A Love Like That

If I knew the person talking to me was going to die the next day, would I listen more carefully?

We’re in the season of COVID-19 meets EASTER2020 and I just keep wondering, what did Jesus really want me to know before He went to the cross? I had to print out the whole of John 17 so I could read through it with a pen, underlining and chunking it up into parts I could grasp.

It’s called the High Priestly Prayer. It’s not the Lord’s Prayer. It’s different and longer and seems to cut back into itself. To be honest, I’m not sure I’ve ever really read it and paid attention all the way the through. But I have now. And here’s what I got out of it. If it’s helpful to you, awesome.

First – Jesus says this is the exact hour He came for. This is the moment in time He had planned and prepared for – total surrender. He came here to bring us back to life eternal. Knowing God, Himself Jesus. He fulfilled His mission.

Second – Jesus says He trusts those He spent 3 years with – that they really knew, on the deepest level, what He came to infuse in them. He was not praying for the world of people who didn’t know Him in this prayer. Here He was praying for these disciples and the ones who would hear them and believe.

Third – Knowing and believing are givens in this equation. The prayer here is that we, as believers would become like Himself – unified. One. Wholly holy. And not a holiness that leads to piety but, “that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.”

If we are hated by the world, as He told us we would be, then I’d like to be hated because: I love like Jesus, I have joy in my journey, I find peace in the storm and I know Him who is Truth.