As I read today’s passage which is Jesus’ final prayer, I believe I am looking at the deepest of God’s desires. In this petition Jesus makes it clear he is praying for you and I. It caused me to pause and pray that my heart might respond to something so beautiful and holy. He asks God to reveal the love between himself, the Father and the Spirit. With urgency he continues; He prays that each of of us who have been given to Him would not only witness this love but experience it and its attendant unity …
that they would all be one (from John 17:21)
He elaborates on unity…
Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee“; I in them and Thou in Me. (from John 17:21 & 23)
What comes to your mind when you think of unity? Doctrinal harmony? Ecumenical joint-ventures? While these things may be present I don’t see them as the nexus of Jesus’ aspirations. I anticipate the answer to Jesus’ prayer being much more.
My confidence is based on the word “in”. There must be a coming day when the reality of being in-Christ and him dwelling in us, works itself out in such a way that it will eclipse anything we have seen or perhaps imagined. I envision a day when Jesus’ prayer – that the world may know and believe, is answered. It is OK that I have yet to see anything so dramatic. That Jesus has made the request assures me of the outcome. The only question is when ?
If I am dreaming in the right direction – the direction of Jesus own prayers, I can see the Bride of Christ awakening, shaking off the sleepy notion that decay and indifference are normal. One day she will hear the kind words God has spoken to her in her wilderness and she will respond. She will accept his invitation to “Come away“. She will find and maintain that place where she can be alone with him, where intimacy is the new normal.
Christ in us is the basis of this hope. His Spirit indwells us but we have not yet seen the fullest implication of this. What value, you may ask, is there to entertaining such a grandiose dream? What does some future-possible dispensation have to do with me? Maybe nothing – yet perhaps everything. Awakenings begin in human hearts. What if individual Christians were to invite Jesus to launch the next great awakening in them? What if we took responsibility for our hearts by getting alone with God?
Father, thank you for helping us understand the indestructible nature of our union. Grant that our heart’s desires would be shaped by Your heart and that our chief ambition would to be to simply recognize that You are with us wherever we are, and that we might behold Your glory. Grant that our vision and our destiny be constructed from what You have prayed as opposed to what we have thought. Lord, perfect us in unity that the world may know that You sent Jesus to restore all things to Your wondrous original intention. Amen.