“That they may be one”
May 28, 2021
17:1-26 What Jesus wants for us
Read John 17:20-22
In his great prayer on the eve of his death, Jesus prayed first for himself (17:1-5) and then for his disciples (17:6-19). From their apostolic witness, in the power of the Spirit, the gospel message would spread throughout the world (15:26-27; 17:18; Acts 1:8). So Jesus next prayed for all who would become believers (20). It’s a prayer for the church in every place and every generation, including ourselves. What does Jesus want for us? This part of his prayer provides the clearest possible answer to that question (17:20-26).
He prayed “that all of them may be one” (21a). He had already prayed that this would be the outcome of God’s protection of them (17:11), and its importance is underlined by another repetition (22). The unity of the Father and the Son (10:30; 14:11) is the basis for Christian unity – “…may they be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you… as we are one”. More remarkably still, the believer participates in that Father-Son relationship – “may they also be in us”. Just as Jesus is in the Father and the Father is in Jesus, so too Christians are in Jesus and he in them (14:20,23).
This is the glory that Jesus revealed by his coming into the world – the glory which Christians share in through our union with him (22; 1:14,18). And every believer who is a branch living in Jesus, the one true vine, is inevitably united with all other believers (15:9,12). Such unity is the clearest possible witness to the truth of Jesus (21b). Jesus prayed that Christians will so live in the love of God, and in the relationship of love between the Father and the Son, that “the church will be a visible revelation of the unseen Father and his love” (Bruce Milne).