intercessor
Ten years ago, my family life fell apart. My parents split up, my father moving far away, very unexpectedly. I was in my first year of university - a difficult enough time without adding that sort of familial tumult - and I just sort of ceased to function. I couldn’t go to class, I couldn’t do my reading, I couldn’t go to my part-time job. I was a wreck.
I called a classmate, a friend with whom I had bonded over a mutual love of dancing and of Jesus, with whom I was supposed to be completing a group project. I told her the story of what was happening to my family, and apologized that I wouldn’t be able to finish my parts of the assignment. Over the phone she asked me, “Darlene, can I pray with you?” I had never prayed with someone over the phone, and had never knowingly had someone pray for me in my presence. It felt unfamiliar, but I said yes. And she prayed for me, speaking words of peace and comfort and hope for me, for my family, to God.
It was powerful. Things I wouldn’t think to ask, things I couldn’t dare to say, she was able to pray them for me. She interceded. She went to God on my behalf and said what needed to be said. She asked what needed to be asked. And after our phone call was over, she continued to hold up my family to God in prayer, even when I felt too broken to put my need into words.
What is even more powerful, though, is this: Jesus was already praying for me. He saw my need and prayed for me. Because the intercession of Jesus Christ doesn’t need to be turned on like a switch; it does not begin only when we ask Him. He is always interceding on our behalf. It is the work he continues to do from His seat in Heaven.
Today we marked Ascension Sunday, the day when Jesus returned to the Father and took His seat in Heaven. With His ascension, Jesus began His work as intercessor. Having fulfilled the prophecies He came to prove, having paid the price of our sin with His death, He continues His work for us, achieving not only our redemption, but assisting us in our daily lives here on earth.
Matthew 28:20 reads: “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Jesus is praying for you. Even when you do not pray for yourself, even when you are distracted or forgetful or desperate or do not want to pray. Even in your darkest days. Always.
Jesus is praying for you.
