Materials
Real World Encounters with Jesus in the Gospel of John
That They Might Be One
John 17
by R. Todd Bouldin
John 17 is one of the great chapters of the Bible because it contains the last prayer of Jesus. It has come to be known by the Church as the great, high priestly prayer of Jesus. The words are personal but glorious, intimate yet lofty. But the true power of this prayer is not in its passion, or its longings, or its finality. The true power of this prayer is found in knowing that Jesus, on the final night of his life and ministry, is praying for you, for me, and most of all, for us. His prayer echoes down through the ages, and we hear Him still praying for us. Hear his prayer:
Read John 17:1-5 and 20-27.
Prayer
The prayer of Jesus in John 17 can be divided into three parts. The first five verses have to do with the prayer that Jesus uttered on his own behalf when he prayed that God would cover him in glory so that He might glorify the Father in his final act for all humanity and in his resurrection hour. He prayed that the coming hours might restore him to the glory and perfection He had before in the Father’s presence. Then Jesus prays for his close and intimate friends and followers, his disciples, in verses 6-19. In particular, he asks that God would protect his disciples so that they might be secure in the world. “Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they might be one, as we are one. . . . I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one.” (John 17:11, 15) He also prays for their holiness in a broken and evil world. “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” (John 17:17) Then in verse 20 Jesus begins to pray for us. He prays for those yet unborn, towards those who for decades and centuries to come would believe in Him through the testimony of these disciples. And what is his prayer as he prays for us in the Upper Room? He prays that we might all be one.
Comedian Emo Philips tells a great story about a conversation he had with a man he had just met. Emo asked the man, “Are you a Protestant or Catholic?” The man replied, “Protestant.” Emo replied, “Me too. What brand?” The man said, “Baptist.” “Me too!” Emo said. “Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?” “Northern Baptist,” he replied. “Me too!” Philips shouted. They continued to go back and forth. Finally Philips asked him, “Northern conservative fundamentalist Baptist, Great Lakes Region, Council of 1879 or Northern conservative fundamentalist Baptist, Great Lakes Region, Council of 1912?” He replied, “Northern conservative fundamentalist Baptist, Great Lakes Region, Council of 1912.” Emo Philips said, “Die, heretic!”
While the story may be a joke, we laugh because we know it represents an unfortunate truth. Our own heritage has been torn apart by disagreements over instruments, one cup or many cups, clapping in church, orphans homes, kitchens, women wearing pants in worship, and women doing anything in worship. Some of these disagreements have been worth having; others are over matters so trivial and insignificant that they move us to grief and tears when we hear Jesus pray for us again:
“I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one.”
So what has gone wrong? Why is it that we have been unable to realize this last prayer of Jesus when Jesus says it is the very thing that will evangelize the world? (John 17:21) The problem began early in the life of the church. The Book of Acts tells us that the conflict began with division over materialism, then with “outsider/insider” tensions creating disharmony among certain widows. As soon as the church moved beyond Jewish territory and into the lands of Gentiles, battles raged between Jewish and Gentile believers. When it is not race at the heart of the division, it is spiritual and theological elitism. One group claims to have a better handle on the truth than another. The Corinthian and Colossians letters reflect this problem of special knowledge. The second century saw heresies led by Marcion and others. While the church remained one in name, there were hundreds of theological controversies for a thousand years that expelled some from the church and led to a great debate and turmoil in the church. Then came the great split of East and West, one side claiming to be the Universal Church and the other the Orthodox church. Five hundred years later, the Reformers and other radical Reformers sought to purify and refine the church by breaking away and starting over again.
Three hundred years later, some restorationists came along as reformers of the reformed. They would get right what 1800 years of church history had gotten wrong. They would unify all Christians around a common reading of Scripture. It sounds good on the surface, and it is a worthy goal. The problem is that Scripture alone is a difficult basis for unity because we all read and interpret it differently. And while we should honor our forefathers and foremothers who sought to unify Christianity around Scripture, we have to confess that our own heritage has not been that unified either. We are in fellowship with some churches of Christ, but not with others – and some even in the same county. We have nothing to do with some churches who claim Christ at all. We do not even fellowship with other believers from our own tradition because they use an instrument in worship and we do not. Our basis of unity has been honorable but hollow, and it’s time we admit that it isn’t working. Jesus is praying for us, so there must be something that we are missing if we are not finding the oneness he desires for us.
This failure to experience unity is further heightened by living in a culture in which those who are coming to belief in Christ are, to a large extent, not interested in the name on the building, particular doctrinal idiosyncrasies, and church political squabbles. I am not saying that they are always right in this interest – it’s just the way it is. They want to find a church where there is more than conflict and division over trivial matters – they are looking for a place where they can find LIFE. They are just “sick and tired” of squabbling, bickering and finger-pointing. They sense that church is supposed to be about something much richer, and deeper and truer than all of that. They are looking for the church to be Jesus to them and to other hurting people. The whole world divides and separates when they disagree or get their feelings hurt. They are looking for a place that offers an alternative way of being in the world where diversity is welcomed, and where unity is not dependent upon uniformity. The problem is that they are not finding it, and so they join the rest of us in our great disillusionment that the church can never be the place we desire it to be. Not even the people Jesus prayed we would be.
Henri Nouwen writes in his meditation on John 17, “I continue to see in myself and others how often we try to make unity among ourselves by focusing all our attention on each other and trying to find the place where we can feel united. But often we become disillusioned, realizing that no human being is capable of offering us what we most want. Such disillusionment can easily make us become bitter, cynical, demanding and even violent.”
So here we are, two thousand years later, and Jesus is still praying for us to be one. Surely the prayer is being heard because it is Jesus who was praying. We are disillusioned, confused, perhaps even frustrated that we have been unable to experience this unity that we all want but find so difficult to realize. So what should we expect from this prayer?
First, let me suggest to you what this oneness is not. First, oneness is not structural. It is not institutional, corporate or structural. This view of unity emphasizes doctrinal formulas, the exclusion of diversity, structures and hierarchies, and external connections. The church is understood as an institution with its character rooted in separation from all others based on its own distinctive beliefs and practices. Want to know the true church? Well, it has this hierarchy and follows these formulas, the thinking goes.
I do not believe that Jesus is praying for one big super duper group to encompass all believers. He is not praying that we would all meet in one building or all believe exactly the same. He is not praying that there would be one church but sharp lines of exclusion and separatism among them. I do not think that is what Jesus had in mind at all. It seems simpler than all of that.
Second, the oneness is not a unity of conformity. The disciples of Jesus were far from uniform. They were tax collectors and fishermen, extroverted and introverted, some doubtful and others confident.
The early church was made up of Gentiles and Jews, slaves and free, men and women, the poor and the rich, the strong and the weak. I do not think Jesus envisioned us all as cookie cutter Christians: white, married with children, mushy happy, like fried chicken, and vote Republican. His prayer wasn’t that we would all wear the same thing, talk the same way or behave the same way. His prayer wasn’t that we would all like the same style of worship music, or that we all would wear a tie, or that we all would use the same Bible version. His prayer was for something more:
His prayer was that we might all be one . . . As you Father, are in me, and I am in you, may they also be one in us.
There it is. Unity does not mean uniformity or conformity. It does not mean a structure on an institution. Oneness means relational unity whereby we are united together out of relational and organic connectedness. We exist together in relationship out of a common life that we share in the Life of the Triune God. It is a life that does not depend on us – we are one by virtue of the fact that God is One, and we are One with Him in Jesus Christ.
I heard of a minister who was trying to get his congregation to read Scripture together in unison, but he was having great difficulty. This time they were reading Psalm 23. He said before they began reading, “Hey listen, would the woman who gets to still waters while the rest of us are still in the green pastures please wait and go with the rest of us?” That is the essence of unity. It is a common journey and pilgrimage together deeper and deeper into the life of God. Some of us are further ahead, and some lag behind. But we all are on the way to the green pastures, and that’s what brings us together.
Administrative unity emphasizes right structures, hierarchies and formulas. But relational unity emphasizes persons, love, diversity of views, and internal harmony that is not superficial but based on a common and shared life in Jesus Christ. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in Life Together, “What matters in the church is not religion but the form of Christ, and its taking form amidst a band of [believers].” Gone are the tight and neat boundary markers that separate insiders from outsiders. Those boundary markers are often just an excuse for the exercise of human power in the name of truth. When Jesus Christ is the DNA of our unity, then we are called into relationship with all of those who believe in him and identify with His name. That may seem scary to you because there are no formulas, creeds, or checklists to see who belongs to God or the church. There is one question that matters: Is this person one with the life of God in Jesus Christ? If so, then I am one with him or her. We can find unity again in the person and life of Jesus Christ, just as Jesus is one with the Father.
So where does that unity begin? First, oneness begins with believing. The prayer of Jesus in this text is for believers “who have believed in me through their word.” (John 17:20) Belief in Jesus that is shaped and ignited by the testimony of the apostles in Scripture is the place to begin if you want unity. But it is not faith in Scripture – it is faith in the Jesus to whom Scripture points us. And that faith is expressed in the acceptance of the gift and command of baptism. So, if you want to be one with believers, you start by believing.
Second, oneness is sustained by praying. On four different occasions in this discourse, Jesus challenged his followers to ask anything in His name and the Father would do it. Jesus was going away, and they were being entrusted with his mission. They would be empowered in prayer with the Spirit of truth to be led into all the truth and to do greater things than he himself did. When was the last time you prayed for the unity of the Body of Christ? When was the last time you prayed with another person in our congregation? Jesus promises that if you pray in his name, this is a prayer God will answer. Churches who pray together stay together. It is hard to hate a person who joins you in prayer to seek the will of God.
Third, oneness is evidenced in mission. Jesus ends this prayer for unity, “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.” (John 17:20-21) The hallmark of a unified church is a missional church. We can send out thousands of Easter invitations, knock doors for months on end, and invite hundreds of people to our services. But outreach begins with our unity. People are just not attracted to cat fights and squabbles – especially when they are looking for life. No one wants to be part of a church where people find reasons to fight, to judge or draw the boundaries of exclusion ever tighter over who is worthy or not. If we can move past the disillusioning expectation that we all should be the same and think the same, then we can together find ourselves on a common journey deeper into the eternal life of God where there is only Oneness. Unity is not something we create or seek; it is something we find.
If the prayer of Jesus is going to be realized among us, then it is going to require that all of us practice more forgiveness and mercy, that all of us learn to give others the benefit of the doubt, that we be slower to speak and quicker to listen. That is what we can do to embody this prayer. But at the end of the day, oneness will not come to us because of what we do. It will come to us because our lives are graciously caught up in the Great Oneness of Jesus Christ, the One in whom all things in heaven and on earth are coming together (Colossians 1:20).
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