Unity

I had two important thoughts while reading this chapter.  1. John was listening.  Often we think that because the others settled in and went to sleep –it was late at night- that all were asleep.  Yet John heard Jesus and remembered the strength of this prayer.  2. This chapter explains and quantifies the bulk of Christian doctrine.  As I read, I was amazed at the amount of 'explaining' Jesus did in this simple prayer directed to the Father, that the spirit would instruct John to record.

     The main message of this passage seems to me to be unity and how that comes about.  In the 17th Chapter of the book of John, Jesus began by saying, “Father, the time has come.”  He knew that it would only be a short time that night until he was taken prisoner and he knew that he would be killed.  The disciples did not understand that.  They had seen him walk right through the crowd and away from danger so many times.  They felt his protection here on earth.  They saw his power daily.  They accepted that he was the very ‘Son of God’ that the scripture had foretold.  But they were not prepared for this night.

     The first thing Jesus addressed in this prayer was the unity that existed between him and the Father God before the world existed. 4 I have glorified You down here on the earth by completing the work that You gave Me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify Me along with Yourself and restore Me to such majesty and honor in Your presence as I had with You before the world existed.  AMP   In the first chapter of John he told us  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  Here then in this prayer, Jesus is saying “restore me to what I had with you before the world was created.” 

     It was a total unity of power and purpose.  It also tells us that Jesus gave up that unity, even though he still knew the Father God, to come to earth and complete a task that had been decided before the creation or fall of man.  I see that when that unity was broken and Jesus became a man, he had to depend on faith and obedience to be able to complete everything that had been decided before.  It was a new challenge.  Temptation, physical pain, need, these were things he had never experienced in his unity with the Father.  But he came to the end of his life and said “I did it all.  I obeyed it all.  Now glorify me and bring me back into complete unity like we were before.”  I’ve been chewing on that for a week.  There is so much to think about in that.

     In this chapter he also tells us that his purpose was to bring unity between man and God. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent…9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. Jesus makes a clear distinction between those who believe and those who do not. The bulk of the world will not believe or follow.  But he is praying for those who will believe.  Also he is very clear that those who believe are unified with the Father as well as the Son.  He tells us without any doubt here how unity with God is achieved.  If we are to be unified it will be through Jesus, through faith, through love.  The work of redemption was to allow those who would believe to know the only true God and Jesus Christ who was sent. 

     We are unified through glory.  This is another truth that is hard to understand.  God gave glory back to Jesus through those who followed in belief.  And Jesus in turn spread that glory back to the believer.  10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 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. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

     God separates believers to spiritual protection and knowledge to bring them into unity.  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.  12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.  A side note that Jesus felt was important here is that Judas was chosen even though he never truly followed Jesus.  His very presence in the line of disciples was foreordained.  There had to be one non-believer in the number to fulfill the plan of God for redeeming the others.  The other disciples did not know that he was a non-believer.  But Jesus did.  As you read the scriptural accounts of the ministry of Jesus, it is mentioned several times, but always as a necessity.  Some things about the truth are not pretty or likable.  But they are true none the less. 

     This is spiritually discerned I believe. “And when the spirit is come he will guide you into all truth.”  While Jesus was with them, he guided them.  When he had to leave, they would need special guidance and protection from God in the form of his Spirit that they could be in unity with the Father and the Son through faith.  This is defined in chapter 16. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.  Jesus understood by his life on earth how badly they needed protection from the ‘evil one’.  He asked God to separate (sanctify, or set apart) them.  The world needed to see the difference even though it would cause them to hate the believer.  The believer needed to know the difference so they could accept their role in the kingdom of Christ.  I believe this tells us that those who truly accept this ‘separation’ have a divine protection both spiritually and physically, just as Jesus did.  When his ‘time’ came, nothing could prevent what he was sent to do.  Until his ‘time’ came, nothing could interfere with what he was to do.  He was set apart.  He asked God to set us apart in the same way.  Yet we must be set apart by our belief and acceptance of his ‘word.’  It has given me a lot to think about in my own experience and call.

     Jesus asked for unity with the ones who will believe their message. 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.  I guess one of the big questions down through the centuries since this prayer was prayed has been “Does this apply to me today?”  These verses answer that question, I believe, with a resounding “YES! To those who will believe in me through their message.”  But what about the unity?  Can we still have unity with Christ and God? And Jesus answers “that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.”  It has a purpose defined here: the world will know that God sent Jesus because of our unity.  So even now, the unity of believers is so important. 

     We are brought into unity through the word of God and through the love of God allowed to play out in our lives.  By that the world will know that God loves us because of our unity.  This unity has more power than we might suspect.  Jesus discusses it with God and prays for this unity to be in place and protected, that all may be one.  Father, Son, disciples, believers through truth and belief in a complete unity that the world will know and understand as God in us and we in Jesus and we are unified with the same purpose, the same love and obedience, the same truth.  It will not make the world love us.  But it will bring some of them to belief and to unity in Jesus.