“As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.” - Jesus (Jn 17:18)
This is a favorite passage for those who desire to live missionally, I’ve read it often and I love it, but oftentimes I forgot that it lies in what is known as Jesus’ high priestly prayer and in the timeline of John’s gospel it is Jesus’ last prayer. Recently I was speaking with a colleague, who asked me, “Zach you’ve been here for nearly 15 years, who’ve been through a lot of garbage, how have you been able to stay and be so resilient?”
To be honest, my first reaction was, “God made be to be a stubborn, resilient person, that can endure and keep going.” While there might be truth in that, it’s far deeper than that and even though God might have created me this way, it’s not merely that black and white. That’s where Jesus’ prayer and the seventeenth chapter of John’s Gospel comes in.
Jesus’ prayer consists of three parts 1) Jesus prays for his glorification and what his obedience to God the father will bring, 2) then he prays for his disciples and 3) those who will believe as a result of his disciples. There is one word that is used twice, in Jesus’ prayer for his disciples, that impacts me and ultimately my resilience - KEEP.
Jesus prays to the father that he will KEEP his disciples in his name, so that they may be one in verse 11. Then in verse 15, he prays that the father KEEP them from the evil one. Jesus’ prayer for his disciples, then his prayer for those who would believe as a result of his disciples faith, that the father would KEEP them is where my resilience ultimately resides, Jesus prayed for this and as a result I’ve been able to live on mission in a tough place for some years. In the midst of the ups and downs of serving in Prague, Czech Republic, this has even become a prayer that I utter in the hardest of moments, in the moments when I want to throw the towel in on this whole missional living things, on this country and the like, I cry, “Father keep me. Keep me in you. In your word. And keep me from the evil one.”
I’ll be the first to tell you that I need to pray more and seek the Lord's face, I think it’s one of the biggest challenges for a missional leader, because often times we are wired to do, to go, to live out our “sentness” that Jesus spoke of in verse 18, but very often we need to slow down and let the father keep us in Him, so that we will be able to be sent by him to those around us.
What I love is that this chapter of scripture shows us that at the core of being on mission and living as sent ones, is prayer and asking the father to keep us in him and keep the evil one from us. So wherever you are right now, slow down for a moment and ask God to keep you in himself, in his word, in fellowship with him, so that you will be one with your brothers and sisters, so that you will live as those that are sent and set apart by Jesus for the glory of the father.