Prayer for Us
“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. 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. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I 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. Father, 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.
“Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I 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.” John 17:20-26
After the Last Supper, shortly before walking across the Kidron Valley to Gethsemane where guards would arrest Him, Jesus stopped and took time to pray. He prayed for Himself, He prayed for the disciples, and He prayed for us, those who would come to believe through the disciples’ word. It amazes me that Jesus paused to pray for us, particularly when His time on earth was rapidly expiring, and that is one of the significant points to the story. While the content of the prayer is remarkable and worthy of mining the rest of our lives, the fact of the prayer is also extremely significant.
Our time is rapidly expiring. At birth our time starts its rapid expiration, and during our relatively short existence here on earth, prayer is the most significant thing we can do. God, the Creator of the universe, the almighty, all-loving, compassionate, sovereign One desires to commune with us and promises He hears our prayers and responds. Without prayer we are endeavoring tasks on our own, but through prayer we engage with Him, enlist His holy involvement, commune with Him, seek Him, discern His will, and gain His guidance, strength and courage to act. So I ask myself, why do I pray so little?
God’s holy word urges us to rejoice always, pray all the time and give thanks in all circumstances (see 1 Thessalonians 5:16-17) and Jesus lived a life a prayer – He regularly sought places and times to be alone to commune with God. God urges us to pray because it is good for us and it leads to the best possible life for us, so why do we fail to follow His guidance? One of my feeble excuses is lack of time and as I write the words, I know how incredibly irrational the excuse is, because as I consider my to-do list for the day, what could possibly be more important than prayer?
Consider Jesus’ schedule on that particular Passover evening. He met the disciples to share the traditional Passover feast. As they ate, He taught and taught and taught, filling John 13-16 with some of His teaching. At one point He said, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now” (John 16:12). He taught at a frenzied pace because He knew His time was short, He knew what was about to happen, He knew His time to be glorified had arrived, and after He taught, He stopped to pray. He prayed the amazing prayer recorded as John 17. Then He walked across the Kidron Valley to Gethsemane where He prayed more (see Matthew 26:36-46), and then He surrendered Himself for us. Jesus was not too busy for prayer because He knows prayer is a vital component of healthy living and critical for our best possible life.
With that introduction, let’s consider the content of the portion of His prayer recorded above because it includes remarkable promises.
As He knelt in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago, Jesus prayed that future believers, which includes you and me, “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” (John 17:21). Talk about densely packed sentences! Jesus asks that the body of believers, the body of Christ, might be one in the same way that God the Father and Jesus Christ are one. How closely connected are they? They are two persons of the Holy Trinity. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit comprise God and they are each God. They are truly one, and Jesus prays that we might be united as one in the same way they are (or since God is one God would it be more appropriate to say in the same way He is?).
He continues praying, stating that Jesus and the Father abide in each other, and praying that we might abide in Jesus Christ and in God the Father, suggesting that His prayer is for us to abide in them the same way they abide in each other. And He continues stating that all this unity – this horizontal unity between believers, their vertical unity with the Holy Trinity, and unity of the Holy Trinity – is not merely for the sake of unity and all the beneficial attributes of unity, but “so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21). As glorious and beneficial as unity is, unity is not the goal; rather it is a mechanism to achieve the goal. The goal is that the entire world would know that God the Father sent Jesus Christ to the world!
Jesus continues saying the Father gave Him glory, that Jesus gives glory to believers, and this glory enables believers to be one in the same way that the Holy Trinity is one (see John 17:22). His glory enables the unity He prays for! He contrasts the world and believers saying, “the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me” (John 17:25). His goal is for the entire world to know Christ Jesus, but He acknowledges that is not yet the case.
He concludes the prayer saying that He revealed the Father to believers “so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:26). He made the Father known so that the Father’s love and Jesus Christ Himself will both be in each believer.
Jesus’ goal is for the entire world to believe in Him. The mechanism He uses to accomplish the goal is giving His glory to believers. He also says that the Father’s love and Christ Jesus Himself will abide in believers. So it boils down to glory, unity, love and the indwelling Holy Spirit flowing through believers in a way that causes non-believers to suddenly believe.
Jesus explains that the two most important commandments are to love God with everything we have and everything we are, and to love our neighbors as ourselves (see Matthew 22:34-40). Jesus says people who believe in Him will do the things that He did while on earth (see John 14:12). Jesus calls disciples to go all over the world making disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey Jesus’ teaching (see Matthew 28:19-20). Jesus calls us to be salt, transforming the flavor to the world around us, and light, illuminating the world around us (see Matthew 5:13-16).
It should come as no surprise that these statements mesh perfectly with His prayer. His goal is global transformation, one heart at a time, and He calls believers (who by believing have His glory, His indwelling presence and the love of the Father) to spread His love, light, life to the world and to teach the world. And when His time was rapidly expiring, He stopped and prayed for you and me, that we might take part in His glorious mission here on earth. Isn’t that the most awesome thing you have heard today?
May you receive His glory, receive His indwelling Holy Spirit, receive His love, may you act as an agent of unity, may you reveal God’s love to the world around you, may you go, make, baptize and teach within your realm of influence. Amen.