A firewall from the Father

Christine Colliar May 20, 2026 2 0

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John 17: 1-11 (NIV-UK)

1 After Jesus said this, he looked towards heaven and prayed:

‘Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.4 I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

6 ‘I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you.8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.

A firewall usually goes unnoticed until something harmful presses against it. It does not cut a system off from the world. It guards what enters and protects what matters.

Jesus prays like that.

He stands at the edge of betrayal, fear, and loss and turns to the Father. He names those who have walked beside him, shared meals with him, listened to him, struggled to understand him. Soon they will remain in the world without him there in the same way as before.

Keep them in your name.

Jesus does not pray for escape. He prays for protection within the life they must live. He knows how quickly fear can settle into people, how easily trust can wear thin, how quietly bitterness and exhaustion can take root.

So he places them in the Father’s keeping.

Perhaps we recognise that pressure ourselves. Some words linger longer than they should. Anxiety settles into the body. Anger spreads quickly. We absorb more than we realise from the voices and fears around us.

Yet Jesus still prays, not that we would be removed from the world, but held within it — guarded, kept, given what we need to remain open to truth, mercy, and one another.

If there is a firewall here, it is not built from fear or withdrawal. It is given through love that keeps holding us as we move through the world.

What are we allowing to take root within us?

What is shaping the way we see one another?

Prayer:

Keeping God,

hold us in your name.

Where we are exposed, surround us.

Where we are unsettled, steady us.

Where we are pulled apart, keep us whole.

Set your guard over our lives,

keep truth within us,

and let nothing take root

that draws us away from you.

Hold us as we go,

and keep us in your care.

Amen