Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

John 17:12-14

Joh 17:12 While I was with them, I was protecting them by your name that you have given me. I guarded them and not one of them is lost, except the son of destruction, so that the Scripture may be fulfilled.

Joh 17:13 Now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy completed in them.

Joh 17:14 I have given them your word. The world hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

not welcome

When I read these words, I think of the song by Bob Hartman, as sung by Petra:

“We are pilgrims in a strange land

We are so far from our homeland  

With each passing day it seems so clear

This world will never want us here

We’re not welcome in this world of wrong

We are foreigners who don’t belong.”

Jesus’ words in this section of His prayer resonate deeply with the experience captured in the Petra song, yet His emphasis moves in a different direction. The song expresses the ache of being strangers in a world that does not understand or welcome those who belong to Christ. Scripture affirms that sense of alienation. Jesus Himself warned that His followers would be treated as He was treated, misunderstood as He was misunderstood, and opposed as He was opposed. The world’s hostility is real, and the song gives voice to that reality.

But Jesus’ prayer adds an important nuance. He does not ask the Father to remove His disciples from the world. He does not pray for escape, withdrawal, or early departure. Instead, He prays for protection—protection not from hardship, but from the evil one. The mission requires presence. The disciples must remain in the world precisely because the world needs the witness they bear. Their difference is not an argument for departure but the very reason they must stay.

The source of that difference is also clarified. It is not that believers are being prepared for a distant heavenly relocation. Jesus does not frame their distinctiveness as training for an otherworldly destination. Their difference arises from their growing likeness to the Son. He came from the Father, bearing the Father’s character, revealing the Father’s heart, and embodying the Father’s truth. As His followers are shaped into His image, they inevitably become out of step with the world’s values, ambitions, and loves. The world resists what it cannot understand and rejects what exposes its darkness. Christlikeness, not heavenly relocation, is what makes believers unwelcome.

This means that the tension believers feel is not a sign of failure but a sign of formation. The more they resemble Jesus, the more they share His experience in the world. And yet, just as the Father sustained the Son, so Jesus prays that the Father will sustain His people. Their calling is not to retreat but to remain—protected, sanctified, and sent.

Lord, despite the cost and despite the unwelcome it brings, mold us into your image.