“I am praying for them.” How many times have you ever stopped to marvel at the words written here? I must confess, I have not focused on them much. Perhaps I was reading too quickly to get to the end of the story: the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus — you know, the good stuff. It’s easy to do; after all, this is just another account of Jesus praying with the Disciples and He did that all the time, right? What’s the big deal? The big deal is that meditating on this passage reveals a glorious truth: I am one of the “them” in this prayer, and fellow believers, so are you.

Let that sink in: Jesus had only hours left with His Disciples. He did not fill those moments with frivolous activity or empty words. No, He carefully chose each word and action to make the most of His time left with them, so He did the best thing He could for them: He prayed.

Jesus: Present at the creation of all that is known. Savior of the world; the Word that was in the beginning, the Word that was with God, the Word that was God, thought it was important enough to pray for “them.” And for me, and for you. If that’s not enough to cause you to bow down and worship Him, consider the fact that He sits at the right hand of the Father in Heaven and intercedes on our behalf ALL THE TIME. What an amazing God we serve!

Then He says, “I am not praying for the world …” Wait, what? What a strange remark for Jesus to make in His prayer. It sounds more like ammunition for an unbeliever to deny God. For instance, they might suggest that, if Jesus is truly God, and God is love, then why wouldn’t He pray for everyone? They could say that a loving God would not exclude any person in His prayers. Or even that, If Jesus is God, He would pray for everyone, all the time, therefore this means that Jesus cannot be God. It’s like Jesus was contradicting everything He had stood for in His time on earth; it seems contrary to his character. What’s going on? What a weird thing for Jesus to say.

The fact is, it sounds like a good argument until you examine the context of the verses. Jesus was living His final hours on earth as a man. He was finishing up His ministry in the world and knew that what was about to happen would alter the course of human history forever. There would be time for the world to change its mind about Him, but for now, He focused on the ones who would carry His message to the same lost world. “... those whom you have given me” needed protection, courage, endurance, comfort — you name it, they needed it — and so do we. As modern-day messengers of the gospel, Jesus prayed that prayer for us too.

God wants the best for His children, as any good father does. He provides us with every good thing in Jesus. “All mine are yours, and yours are mine.” God stopped at nothing to bring us near to Him. It is promised in both the Old and New Testaments (Deuteronomy 31:6, Hebrews 13:5) that He will never leave or forsake any of His children. We are a part of His eternal family. How amazing is that? He sacrificed for us, Jesus prays for us, we share a space in the family of God, and as if that’s not enough, HE allows US to be vessels of glory!

“I am glorified in them.” These words should strike awe in the heart of every believer who hears them. How can this be? How could Jesus so easily speak these words at any time, much less considering what was about to take place? He knew that the total depravity of man would be on display in the next several hours and He would have to suffer and die. How could He say that any finite, fallible, sinful, human being could ever bring glory to Him?

Even when we are at our best, the notion that God is glorified in us seems simply unfathomable. And that’s the point: our best does not bring glory to God; we can only bring the Father glory through the Son. We are vessels of glory when we come to Jesus, die to ourselves and become a new creation in Christ. That is the story of glory. That is why Jesus prayed for “them” and that’s why I am so thankful to be one of “them.”