Optimist’s Roundtable
By Martha Sykes
On Jesus’ journey to the cross, He spent a great deal of time preparing His disciples for the time when He would be leaving them. In the gospel of John, chapter 17:1-11, are many words of Jesus. Here in this passage is part of the “high priestly prayer” of Jesus, as it has been called, that Jesus prayed the night before He died. Part of this prayer was specifically prayed for His disciples. Here is part of what He said:
“I am praying for them, I am not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be as one.”
In these verses, Jesus is praying for the disciples to be protected, so that they may be united. There is a theme in this passage that seems to be about the unity of spirit and body. Jesus is praying for unity of the disciples as well as unity to Him and the Father. In other words, Jesus is also praying for unity in the church which will eventually come out of the lives of these disciples. This prayer is telling the disciples that they have an obligation to uphold, to pull together, to encourage, to comfort, and to be there for anyone who needs support, to cheer each other on, and to love as they bind themselves together to do His work. But this passage is also telling us that same message because we all are known as His church. And each part of the church is important, each member of the church is important, as we all unite together for one common purpose as we share the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Everyone has a job to do to make sure we are doing God’s work. Jesus was praying that one day the disciples would be in unity as they would do what He asked of them. That they would surrender what they wanted and not be selfish. Then life would be more meaningful to them as they surrender their lives to Christ and find meaning and purpose with Him. And it is the same with us as we surrender our lives to Him.
Jesus understood how difficult it was going to be for us to understand the meaning of life because there are so many ways to get lost in the world. But the way is open, because God is there to protect us and to help us. There is a togetherness as we live our Christian lives. We are together as the church, we are together with Christ, and we are together with the Holy Spirit. Jesus’ prayer was for all who follow Him. On that day, He wanted His disciples to become unified for the body of Christ. He wanted them to be united in harmony and love as the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit are united. On this day, He is telling us the same.
Next week will be our Holy Week before Easter. Let us focus on all that Jesus did for us and pray that our world will know Jesus and thank God for the greatest gift of all!
