An Eternal Prayer

The Trouble with Jesus is relationships take work, and the even the best, the closest will have rough spots. But the rough spots are the growth spots.

Well, guys, you really don’t look good on this one. Here is your Jesus, about ready to be executed, and God help him, he prays for you. That says a lot, like how he senses you all were going to have problems getting along. Why shouldn’t he? His own disciples sitting at the table with him didn’t get what was going on. Thomas had questions, Peter was getting more scared by the minute, Judas was already carrying out his plot to do you in. Yeah, they were a mixed up muddle in a mess.

So what’s he asking God to do? Make them and anyone else who says they follow you, then and even until today and beyond, as “one.” That’s where the laugh comes in. The only thing you guys have carried forward is that muddled mess. Why get involved with that or believe what you say about your Jesus?

Fair enough. No denial here. There are plenty of religious organizations which have things going on which might make even God blush if not shake the earth’s foundations. No need to enumerate here how sad it looks. And when you think these institutions are made up of people who profess Jesus as all he is says he is, well, it’s more than muddled. It’s a miserable mess.

That’s why Jesus prayed. He knew what he was working with, both in his immediate tribe and those who’d know about him because of their proclamations going forward. This is the last part of this prayer he offered for them, and from it you may find some deep facets of this whole plan for who he was and what God wanted for them, for the world. So we’ll take this slow, in short chunks, and maybe find the nuggets we need to participate in his purpose.

One Together

“My prayer for all of them is that they will be one, just as you and I are one, Father…” There’s that “one.” Does that mean everybody is going to get along and agree on all things? (Understood why this brings a snarky laugh.) Don’t we wish? But don’t throw this out as wishful hope never to be achieved. Hold on to that idea of “one.”

“…just as you are in me and I am in you…” Jesus reveals something about himself. He is not out there operating independently. He and his Father, God who sent him, are one and the same, part of each other and yet not a part but a whole. Take a deep breath, hold your place, close your eyes. It’s a unity not witnessed in this day and age, but the ideal of oneness does hold for Jesus and God.

“so they will be in us…” Here’s the crux of what Jesus is so desperately praying. This union will not be among just people or with God and Jesus but among all parts together. Your mind in that muddle yet?

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He repeats himself. “I in them and you in me…” He won’t let go of that dream, that vision of how things should be, how he wants them to be, how it must be for him. As said, it’s the crux of his prayer, for shortly it will become what his cross will make possible for them, for all who want to be “one” with God and each other.

If nothing else, Jesus taught that God is a God who wants relationship, who wants to be known in deep, eternal means. This desire is centered in, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” God wants and gave part of God’s own self so everyone can have that relationship.

Jesus also had taught them the greatest commandment was to, “Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind…” All of oneself is what God asks. “…and your neighbor as yourself” extends that relationship to everyone else. (Matthew 22:37-40)

Again, Jesus’ prayer is a vision. That doesn’t mean it is a pipedream. To be honest, everyone struggles with relationships of all magnitudes. Yet, to walk away from relationships is to make life smaller and of little meaning or significance.

Even so, relationships take work, and the best, the closest relationships will have rough spots. That’s right. To expect things are going to be calm and sweet all the time with everyone getting along is the pipedream. But the rough spots are the growth spots.

Marriages that last know this. The commitment made “for better or for worse” has imbedded in it more than just circumstances. In the coming together in relationship, there must be change, change that will wear down edges, correct misconceptions, challenge one’s sense of self and purpose such that there is a welding into one.

No one says its easy. Our muddled miserable mess testifies to that. But it may be a perspective to take when trying to understand what is happening in the disagreements among those who profess to follow Jesus.

Another example: the story of Ann Atwater and C.P. Ellis. These two people who hated each other over racial issues were as ugly as you can be to another person. However, when circumstances made them work together, each began to see the other from another viewpoint. Without that relationship, neither would have changed.

The Challenge of Identity

The ultimate outcome of this intended change then is taking on an identity based in who Jesus is, “all being perfected into one.” To be in unity with God and Jesus is to live as Jesus did for others, feeding the hungry, healing the sick, washing feet, serving so as not to be served in sacrificial offering and just living. The right to oneself is given over in ways that point to and express who Jesus is. By this expression of oneness and shared identity, God is known in Jesus.

The Driving Factor

This oneness entails an intimacy of God and Jesus coupled with the Spirit which Jesus had just promised would come following his death and resurrection. “I will do this so that your love for me may be in them and I in them.” Imbedded in it is forgiveness and reconciliation. Love of this kind achieves an inclusiveness that wraps persons in relationship bringing glory to God.

Let’s clarify here: glory is not a cheering of “Yea, God!” Glory is the completeness of God’s purpose in bringing this relationship, this oneness, to the world. Jesus makes it possible by defeating death through the most powerful force possible, the power of Love. In new living, there is oneness with God and oneness with others whose lives reside in that Love.

For What End?

“So they will be in us, and the world may believe you sent me.” This is Jesus’ Prayer.

John 17:20-26