Who cares?

FOR READING AND MEDITATION – MATTHEW 6:25-34

‘If ….God clothes the grass of the field … will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?’ (v.30)

As we go deeper into this intense and moving prayer of our Lord we come to His first direct petition on behalf of His disciples: 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).

It is surely impossible to read these words without feeling something of the gripping reality and practicality of the Saviour’s request. He was about to leave the disciples to go to the cross, but He pauses to pray that they will be protected and kept. Did they find those words comforting, I wonder? They must have done. And our Lord was praying, we must remember, not in the quiet and peaceful atmosphere of a great cathedral but on the battlefield between good and evil – in the very shadow of grim Golgotha itself.

The focus of Christ’s petition is found in the two words ‘protect them’. There were many other things Christ could have prayed for at this moment in the life of His disciples. He could have prayed ‘use them’, ‘teach them’, or ‘guide them’. But as He is about to leave them to go to the cross He puts into one brief phrase His heart’s greatest desire – that they might be divinely kept and divinely protected.

How this highlights once again the love and concern our Lord has for His people. He prays for them even when His death is imminent. Oh, if only we could fully grasp this fact – that our Lord’s concern for us is greater that the concern we have for ourselves. The full awareness of that would make a tremendous impact on our souls.

O Jesus, let the truth of Your concern for me be more than mere theory. Let it grip me, impact me – even stagger me. You care for me far more than I care for myself. May that thought release something deep inside me this day. Amen.