Right before his death in the gospel of John, Jesus offers the longest prayer we have in his words. Jesus prays for his disciples–his friends who served in his lifetime–and, I have to believe, he prays for us.
Jesus’ final prayer: it holds fantastic insight into the mind of Christ. In the most important hour, we know the greatest concerns of his heart.
And, what are Jesus’ greatest concerns?
The prayer rambles a bit; it’s full of emotion.
Jesus says,
I have protected
and guarded
and taught
the ones you have given me.
Everything I know, all that you taught me, I passed on,
and they believe.
And, now, I am coming to you.
I have to leave them,
and so I pray,
Holy One, protect them in my absence.
I protected them,
and now I ask, that when I leave them, you will protect them.
Protect them from evil. (My re-writing of John 17:6-19)
Protect them.
Protect them.
This is Jesus’ prayer, for us, before he dies. He prays to God, asking God to protect us.
Maybe somewhere in the depths of my heart, I knew it, but it has never been conscious. I silently pray Jesus’ prayer, every day, as I lean down to kiss the heads of my children going to school.
Protect them.
Protect them.
Protect them.
Protect them from all the ways kids can be so cruel. Yes. And, protect them from violence, from gun violence in school, gun violence that has a cure our leaders in governance cannot find the will or backbone to enact.
I cannot overstate my honesty and vulnerability, here. I silently pray for my children to be protected from guns, every day.
Maybe I do it because I grew up in the post-Columbine era. Maybe I do it because my mom has attended a funeral for a young girl killed at school by a gun. We are all so proximate to these tragedies. Maybe I do it because I don’t perceive urgency in the electorate or our leaders to protect our children. And, so I pray:
Monday. Protect them.
Tuesday. Protect them.
Wednesday. Protect them.
Thursday. Protect them.
Friday. Protect them.
Jesus is a mother. God is a mother. I don’t need the approval of church doctrine or the evidence of physiology. I am not held back by strict concerns over gender. I celebrate a fluid, mysterious God. As a mother, I know what it is like to pray for my children in a world that feels dangerous, and so does Jesus.
Jesus prays for us; he prays for God to protect us. We are protected.
In this post-election season, there are so many more prayers of protection to pray. Prayers for safety, health, non-violence. Safety, health, and non-violence for our bodies and our minds and our earth. Prayers for the most vulnerable among us, the ones for whom Jesus cares with particular attention, made even more vulnerable through increased violent and hateful racist, homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic, and sexist rhetoric.
Protect us.
Protect us.
Protect us.
Beyonce’s song “PROTECTOR” from the COWBOY CARTER album resonates beautifully with Jesus’ prayer for us disciples. It seems she sings it to her daughter. The lyrics play with what it means to be her daughter’s protector, and then, because the word is similar and the role of mother changes slightly over time, she considers becoming not just her daughter’s protector, but her projector–magnifying her daughter’s own light.
We hear her child’s voice, “Mom, can I hear the lullaby, please?”
Then, comes Beyonce’s song…
[Verse 1]
“And there I was, tangled up in marigold
We were listenin’ to the reverent children singin’
(Sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing)
Hummin’ low as the garden river flows
While the August light becomes a golden evenin’
[Chorus]
And I will lead you down that road if you lose your way
Born to be a protector
Even though I know, someday, you’re gonna shine on your own
I will be your projector
[Verse 2]
An apricot picked right off a givin’ tree
I gave water to thе soil
And now it feeds me,
And there you are, shaded underneath it all
I feel proud of who I am
Because you need me
[Chorus]
And I will lead you down that road if you lose your way
Born to be a protector,
Even though I know, someday, you’re gonna shine on your own
I will be your projector
And even though I know, someday, you’re gonna shine on your own
I will be your projector, projector, projector
[Bridge]
I first saw your face in your father’s gaze
There’s a long line of hands carryin’ your name,
Liftin’ you up, so you will be raised
[Chorus]
Even though I know, someday, you’re gonna shine on your own
I will be your projector,
And even though I know, someday, you’re gonna shine on your own
I will be your protector, born to be a protector”
Hearing Jesus pray for our protection, as children of God ourselves, I feel a closeness with Jesus, an intimacy with his joy and his sorrow; they rest upon us. Like a mother, like a parent, his joy is watching ours, his sorrow is worrying about ours, and in this same way, Jesus understands his relationship with God.
I have long loved the way Jesus describes himself as a mother hen. He prays for Jerusalem, a center of political and spiritual power. He says, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings.” (Luke 13:34)
Jesus is a mother, protector.
In every place in Jesus’ last prayer where he pleads with God to protect his disciples, the prayer begins to sound like the Lord’s Prayer. He prays, “Protect them in your name,” which sounds very similar to the familiar, “hallowed be thy name.” And, Jesus prays, “I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one,” which is so clearly connected to “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
Proper biblical interpretation takes those who wish to study it from scripture text to scripture text to prayer to scripture text to the world around, and I can’t help but notice Beyonce’s song again. She sings, “I first saw your face in your father’s gaze/There’s a long line of hands carryin’ your name/Liftin’ you up so you will be raised.”
I imagine the long line of faces, of hands, of those who lift up others, who pray the Lord’s prayer, who carry the image of God, who are held together in a protecting embrace by Jesus’ prayer, enfolded generation to generation from God, to God’s flesh and bones in Jesus Christ, to all who follow Jesus’ teachings. We are among them, and we are carried by them, known by them, lifted up by them. And Jesus’ prayer for us is just the beginning.
What songs remind you of your mother? Of your protector? Of your children? Of the long line of hands lifting you up? Are they hymns? Are they crossover country hits? Listen to one, and imagine holy protection encircling you.
“All mine are yours, and yours are mine,” Jesus prays. Jesus is our protector, our mother.
Sarah J. Cairatti is a pastor living in Whippany, New Jersey. She loves creative ministry, the town pool, writing, and spending time with her family outdoors. She occasionally posts to her blog: twocoppercoinsblog.wordpress.com
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