Jesus Prays for the Unity of His Church
John 17:20-26
Today we come to the third part of the Lord’s great prayer. He had prayed for Himself in the upcoming arrest, trial and crucifixion. But the disciples and we too overhear the prayer as well. This reminds us of who Jesus, His relationship to the Father and the purpose to which He came to earth. He set the example for all believers that one should pray for one’s self first and then intercede for others. We should all the more do this because if the perfect Jesus who committed no sin and withstood every temptation prayed for Himself, how much more shall we who are prone to wander do this.
In the second part of the prayer in verses 6-19, Jesus prayed for His disciples to hold up. He reminded them of their special calling and that they were committed to the Father’s care. He prayed for them to work together are one. We too overhear Jesus. Although the Apostles were given special and unique gifts in their launching the church, there is still much for us to learn from this part of the prayer.
In verses 20-26, Jesus focuses His attention to the converts who would come through the preaching of the apostles. He is not only praying for the eleven, but for all believers. This by extension means us also, even though we are two thousand years and many generations removed from the time of the earthly Jesus and the Apostolic Age.In this section of the prayer, Jesus stresses the unity of all believers. He tells us of His oneness with the Father and prays that all believers come to this sense of oneness. But what does oneness mean. We think of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as being one God. Are we then to be absorbed into the One like the Greeks thought. For them to be united with God meant that they would have to lose their individual identity. Humanity to them was like a chip of ice that broke off from the block. To them the fall was their separation from the god-spirit.The life of the flesh was evil. Salvation was being freed from this body and being reunited with god.
But this type of Greek abstract unity could not be farther removed from Christian unity. This begins with the Trinity itself. They are a unity, yes. They are One God. But this godhead exists in three persons. The idea of individual identity begins with God. We do hold the Godhead is ontologically One, but also the distinct personalities.
There is a little difference between the Trinity and the unity of the church. We are ontologically distinct. The unity is not of substance but instead that of purpose. We have to note when Jesus talks about the One God, he uses the masculine personal pronoun “heis” rather than “hen” when He quotes Deuteronomy 6:4. Here the comparison uses the neuter form, even describing the unity of the relationship of the Father and the Son. He is not asking the church to be one and join the Father, Son and Holy Ghost in the Godhead. The distinction between Creator and created will always exist. This means in heaven, we are not absorbed back into God like the Greeks believed. Instead we will retain personal identity. We shall know and be known. We will be united with the Holy Trinity, but this unity is as obedient creatures in the presence of the uncreated God. This distinction makes Christianity uniques among the religions of the world and presents what true eternal life is. If eternal life was to be absorbed back into the unity of god while losing all memory of self, what kind of eternal life is that? It is not life at all. Whether one follows Hinduism and gets absorbed upon perfection back into God at the expense of losing self or joins Buddha in simply dissolving into non-being, you end up in the same place. Your life under those parameters is simply not worth living.
Jesus sends us out to preach the true unity and to demonstrate this unity to the world. Our unity is a testimony of the unity of the Godhead. The church needs to be united in its purpose. Jesus showed the way there was willing subjection to the will of the Father. Even though we have personality, it is as utterly dedicated to doing the will of the Father as Jesus is. Jesus is ontologically equal to the Father, something we certainly are not. Yet He subjected everything to the will of the Father. Only the Father has absolute free will. He could not be God otherwise. No one can free will him by the exercise of their will in opposition to Him. The only was a creature can have free will is to do the will of the One who is free. In fact, the desire for autonomy was the occasion for the fall itself. But instead of freedom, Adam and Eve only found slavery and death.
How many human wars have been fought over the imposition of the “free will” of a human being where that person or group of persons plays god and tries to subordinate the “free wills” of others to theirs. The desire of human autonomy has been the curse of all mankind. If everyone is autonomous, who is more autonomous than others? Orwell in Animal Farm shows that the result of preaching autonomy is enslavement. All the animals started equally. But in the end, it is changed to “All animals are created equal, but some are created more equal than others.”
The only answer to this dilemma of human free will which ends either in anarchy or totalitarianism is the Christian message of willing subjection to the will of the Benevolent Father. To be unwilling would make one enslaved to slaving obedience or willful disobedience. This disobedience makes someone a slave to the destruction of sin. The Christian hope is then the only one that brings true freedom and equality. This is because the believers willingly subject themselves to doing the will of God the Father. Then everyone in the church is equally His child. And god is benevolent to His children. We have a hope that when all is completed, we shall all be forever together in the presence of God.
Jesus prays that when all is complete that the believer might join Him where He is about to go. They would share in His glory which He had before the creation of the world. He prays that the church would experience the love thr Father has for them, even as the Father loves the Son. The world will never understand or experience this love. The only way it can be understood is that they might be converted to Christianity. All human schemes will end in terrible disappointment and worse. The world can sing “We are the world; we are the children. It’s a choice we’re making, we are saving our own lives.” But who can save his own soul from death? The world has been trying through its globalist outreach to unite the world, apart from God. In the name of diversity, they shall accomplish unity only by trashing all diversity. Everything needs to become a medium grey. All human beings need to be reduced to equally useless cosmic accidents, that is of course not applicable to the ruling elite. They live above this unity like gods upon their thrones.
Christianity offers a unity based on a common faith and confession. A Jew can still maintain cultural identity without surrendering what is proper. The Gentile need not be circumcised. There are certain negative cultural issues which are contrary to the will of God. But you don’t have to leave your mind at the door to become a Christian. In fact, the world which says you need to be liberated from God pretty much tells you to leave your mind at the door and let them do your thinking for them. They are followers of Skinner’s “Beyond Freedom and Dignity.” You have to leave these ideas behind and instead submit to the rule of a benevolent elite. But this is only a lie. These elitists too will die and face the judge of all. The world hates the Christian because he or she exposes their fraud by proclaiming the gospel truth.
So we are to be Christ’s ongoing witness to the world. This is, first of all, in word. We need to boldly proclaim the gospel. But we also must live out our faith. They need to see the unity of the church in our actions. But how good a job are we doing with this. We seems to be by too many “heresies distressed.” A lot of this is because we want to rule over God’s people more than to be ruled. We want to press our authority and our ideas over the church. This is the way the world works. Buy Jesus calls the would-be leader to become the servant of all. The true servant willingly submits to His master, who is God. It is from the submission that one learns to properly serve others in true humility and love. We are faced with enormous challenges from the world as it is and don’t need to be fighting turf wars. It is Gods will that we be one in will and purpose, that is to do the will of the Father. This is what Jesus says at the end of his high-priestly prayer of John 17. This means unity and love are living doctrines of the church and not just things we statically confess.
May the Lord give us the true wisdom and the heart for us to realize that it is the best for the entire universe, including ourselves. Amen.
