Lenten Devotions: John Flavel

I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one.   —John 17:11

Why [did] Christ thus pray and plead with God for them when he was to die?  Certainly it was not because the Father was unwilling to grant the mercies he desired. No, the reasons of this great persistence are,

1. He foresaw a great trial then at hand and all the later trials of his people, as well. He knew their faith would be shaken by the approaching difficulties, when they would see their Shepherd struck and themselves scattered, the Son of man delivered into the hands of sinners and the Lord of life hang dead on the tree and sealed up in the grave. He foresaw what distresses his people would fall into between a busy Devil and bad hearts. Therefore he pleads with such persistence and ardency for them, that they might not go wrong.

2. He was now entering on his intercession work in heaven, and he desired in this prayer to give a sample of that part of his work before he left us, that we might understand what he would do for us when he was out of sight. It shows us what affections and dispositions he carried away with him and satisfies us that he who was so earnest with God on our behalf will not forget us or neglect our concerns in the other world. The intercession of Christ in heaven is carried much higher than this. Here he used prostrations of body, cries, and tears in his prayers; there, his intercession is carried in a more majestic way, befitting an exalted Jesus. But in this he left us special assistance to know the working of his heart, now in heaven, toward us.

3. And lastly, he would leave this as a standing monument of his fatherlike care and love to his people to the end of the world. And for this Christ delivered this prayer publicly, not withdrawing from the disciples to be private with God as he did in the garden. But he delivers it in their presence: “I say these things while I am still in the world” (John 17:13). And not only was it publicly delivered, but it was also recorded by John, that it might stand to all generations for a testimony of Christ’s tender care and love to his people.