Reflections on John 17- David Miller

Reflections on John 17: 20 -26 - David Miller

Some Bible passages challenge because their meanings are deep or even obscure, and some challenge because their meanings are blindingly obvious, yet we struggle to put it into practice. This is one of the latter. The theme here of unity among believers is one that echoes through John's Gospel and the whole of the New Testament. "A new command I give you. Love one another" says Jesus in John 13: 34. But here Jesus is not giving his disciples a command. Here, both they and we are eavesdropping on Jesus at prayer. Here Jesus reveals His heart.

I usually struggle with choosing birthday presents for my wife, and tend to need clear instructions from her. But every now and again I manage to surprise her by buying her something I've overheard her talking about and thus knew she would like. Somehow these presents seem more appreciated, more special because they didn't need to be ordered, as if I were some kind of Argos catalogue. I've touched her heart by getting her something which is both desired, and a surprise. Now I don't think we can actually take Jesus by surprise, but this passage leaves us in no doubt that we can know His deep desire - unity among His people. 

However, practically working this out is very different. A tourist visiting a small village in the north of Scotland stopped and asked a local "How many churches are there in this village?" The man thought for a moment and replied, "Well, there used to be two, and then they had a union - so now there's three." Apocryphal? Maybe, but we recognise the sad truth underlying the story - Christians have an awful tendency to fall out with each other.

At this point we tend to do one of three things.  

Some of us will be saying, "Yes, institutional unity. Is what matters" However, the experience of many denominations reminds us that institutional unity is no guarantee of the unity Jesus longs for.

Some of us will be saying, "Aye, but you can only have Biblical unity where we are united in the truth." Certainly we must not ignore or downplay the truth of the gospel. But if we take that position we need the humility to recognise the influence of our background and of our own personal or denominational preferences in the way we identify what "the truth of the Gospel" actually is. The big divisions in the early church were between Jewish and Gentile Christians. Did you need to be circumcised and adopt Jewish food laws to be a true Christian? Today we probably never think about bacon sandwiches as a source of disunity, but at that time, in that context, what you ate really mattered. These "vital issues" can change over time. So we need to wrestle with the potentially divisive issues we face today - charismatic gifts, styles of worship, emerging church… and the list goes on. But we need to do so with the willingness to recognise that there may be some things we have missed, some things we have to learn from those who see things differently.  

And some of us will be saying, "We know all the problems…but how do we delight the heart of Jesus by being united?" This is the question I wrestle with personally. But we must not get side-tracked with intellectual theorising over what unity means and forget to love Christians around us, in our churches, perhaps even in our families.

This prayer comes as Jesus approaches His death, His great act of at-one-ment. Through this we are made one with the Father - yet not just with the Father, but one with each other. And our unity in some way parallels the unity between the Father and the Son (v.21). They are one, yet distinct - and so we can expect diversity in the family of God. We have to live out unity, because Christ has made us one, with him and with each other. 

In another sense, unity is something we grow into. When Jesus prays that believers are "brought to compete unity" in verse 23 this suggests a kind of process, perhaps linked with "seeing His glory" (v.24). It's often said that the closer we come to Christ, the closer we come to each other, and that is clearly true. But we need to remember the implicit challenge that we will all face, that at some time, if we wish to grow closer to Christ, we will need to grow in love and unity with others of God's family.

Finally, there is the challenge of the fact that here, in verse 23, (and in John 13: 15) Jesus links unity among believers with the confirmation of the Gospel to non-believers. Sadly, more often than not the opposite is true - the fact that people see Christians as always falling out is one of the biggest obstacles to the spread of the Gospel today. 

So, this glimpse into the heart of Jesus says something very simple. If we love Jesus and want to bring delight to Him, and if we love those who do not yet believe and want to see them coming to faith, then we need to love each other and grow in unity. It's so crazy, it just might work.

David Millar is Vice-Principal and Lecturer in Mission Studies at International Christian College Glasgow. He is on the Executive of the Evangelical Alliance Scotland.