JESUS’ LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT

JOHN 17: 9-19

JESUS’ LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT

I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours.                                               John 17:9 NRSV

This intimate prayer concludes Jesus’ last meal with his followers before his execution. It is the urgent petition of one who loves them deeply.  At the moment the disciples are feeling confident in their faith, but Jesus knows that their bravado is really ignorance and naiveté. They are in great danger and don’t even realize it.  Their current reality is about to be shattered, and they will be left behind in a hostile world that threatens to scatter them and destroy their fragile faith. 

What is Jesus’ prayer for me?  Do I have an ignorant faith that is untested beyond my own upper room?  Do I live my life like a bird nesting in a tree – oblivious to the chain saw aimed at the trunk?  Followers of Jesus are not meant to spend our days making ourselves comfortable in the world. This is not our place. Our only home is God; we must never build our nest elsewhere.

Lord, it is tempting to stay in my own comfort zone under the warm blanket of complacency.  Let me never feel at home anywhere but in You.   Amen

~ Sarah Martin