Jesus Asking for Us

 

“I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word” (John 17:20).

 

I take much comfort in these words of Jesus, to think that He prayed for me, He prayed for you, He prayed for us. In fact, not only did He pray for us, He continues to pray for us:

 

“Therefore He is able also to save completely those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25). This is amazing to me, that Jesus prays for me.

 

Everyone of us who know Jesus Christ today can trace our knowing Him back to that first generation of men and women who first knew Him while He walked the earth. We don’t know how many there were in that first generation. We tend to focus on the original Apostles, apostles with a capital “A”. We might also think of the 70 who Jesus sent out during His ministry (Luke 10:1). Then there were about 120 in the Upper Room (Acts 1:15) – were they all there on the Day of Pentecost? Were there more, were there less? Were there hundreds in that first generation just before Pentecost? Were there thousands? (They need not all have been in Jerusalem, though for sure Jerusalem was the epicenter).

 

We don’t know the specifics, but what we do know is that, compared to what was to come, relatively speaking, it was a small group from which we are descended…but is that not often the case? Most importantly, we are descended from Jesus Christ, for every man and woman of that first generation received their New Life from Jesus (we are no longer in “Adam” but in “Christ”; Romans 5:12 – 21; 1 Corinthians 15:35 – 49).

 

The point is that we are all children of the first generation in one way or another. Even those who have had the miracle of direct revelation can trace that revelation into the communion of saints, to the faithful testimony of that first generation…a generation of which Christ Jesus is the Firstborn; from Him we all descend (and ascend!)

 

My great-great Aunt Martha, who was born in the 19^th century, told me of her Aunt Rose. Her lasting memory of Rose was contained in the words, “Aunt Rose prayed.” When I first heard this from Aunt Martha in the 1960s my thought was, “Aunt Rose prayed for me.” You see, I am certain that Rose’s prayers included her family, her family as she then knew it, and her family as it would unfold in the future. Therefore, her prayers included me.

 

There is a historical record of one of my 5^th great grandfathers walking his property in the 18^th century and praying for his family. Since I’ve been on that very property it is easy for me to visualize him walking and praying, praying and walking. I am certain that he prayed for me, that I was included in his intercessory prayers for his family, his family which then was and his family which was to come.

 

A friend recently told me that he realized that the seed he was sowing in the lives of his family, of his children and grandchildren, might not bear fruit until after he had passed from this life. My friend saw beyond his own life…and yet what he saw was his own life in Christ, a life that doesn’t end with death, but continues both in heaven and still on earth. What I mean is that my friend’s prayers and words will live on in his children and grandchildren and great grandchildren and beyond.

 

This approaches what we mean when we speak of the “communion of the saints.” We can participate in a transcendent community (Hebrews 12:1; 12:22 – 24). As we meditate on John 17:20, we can sense the transcendence to which we belong, the numinosity of the Divine Family of God.

 

For some of us this is as natural as breathing, for most of us it may take a while for our bodies to become acclimated to the high elevations.

 

The vital thing is to know that not only did Jesus pray for us, for you and for me, but that He continues to pray for us. Jesus has never stopped praying for us. Jesus prayed for you 2,000 years ago and He continues praying for you.

 

When we are discouraged, when we have doubts, when we face challenges, let’s remind ourselves and others that Jesus is praying for us. If we are encouraged when others pray for us, how much more should we be encouraged to know that Jesus is praying for us. (And of course if Jesus is praying for us, then we most certainly ought to be praying for one another.)

 

As we will see, the Lord willing, in our next reflection, Jesus is asking the Father that we all might live in the Holy of Holies, in unspeakable communion with one another in the Trinity. What Jesus is asking – for you and for me – is beyond comprehension, but not beyond what our experience can be.