“An old man leaned on his cane and with tears in his eyes said, ‘I have seen too much pain in my life between people who call themselves people of faith. Jacob taught me that people of all faiths are of one faith if their religion is kindness.’” (We Are All Jacob’s Children, p.174)
Jesus left his disciples with this powerful prayer (John 17) before his trial. He offers them a vision — a vision of how ministry works.
Live in unity with the Creator so other my see and believe. A unity that needs just one crucial ingredients for changing the world view
The only ingredient is belief in Jesus — God came in his flesh to model a love that surpasses all divisive suggestions.
Stay together in this one truth — Jesus' way of living, speaking and acceptance for all people regardless of their Biblical interpretation.
The theme of this great prayer is for something, seemingly, impossible — unity/cohesiveness a oneness of mind.
E. Belton Yoyner Jr. writes:
“The importance of unity among believer is that such oneness leads the world to believe (v. 23). The counterpoint of that truth is that the world sees partitions among the followers of Jesus….there is to be no second-class citizenship among the people of faith…...Ecumenism — the economy of God by which God organizes the whole world — becomes the single effort to express the unity to which Christians are called. The ultimate unity of the church is not in human maneuvering but in the oneness of God (v. 21). We find our unity in our common acceptance of Christ. (Feasting son the Word, vol. 2 p.543 )
So, what exactly is Jesus asking for here?
The simple answer would be: Unity of belief.
Recognizing that Jesus has been created by God. That Jesus and God are one in being.
This one thing is — main thing — connects all who call themselves followers of Jesus.
Jesus who came to change human egocentric attitudes.
However that message, of oneness of mind, gets all messed up by all the other human rules — interpretations — that have created many divisions among Jesus believers over the years.
Think about this: if the witness of all people, who claim to follow Jesus, adhered to the command to love; there would be much less infighting and confusion.
So what people would see would be a group of people who truly witnessed Jesus kind of being.
They would witness a way of living that was all encompassing acceptance and harmony.
A welcoming people who actually wanted to know you for who you are. Not some fake set of values created by society.
Imagine the world filled with the offering of peaceful existence for all.
I know, I know, a totally unrealistic notion. Right?
How ever, it is what Jesus was/is asking of those who believed in him.
20 ‘I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, 21that they may all be one. As you, Father, 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. 22The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, 23I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
25 ‘Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. 26I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.’ (Jn. 17)
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