This week the church celebrated Ascension Day, the day when we remember the ascension of Jesus to be with God. For the disciples it marked their final physical separation from Jesus and one imagines it was a day of mixed emotions. Before leaving, Jesus had prepared the disciples for his departure as best he could with the promise that the Holy Spirit would come and dwell among and within them and also praying for them and for future disciples like us.
This prayer of Jesus, as recorded in John’s Gospel, gives us a rare insight into how and what Jesus prayed. It is an intimate prayer to the Father but also quite bold. Jesus asks three things of God for disciples – that they be protected from the evil one, that they experience the same close relationship with God enjoyed by Jesus and that they be kept safe by the truth (especially about God’s love for us and about God sending Jesus to us). I wonder what comfort you draw knowing that Jesus still lives in God’s presence and that he prays for you. Given that Jesus experienced some of the best and the worst that humanity could throw at him during his life, he knows what it is to live a human life. He knows the joys and challenges of our life. And he promises to be with us. So when life gets tough, it’s good to remember these truths and these promises.