If you want to know what is important to someone, look at how they spend their time. We all know who Steph Curry is, but he did not just wake up one day being the best 3 point shooter. He has spent countless hours in the gym, shooting around 500 shots a day, in order to perfect his craft. Basketball is important to Steph Curry. God's will is important to Jesus. In this passage, Jesus is preparing to go through the most difficult challenge thus far. We see in the other gospels that in his prayer before he is arrested he prays for this burden to be taken away, but ultimately he wants God's will to be done. This completely makes sense to me. When I am going through something difficult, I will easily pray for another way, not as easily will I say "but your will Lord", however I usually get there eventually. But John shows us a deeper look into the heart of Jesus. Beyond that phrase we read in the other gospels, we see here what is truly important to Jesus.
Jesus spends the first 5 verses expanding on the idea of "but your will be done." Jesus knows the plan and he is praying that it is fulfilled. That he will be empowered to glorify God in his sacrifice, that he will bring eternal life to all, and that God will glorify him in God's presence.
The remaining 20 verses he is praying for his followers, both then and now. He prayed for us! Looking at this chapter, it is easy to see that growing the Kingdom and empowering his followers to do so as well is important to Jesus. Kingdom Focus at its best. There are so many great verses in these 20, but one that really stuck out to me while I was reading is verse 15, "I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one."
When I read this, my humanity screams "WHAT!! I want comfort and ease, and I would love to just go with you Jesus!" But that is when Jesus calmly and patiently tells me that you can't grow a kingdom without being with the lost. Kingdom Focus!
Jesus knows that we personally grow closer to God in the midst of struggle, if we maintain a kingdom focus. He knows that being in the world makes us relatable to those who need to be saved, because that is what he did for us. Let us have the same prayer for each other as we seek to build God's Kingdom. May we be in the world, not of the world, kept from the evil one, and always Kingdom Focused!
Thank you, Leah, for such open heart words! It is often hard to remember “Thy will be done” during difficult times and feelings. Just as it was for our Lord! Great words for our hearts today!!
Leah, these are such good thoughts. Jesus' love and submission to the Father shine through in these verses. And, like you said, he prayed for us - when he was about to go through the torture of crucifixion. How amazing is that?!?! Thank you for sharing!
Thank you, Leah. To know that Jesus loved us so much that he wanted his Father to love us as much as God loved him is so amazing.