6 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.
What if this wasn’t about predestination and free will but about Jesus being humble and realizing that anyone that follows Him is a gift from God to Him? “The people whom you gave me out of the world” is Jesus’ way of saying that He knows He didn’t earn a single follower. Any success He has is a gift from God.
That would affect the way we look at our own victories, wouldn’t it? 1,000 people at church on Sunday! A gift from God! 15 people at church on Sunday! A gift from God!
The other point here is what Jesus did with the people that God gave Him. “I gave them the words that you gave me,” Jesus says. No matter how many came, Jesus was faithful with those that would come, listen, and follow. He didn’t take His followers for granted. He was thankful and grateful for every single one of them. At one point (John 6) Jesus even asks the disciples if they are all going to leave. It’s like He’s wondering if they will actually stick around after He has taught all of this truth.
Here Jesus prays for them and commits them to not only be His disciples but that they are also God’s disciples. Of all of His possessions, Jesus even shared His own followers with God the Father. He has told them that they are in a special relationship with the Father. Now He is confirming it with them as He tells the Father in their presence that He commits them to be in a special relationship with Him.
Jesus loves to interact and be around us. He loves to be our mediator before God for our sake. He’s been praying for us since the day before He died for our sins, and He hasn’t stopped yet.
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