind of a relationship with each other and with him just boggles the mind. Oh how I fail to understand that. Oh how I fail to appreciate that. Oh how I fail to encourage that, to rejoice in that. You too? And so we go right back to where we were. Jesus gave us that meal for a reason because he wants you and me to know we’re forgiven. And then what else does he want us to know? He wants us to know that he has prayed for us and that he continues to pray for us even today. Oh what a night on which the ruler of the universe, the savior of the world, prays for me. Amen? And amen.