Not of This World

[Jesus said:] “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You, since You have given Him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom You have given Him.… I am not praying for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours….  And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, which You have given Me … keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate Myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. John 17:1-2, 9, 11, 15-19

There’s a deep feeling of dislocation that comes when you don’t belong to the place where you live. Refugees and immigrants deal with this every day of their lives. Customs, language, foods, laws—even the smells and tastes aren’t the same as home! And that’s hard.

Christians can sympathize with this feeling, because we, too, do not belong to the world we live in. Jesus said as much when he prayed to the Father for us, the night He was betrayed. He knew that the very next day He would be leaving the world through His death on the cross to save us, and he was concerned for us. So He prayed.

And what did He ask? The same things we pray for those newcomers God has sent to live among us. That God will keep all of us, new believers and old, safely in His name. That He will make us holy and protect us from evil. And that together we will reach out with the Good News of Jesus our Savior to the people around us—so that they, like us, will believe.

Holy Father, keep us in Jesus and use us so that many more will come to trust Your Son. Amen.
By Dr. Kari Vo