All over the world, Christians will be celebrating Palm Sunday this weekend, remembering the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, the City of God. As crowds of people cheered, it seemed that Jesus’ three-year movement announcing the Kingdom of God was on the threshold of the success it deserved.
Success?
Days later Jesus is not with a crowd but privately gathered with his twelve disciples in the upper room, celebrating the Passover. It would be the last time Jesus was with them before the bottom dropped out and the whole movement collapsed in apparent failure.
Within hours another crowd would form, but they would not be shouting “Hosanna!” They would be shouting “Crucify him!”
Failure.
This Sunday at the Gathering Church we will look behind the curtain into those last private moments. Found in the Gospel of John, chapters 12-17, we will focus on chapter 17 because in that chapter Jesus is not giving last minute instructions.
He is praying.
Praying for himself, about what he will endure? No, that comes later. He’s praying for his disciples. And he also prays for anyone who would ever believe in the message about him – that he had been sent from God to give life.
In the prayer, we get to see exactly how Jesus perceived what was going on. We get to see his greatest hopes for people who searched for meaningful life.
We get to discover what it means to be an answer to Jesus’ prayer.