Apr 30 2019 John 17: 12-19

I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one.

Jesus is nearing the end of his farewell speech to the disciples, the night he’s arrested. Now he’s turned his focus and talk to God. He’s praying to God about his disciples and the rest of us motley crew.
Jesus was sent into this world, shared his good new of love and peace and mercy. And experienced much of the pain and evil we inflict on others, and at the time he’s speaking these words, he’s staring down a long, evil, painful trial, torture and death. 

He’s appealing to God that although those remaining on Earth when Jesus dies and rises don’t belong to this world, we squarely are in this world. He acknowledges that he’s not asking to have us taken out of this world, but having us remain here. Rather than porting us all up to a place of infinite peace and love, we are left behind by Jesus himself. 

And after acknowledging that we’ll be left behind, Jesus asks that we be protected from the evil one. This one is tough for me to understand. He wasn’t protected, given what he’d been through and was heading into -  and he’s God in man-form. Yes, ultimately he rose and beat evil, but I wouldn’t say he was protected.

It  doesn’t look or feel like we’re protected. Children of God gunned down while at worship. People bullied and killed because of their skin color, religion, sexual orientation. People with no food or shelter in the ‘developed’ nations. There are challenges and bad things happening all around us, in our world and in our homes. How is that at all protection? If the protection Jesus speaks of is like an insurance policy, it’s not a very good one. 

This morning, I’m wondering about what that means. If his words ‘protect them from the evil one’ aren't about avoiding that kind of pain and suffering, what is it?  Maybe it’s the sense deep down that it will all work out in the end, that faint glimmer of hope that isn’t extinguished, even as we read the evening news, or face our own trials.

Maybe this protection is more about what’s deep in our core, the little candle light that burns with hope that darkness cannot overcome. Maybe it’s like God putting God's hands around our flickering candle, to keep it from blowing out in the midst of the evil winds. With that light inside each of us, we can keep from being overcome. 

Maybe what’s protected, then isn’t our bodies, or minds, but our spirits and souls. As we pray daily, let them never give up hope. Because when we give up hope, that's when evil wins. When we succumb and let our candle be blown out, regardless of what’s going on around us.