That They May All Be One

Easter Saturday, April 14 –  Read John 17

In his prayer, it is clear that Jesus knows that he has finished his work on earth. He has faithfully cared for all the followers that God has given him, losing only Judas, the one it was ordained for him to lose. For John, eternal life is not only, or even mainly, a future experience that happens when we die. It is a reality that we experience when we recognize what God is doing in Jesus and come to believe that Jesus is actually God’s son. When this happens an entirely new life opens up for us. Remember Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus in the middle of the night? (See February 28^th) We are born anew by being “sired from above”.  When we recognize who Jesus is, we are connected to God – we abide in God – in such a powerful way that the old fears and temptations don’t frighten or tempt us with nearly the same power. Instead, we live within the peace of Jesus Christ. Our joy is complete and nothing can take our joy from us. It is not just Jesus who is resurrected – we are resurrected in the here and now! This is what Jesus knows he has accomplished as he faces the cross. So his last prayer is that all of his followers will be one – those who have accompanied him in his time on earth and those who will follow him much later. He prays, “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 unity of his followers will be one of the signs that help future believers see and comprehend and come to faith. And this is certainly something that the Church needs to reflect and act on today. At the last, Jesus sees ahead to eternal life as it is in heaven. He remembers the glory he had in God’s company before the foundation of the world, and he prays that when the time comes that his followers might dwell in the unity of that glory. May it be so!

Reflection Questions: Having come to the end of our readings, who is Jesus Christ to you? As you reflect on his ministry and teachings, his death and resurrection, do you see in him the hand of God at work? Can you abide in him and experience the peace that he promises?

Prayer: Dear God, thank you again for the life and ministry of Jesus. Thank you for the way his living presence keeps bubbling up in my life like a spring of living water. Help me to abide always in him. In his powerful name of love I pray. Amen.