16. Christ’s Prayer for the United Ecclesia (John 17)
Christ’s great intercessory prayer,
recorded in John 17, is the most intimate outpouring of the Son’s heart to
the Father that is recorded in all of the Bible. The apostles heard the words as
they followed their Master, but the thoughts were too deep for them at that
stage. In a way, perhaps, we today are just as unprepared for the crystal
clarity, the uncompromising perfection implicit in his words:
“Neither pray I for these alone, but for
them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be
one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us:
that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou
gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in
them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world
may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved
me.”
Elaborating on the request first uttered in v. 11
(“that they may be one”), Christ repeats this wonderful prayer four
more times (vv. 21 — twice, 22, and 23). It must be to the great
embarrassment of strict separatists that this particular aspect is so emphasized
in this place. But never mind how difficult, how humanly impossible it appears,
this unity is an achievable goal, with Christ’s
help.
“ ‘That they all may be
ONE.’ Here the word ‘one’ is not masculine, but
neuter, and probably presupposes ‘one Spirit’ (1 Cor. 12:13) or
‘one Body’, for both of these are neuter nouns. No matter.
‘That they all may be one....that the world may believe that thou
hast sent me’ (v. 21). Instead they are not all one, not by any means as
much as they might be. And if the world quizzically comments: ‘How these
brethren in Christ love one another!’ it is certainly not helped to
believe in the Christ they all honour” (H. Whittaker, “Block
Disfellowship”, The Testimony, Vol. 43, No. 513 — Sept. 1973
— p. 343).
“The only way that believers can show that
they dimly perceive the immensity of what Jesus sought from his Father, is to
make this harmony of love and consideration so real in their individual and
ecclesial lives that people of the world recognize it as the practical
manifestation of the life and teaching of Jesus — even though they
themselves may not always respond to it. Particularly in this way is the Master
glorified in his household.
“The conscious and deliberate effort of
every member of an ecclesia is needed to preserve this divine unity: it has to
be a community effort. The joy of it is that Jesus is part of this cooperation.
He knows that difficulties will arise in ecclesias; he knows that it is
only by ‘getting together’ that ecclesias can solve difficulties;
that is why he promised, in case of dispute, to be ‘in the midst of
them’ (Matt. 18:20). Why do we so frequently forget, or ignore
this?” (J. Marshall, “The Living Ecclesia”, The
Christadelphian, Vol. 108, No. 1280 — Feb. 1971 — p.
54).