7th Sunday of Easter, 2023 - That They May Be One

The New Testament records the content of three prayers that Jesus prayed – the prayer found in Matthew 6 and Luke 11 in which Jesus taught his disciples (us) how to pray – commonly called the Lord’s Prayer, his prayer in Gethsemane the night of his arrest, and the prayer found only in chapter 17 of John’s gospel (today’s lectionary gospel reading). Some scholars refer to this prayer as Jesus’s high priestly prayer. It takes the place of his prayer in Gethsemane. (John’s gospel does not record that prayer or the struggle it reflects.)

The prayer divides into three parts. In verses 1-5, Jesus asks the Father to glorify him – a reference to his resurrection and ascension. Verses 6-19 record his prayer for his followers – his disciples. Verses 20-24 record his prayer for those who would become his followers through the witness and work of the disciples - us.

It is helpful to note what Jesus wanted for his followers, for us.

Jesus wanted his followers – us – to know the Father the way he knew the Father, John 17:2-3. In John’s gospel, revealing the Father was central to Jesus’s work. (See John 1:14, 18; 17:6.) To know the Father is to experience the Father’s love in the gift of forgiveness. It is to live in relationship with the Father as a beloved child. It is to experience eternal life. “And this is eternal life, that they may know you, thee only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent,” John 17:3. Note that Jesus defined eternal life as knowing the Father, not as life after death. To know the Father is to experience God’s quality of life – eternal life – here and now.

Jesus wanted his followers – us – to be one as Jesus and the Father are one, John 17:12, 21-23. “Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one,” John 17:12. The oneness or unity of the Godhead (Father, Son/Jesus, Spirit) is a oneness grounded in their mutual character of self-giving, servant love. They experience oneness in the midst of their differences. Their oneness respects and values their differences, recognizing differences as a strength that opens the door to greater possibilities and creativity. Their oneness transcends any hierarchy. Biblical scholars use the term “unity in diversity” to describe this oneness.

Jesus wanted his followers – us – to experience the life of the Godhead – their unity in the midst of their diversity. The apostle Paul reflected this quality of relationship in his imagery of the body of Christ, 1 Corinthians 12. We experience this kind of oneness as we grow spiritually in the likeness of Christ – as the character of Christ is engrained in us.

Note that this prayer for us to experience the oneness of the Godhead is embodied in Jesus’s prayer for the Father to protect us, John 17:12. His followers were in the world but did not belong to the world, John 17:14-15, because they lived by the truth Jesus taught them. That truth put them out of step with the world. They were no longer at home in the world. Thus, Jesus prayed for their protection, from those who opposed them and particularly from the evil one, John 17:15.

The world’s concept of oneness is sameness – think alike, believe alike, live alike. It fears diversity (differences), demanding conformity. Jesus prayed that his followers – us – would be protected from such thinking.

The oneness Jesus desired for his followers – us – was the means by which the world would know that the Father sent Jesus, John 17:21. Such oneness stands in marked contrast to the ways of the world. Such oneness moves us beyond the world’s us-them thinking and relating, embracing diversity as a gift as we function out of self-giving, servant love.

Jesus wanted his followers – us – to experience the fullness of his joy, John 17:13. Joy is what we experience as we abide in Christ, loving as he loved. “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete,” John 15:11. Joy is the fruit of the Spirit – what the Spirit produces in our lives, Galatians 5:22. It is what we experience as we grow in Christ, living out of the peace of Christ, loving as Jesus loved. It is the inner spirit out of which we live when we live in oneness.

Jesus wanted the Father to sanctify his followers – us – in the truth. He identified truth as God’s word, John 17:17. To be sanctified is to be made holy or whole. Jesus wanted his followers – us – to grow in our understanding of God’s truth so that we could grow into wholeness – maturity.

Finally, Jesus wanted his followers – us – to be with him, John 17:24.

This priestly prayer of Jesus centers on oneness. Knowing the Father leads to learning and living by his truth. It leads to oneness which, in turn, leads to joy.

In a highly polarized world and church, Jesus’s prayer calls us to a way of thinking and relating than is different from that found in the world. It calls us to oneness, not division. Our division, fueled by conflicts and hostilities, reflects our humanness. Paul identified our conflict and division as works of the flesh, Galatians 5:19-21. Jesus’s prayer calls us – as the followers of Jesus and the children of God - to reflect the character of God and the life of God by living in the oneness of the Godhead.