Understanding Jesus’ Prayer for Unity in John 17

Jesus prayed frequently. It is rare, however, that anyone had the chance to listen in. Often, He would go to be by himself when He prayed. That could be to avoid distraction, but perhaps He prayed out loud. In John 17, we have a transcript of one of Jesus’ prayers. Why? I doubt that somebody was spying on Him. Jesus wanted His disciples of all eras to hear this prayer.

It starts with a paragraph that is mostly about himself:

 “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, ² since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. ³ And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. ⁴ I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. ⁵ And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

John 17:1-5 (ESV)

Jesus is almost to the end. He has kept God’s laws. He has given humans a tangible depiction of what God is like. He has shown mercy and done miracles. One last thing, a big thing, remains. He will give himself as a sacrifice for the sins of all creation.

Jesus speaks of being “glorified” a couple of times. What is Jesus’s definition of “glory”? It is definitely to have unlimited power, the praise of your creatures, and be in absolute control. But primarily it is to be seen as a being of ultimate love. Jesus has demonstrated these things so far, but the big act of love is just on the horizon.

Another important definition is that of eternal life. We think of conscious existence as life. Jesus begs to differ. There is a conscious existence that doesn’t deserve this title. Eternal life is to “know” the only true God. There are plenty of fakes. To “know” means more than intellectual conceptualization. That becomes clear later.

Jesus goes on to pray for His current set of disciples. I won’t put it here, but in verses 6-19 Jesus voices several key things. First, He states that His disciples are people that were given to Him by the Father. What does that mean? These men were hand-selected by the Father for their roles. They are chosen because of what can see by His foreknowledge of them. He sees the ability to shape these people and bring them to know God, to empower them, and to accomplish His mission through them. They did not start with a true worldview, or a desire to be a disciple, or any of the necessary skills. It is important to ask yourself, “Am I chosen and given?” If you believe that Jesus is your eternal Savior, then the answer is “yes”. If not, it may still be “yes”, but the transition has not yet happened.

Jesus has been the protector of His disciples so far. Jesus knows that He is physically leaving the world. The disciples will be staying in a dangerous environment. They will need ongoing protection from Satan, the angels he has corrupted, and his human proxies. Jesus doesn’t want them evacuated. He wants them to be protected by God’s name. The one exception is Judas. He is doomed so the Scripture is fulfilled.

That seems very unfair to Judas. Why did prophecy include a betrayer? It leads to a question. Does prophecy foretell the future or is the future conformed to a prophecy? It’s a chicken and egg thing. It sounds like the latter here. I still think it is the former. Things get complex when we try to imagine what it is like to be God.

Back to the protection that comes from God. We are exposed to a world that is under the curse. We are also exposed to the cause and effect of our sin and sinful people. We are not completely fenced off from this danger and should not expect to be. We would also be exposed to the Kingdom of Satan, but God’s intervention is enough that we can complete the purpose given to us by God.

While we can assume parts of what Jesus said about His original disciples applies also to us. Jesus finally does get to explicitly praying for future disciples. It is interesting.

²⁰ “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, ²¹ that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²² The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, ²³ I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

John 17:20-23 (ESV)

Jesus’ primary prayer for us is unity. The key is to understand what kind of unity? There are many options. It could be institutional, doctrinal, cultural, emotional, or something else. You can look at the visible manifestation of the Church and conclude that Jesus didn’t get a positive answer to His prayer. Turns out the unity is something else. “I in them and you in me.” This is “knowing” the true God. I don’t know what makes the Trinity a unity. It is something supernatural and out of my intellectual reach. Jesus merges us in a similar way. The mystical union.

Being unified with others through being unified with Jesus has several advantages. Infiltrators and cultural Christians can easily be used by Satan to corrupt and divide institutions. There is no one institution that represents Jesus’ disciples.

We are all in a process of growing to know the truth. Satan can corrupt and divide systematic doctrinal beliefs. The truth is important, but it is not the source of unity.

We come from different cultures, the diversity is valued. We don’t always cooperate with each other, which weakens our efforts but doesn’t stop them. We look different, express ourselves differently, yet for all the division we are a united group.

I suspect that this was the plan from the beginning. Jesus is not asking for this type of unity for the first time here. He wanted us to hear it, understand it, and perhaps react with a greater love for our brothers and sisters in Christ despite divisions.