That final week: Jesus prays for us to be one

Jesus Prays to Be Glorified

Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. John 17:1

Glorify: acknowledge and reveal the majesty and splendour of God by one’s actions.

Reveal your majesty and splendour in me so that I can reveal your majesty and splendour through my actions.

Jesus has always shared in God’s glory from ‘before the world began’.

Jesus brought God ‘glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do’. 

God gave Jesus ‘authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him’.

AND THIS IS ETERNAL LIFE: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. John 17:3

Don’t ever be fooled into thinking that eternal life is about what happens when we die. It’s about what’s going on in our life now! Knowing God and knowing Jesus: this is eternal life. This is a life inspired by all the infinite possibilities of the universe. This is a life not bound by the conventions of time and space. This is a life lived with an ever-expanding awareness of the spiritual dimension. This is a life lived in the presence of God.

Right here, right now.

So give God the glory. Acknowledge His greatness. Do the work God has given you to do. Be the person He created you to be. Let people know that whatever you’ve achieved, it’s because of God at work in you.

Jesus Prays for His Disciples

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. John 17:11

Jesus is praying for the ones God gave him. The ones who’ve heard and obeyed God’s word. The ones who know that everything Jesus is and does comes from God. The ones who know with certainty that Jesus came from God.

And now Jesus is about to leave them and they will remain in the world. Because they are followers of Jesus, they are no longer fully part of this world. They’re not doing life the way the rest of the world is doing it. That’s going to mean that they are hated by the world. It’s essential that they have God’s protection, if they are to be one: one with each other and one with God. You cannot have one without the other. You cannot be one with God without being one with each other. You cannot be one with each other without being one with God.

May they know joy.

May they know truth.

May they be sanctified (set apart for God).

 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. John 17:10

All things come from you, and of your own do we give you. Do you recognise these words from the Anglican Communion Service? They assert the same truth as Jesus is asserting here.

Everything we have comes from God. How can we ever imagine anything different? How can we for a moment imagine that we deserve all that we have, that we’ve earned it in some way, that it’s ours to decide what to do with: what is OK to share and what is not. It is all God’s!

We share in the abundance of the whole universe! Life is not about holding tightly to what we have in fear that we will not have enough.

Jesus Prays for All Believers

My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. John 17:20-21

This is Jesus’ prayer for anyone who comes to believe in him. This prayer is for me and for you.

And it’s all about unity. It’s all about relationship. Not only relationship with God, but how that is worked out in relationship with each other.

It’s about finding a way to get on with those we disagree with.

It’s about finding a way to love those we don’t even like.

It’s about treating others as we would wish to be treated.

It’s about forgiving those who hurt us.

It’s about being inclusive, welcoming, generous, compassionate.

For it is when a motley crew of  believers demonstrate complete unity in practice that ‘the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me’ (v23).

This is what we should be putting all our energies into. This is what Jesus prayed about in his final prayer. This is what mattered most to him.

Love and unity.

Jesus in us.

Jesus’ love in us.

Jesus’ love working through us.

It all comes back to this.