The Seventh Sunday of Easter Year B
Taken from Lectionary Reflections - Year B
Description
The Seventh Sunday of Easter
Acts 1.15-17, 21-26
1John 5.9-13
John 17.6-19
What would you like people to pray for on your behalf? What is your most usual – truthful – prayer request? Does Jesus’s prayer for his disciples match your expectations in any way?
This prayer comes as Jesus prepares to leave his disciples and, although the context here is the preparation for the crucifixion, it is a good prayer to think about in connection with the ascension as well. At the heart of it is Jesus’s love for the disciples, but also his certainty that the Father, too, loves these people who have recognized and cared for the Son. More than that, even, Jesus’s prayer reveals to the disciples that God the Father actually gave them to the Son, to be his companions and witnesses. They may have thought that they chose Jesus or, if they were feeling very humble, that Jesus chose them, but now they discover that God himself chose them for Jesus because he loved them. This prayer is in the nature of an account-giving, as Jesus explains to the Father what he has done with the people the Father entrusted to him...
Taken from Lectionary Reflections – Year B by Jane Williams