That They May Be One
For Meditation
As Jesus concludes his “high priestly prayer,” he turns his eyes toward all his future disciples. What is most on Jesus’ heart for us? Jesus prays that we would all be one, just as God the Son, God the Father and God the Spirit are one. Jesus sees unity among his followers as the key in letting the world know that Jesus is the sent one.
Yet unity is elusive. We see from the very beginning of the Bible, human community is marked by division, distrust and even murder. In this season of unprecedented social and political division in our country, the vision of unity seems more elusive than ever. There is profound division everywhere, in society, in families, in churches. Is the unity that Jesus prayed just a pipe dream?
This week we’ll look into this final section of John 14-17, and try to understand the kind of unity Jesus prayed for. We’ll look at the meaning of biblical unity, why it’s so important, and how we can make steps to achieve it. To prepare for worship, try praying through Psalm 133, which perhaps Jesus had on his mind as he prayed.
John 17:20-26
20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
25 “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”