Daily Lenten Devotion for 2/26

“My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.” – John 17:15

This verse is part of Jesus’ larger prayer for his disciples as his arrest, suffering, and death draws near. He knows that he will soon be taken out of this world to ascend into heaven, so Jesus takes this final private moment to pray for those he will leave behind.

Those left behind: the disciples. Over the past decade, the apocalyptic Left Behind book series has been popular among many Christians. I have not read them, nor do I have any interest in reading them. But many Christians have been drawn to these fiction novels because of their focus on the apocalypse, on the end times that we supposedly are living in. I suspect the reason many Christians are drawn to apocalyptic literature like the Left Behind series is because these books give comfort to our human longing to escape from the evil of this world.

We all long to escape the evil of this world, though these longings manifest themselves in different ways. Some wish for the evil to be removed from the world, and others wish to be removed themselves from an evil world. But Jesus, in his prayer to his heavenly parent, asks not for evil to be removed from the world. Nor does he ask for faithful disciples to be removed from evil. One day the time will come to separate the wheat from the tares, but for now, followers of Jesus are left to deal with evil.

Once again, here in John’s Gospel we discover that the faithful life is far from the easy life. It is a life that requires living in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, and it appears that Jesus has no plans to remove us from it anytime soon. But there is hope. Though we will not get the relief we seek, we are promised protection. We are promised an ally in the fight against all manner of evil. We are promised a companion that will join us in our pain and suffering until the day finally comes when the harvest is ready, when the time has come to separate wheat from tares. Therefore, our prayer today must mirror the prayer of Jesus. Our prayer must not be that we are taken out of the world, but that we are protected from the evil one that lives in our midst.