WHAT DID JESUS PRAY FOR?

In preparation for this week's prayer meeting at The Mission I was reading again the passage in John 17 where. Jesus is praying with his disciples.  He will soon head off to the garden and in a few hours will be arrested and sent to trial. I want to focus on a portion of that prayer, beginning at verse 20.

"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you 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 first part of verse 20 makes it clear that Jesus is including US in his prayer. He's thinking past the small group of disciples He's praying with, and looking down through the centuries to come. He's including in His prayer two thousand years of those who would come to believe in Him. He's thinking of people like you and me.

Just a few hours before the crucifixion, when you'd think He would be preoccupied with all that was to come, He was praying for us. What could be so important? What was at the top of His mind that He wanted to pray for? 

Jesus was praying that we would one. He prayed that there would be unity among those who believe in Him. Amazing! Knowing fully the suffering in body and spirit that He was about to experience, the thing on His mind was to pray that we would get along with one another. He prayed for a spirit of love and oneness of purpose among His followers. Coupled with that was a prayer that we would be in unity with He and the Father. Obviously this unity is something of extreme importance.

In the last part of verse 21 Jesus makes it clear why unity among the believers is so crucial. So the world may believe.

Wow! The implication of Jesus' statement is very clear and pretty shocking. When there is disunity, a lack of love among the followers of Jesus, here's the result. Others will look on and conclude that the Gospel is not real. Failure of Christians to get along in love and respect for one another will cause disbelief among the very people we are called to reach for Jesus. If I'm hanging on to bad feelings toward another Christian, maybe not speaking to them because of some perceived offense, in can result in people concluding that the Christian message of love is not real.

In other words, people will look at me and draw conclusions about the reality of God and the quality of what we call Christianity. My life is supposed to be an illustration of the love of God for us. If instead it's characterized by unforgiveness and bitterness, and inability to get along in love and peace with my fellow believers, people will reject faith in Jesus as false and having no real value.

The fact is that others are looking at my life. They are deciding on the reality and value of faith in Jesus (at least in part) by watching my relationships other people. What they decide about eternity may depend on what they see in me. Is that scary?  It's no wonder that was the focus of Jesus' prayer even in those final hours before the cross.

Does this mean I will always agree with others on interpretation of scripture or understanding of some elements of the Christian life? Of course not. In fact it amazes me how two intelligent well-meaning people can look at the same scripture verse and quite honestly come to two rather different conclusions. 

Does it mean that I will never do something that offends someone, or that no one will ever offend me?  No, it doesn't mean that either. We are imperfect human beings and we are sometimes going to rub each other the wrong way.

So what is unity among believers, and between us and God? I believe it means that we acknowledge our differences, sometimes even agree to disagree, and then get on with loving and supporting one another as children of God. It means forgiving instead of hanging on to perceived wrongs. It means acknowledging when we have wronged others, and seeking ways to make it right.

There are millions of Christ followers and we will not see eye to eye with all of them. There are 200 people in our church and even with those small numbers it's inevitable that there will be misunderstandings, disagreements, and offenses. The question is how do we deal with them? Do we overcome them in the spirit of love and unity that Jesus prayed for, or do we allow our differences to fester and grow so they ruin our testimony to others who are watching our lives?

For me it comes down to this. No disagreement between myself and another follower of Jesus is worth causing someone to spend eternity apart from God. Those who are watching my life, looking for proof of the reality of my faith, should see things that attract them to Jesus rather than sending them away believing that the Gospel of love and peace is a fraud.

Are others seeing the love and forgiveness and compassion of Jesus in your life? Are they drawn to Him because of what they see in me? I think I need to pray about that.