Scripture: John 17:20 (NIV)
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.
Observation:
Jesus is spending his last few minutes as a free man in prayer. His earthly time is just about done and he is praying now that God be glorified through what is about to happen. He is also praying for those who have walked with him through the last few years, and all those in the world.
Application:
This scene could have come straight out of a Normon Rockwell painting. Its tenderness is beautiful, and you can feel the compassion in the words of Christ's prayer. It's a good feeling to know that the Second Person of the Trinity is standing in the gap for us.
I would love to be able to sit in that moment and soak it all in, but the cynic within me just won't be so easily tamed. Christ's prayer in his last hours was that all who believed in him through the message of those closest to him would be one. He prayed that the relationships between those folks would be as tight as his relationship with Abba. My question is, why aren't they?
I know that I mention this with a fair amount of regularity, but this is one topic that really bothers me. Of all of those in the world, those who claim to follow The Way, should behave more like Christ. At the very least, should behave so with each other. Yet we don't. One only has to attend most any church meeting to find that out.
But there is a way to make Christ's prayer a reality: die to self, die to ego, die to pride, and live into the desire to truly see Christ's prayer answered.
Prayer:
O God who hears and calls, may my prayer this morning be that Christ's prayer to you that night be answered. Draw those of us who claim your name closer together so that your mind may be ours, your heart may be ours, and your desires may be ours, so that together we may bring your kingdom where we are. Amen.
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