One in Christ
John 17:20 "My prayer is not for them
alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,
21 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. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may
be one as we are one: 23 I in them and you in me. May they be
brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved
them even as you have loved me. 24 "Father, I want those you
have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have
given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. 25
"Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they
know that you have sent me. 26 I have made you known to them, and
will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be
in them and that I myself may be in them."
“Make every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” (Ephesians
4:3)
When
I help out at my daughter and son-in-law’s house, my help isn’t for free. I immediately
go into their pantry for payment. There had better be a package of Oreos in there
for dad.
Everyone
eats Oreos differently. Some eat them slowly and methodically. Others shove the
whole thing into their mouth at once. The girls in my house twist the cookie
part off, eat the creamy filling, and then stack all the cookies to eat at one
time. I prefer to dunk my Oreos in milk. There are some who don’t have a
favorite way to eat Oreos … because they don’t like Oreos. I call them
heathens.
We
can feel separated or united by our preferred way to eat Oreos. Isn’t that kind
of silly?
But
if we allow Oreos to separate or unite us, think of all the other much more
serious ways that our sinful nature notices and exploits differences.
We pit churches against other churches; members
against pastors; parents against teachers; Democrats against Republicans;
husbands against wives; teenagers against parents. We separate based on skin
colors, nationalities, languages and income levels. We create disunity,
disharmony and discord. This causes us to put distance between us and God and
God’s children.
When you think of it, though, these differences are as
petty and as silly as the different ways we prefer to eat Oreos.
That’s why the High Priestly prayer of Jesus is so
important. He is in the upper room on Thursday evening with his disciples. Very
shortly, Jesus will be going to the Garden of Gethsemane to be arrested, put on
trial and crucified. And when time is short, you pray for what matters most. So,
what is it that matters most to Jesus at this time before he suffers and dies?
Us. We are what is most important to him. “I pray … that all of them may be one, Father, just as you
are in me and I am in you. … I have given them the glory that you gave me, that
they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me.”
Jesus prays that his disciples, his
Father’s children, his Church, may be one. One, even as the Father, Son and
Holy Spirit are united as one in the Holy Trinity. One, even as “a man leaves his father and mother and
is united to his wife, and the two become one flesh” (Matthew 19:5). One, as
the number that cannot be divided. A true and complete uniting.
But as we look around the world today, we see anything
but oneness. Sin divides what God has joined together. It’s like the plea that
Rodney King made after the abuse he endured sparked the L.A. riots in the early
90s, “Can’t we all just get along?” Conflict is a sad result of the sin which
Adam and Eve brought into the world. Brothers-in-arms became brothers-up-in-arms:
Cain and Abel, Esau and Jacob, the eleven sons of Judah against their brother
Joseph.
Disharmony still rules our day. Marriages are marked
by bitterness rather than unity. Workplaces are filled with a spirit of
antagonism rather than cooperation. Families and friends are frazzled by
fighting. Even our Christian churches and schools are choked by conflict.
Unity among us is so rare that we try to fabricate it.
Some agree to disagree. Some turn a blind eye to sin. We are two-faced and act
friendly in front of people, but then tear them down behind their backs. Such
tactics may seem to create a unified atmosphere, but the air in there is
neither good for mankind nor pleasant to God. We gossip and complain which
tears down the walls of unity. We make our feelings and ideas the most
important and thus create walls of disunity. We always need to be right. We
constantly feel the need to put others down so that we can build ourselves up.
We want to act independent so that we don’t have to be dependent on God or
anybody else. Our perpetual negativity drives relationships into the ground.
No wonder Jesus prays that we be one. No one knows the
sin in this world and its devastating effects more than he who made this world
and watched us fall. No one knows the destructiveness and depths of sin more
than he who took it all upon himself on the cross. No one knows the sting of
death more than he who was swallowed up by it, so that he could swallow it up
in his resurrection. No one knows more about subjecting his will to the will of
God than he who prayed, “Your will be done.” No one knows more than Jesus the
hurt and pain you feel because of sin and death, because of division and
separation, because of isolation and loneliness. No one knows more than him that
it is not good for man to be alone. So, Jesus prays for you. That you may not
be alone. That we may be one.
So how is this unity accomplished? How are we one in
Christ? Jesus mentions two ways in his prayer - two ways that will not be
surprising to you at all. First, he prays: “May they be one as we are one: I in them and you in me.”
When did we become one with God and with each other? When did Jesus enter into
us? At our baptism. The apostle Paul spoke about this unity in Ephesians 4: “There is one body and one Spirit-- just as you were
called to one hope when you were called -- one Lord, one faith, one baptism;
one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all”
(Ephesians 4:4-6). There in your baptismal waters, Jesus unites you to himself,
releases you from your slavery to sin, redeems you from your empty way of life,
recreates you from being the spawn of Satan into a child of God, exchanges the
filthy rags of your sinfulness for the white robe of his righteousness. There
you are brought into a new family of faith and we become brothers and sisters
in Christ.
Now, as with all families, brothers and sisters
sometimes fight – but we dare not lose sight of the unity we have in Christ.
You may not like all your brothers and sisters, but you are still their keeper,
and we need to pray for them, help them, love them, correct them, admonish
them, and encourage them in the truth. Carefully and patiently, not rashly and
harshly. Knowing that as one in Christ, if you hurt them you are really hurting
yourself; and if you help them, you are helping yourself. So, we are one when
we are one in Christ.
Second, Jesus prays for this unity: May they be brought to complete
unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you
have loved me. Righteous Father, though the world does not know you,
I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you
known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you
have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them." This unity
comes by knowing God the Father.
Where do we come to know God as
our loving Creator and providing Father? In his words contained in your Bible.
It is a living and active Word; a Spirit-filled Word; a life-giving Word. A
Word that comes to you, works in you and sanctifies you.
You also come to know the Father in the Lord’s Supper.
For in the Lord’s Supper, the Word made flesh, comes to you in his body to eat
and his blood to drink. In the Supper, the living and active Word comes and
forgives your sin. In the Supper, Jesus unites you to himself in the closest
bond of fellowship, and makes you one with him and one with each other. There
is a vertical relationship established and intensified between you and God.
There is a horizontal relationship established and intensified between you and
those with whom you commune. We come to the Sacrament of Holy Communion as many
grains, each with our own lives, struggles, hurts, and problems – and are made
one loaf in Jesus. As the apostle Paul wrote: “Because there is one loaf, we,
who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf” (1 Corinthians
10:17). One loaf, made holy by the Holy One.
When divisions surface in the church, in the home or
anywhere else in our lives, success is hindered, errors increase, quarrels
become more passionate, confusion grows, false judgments and a spirit of
condemnation ensue. How necessary it is, then, that we within the Christian
Church cultivate unity and peace among us.
The now sainted C.F.W. Walther stated it well:
“Christian
unity always produces a blessing. If the Church is one in doctrine and life, in
faith and love, it shares its gifts and knowledge. It then grows in the wealth
of knowledge, the power of faith, the fervor of love, the comfort of the Holy
Ghost, and the liveliness of hope. It grounds itself ever more deeply and
builds itself ever more gloriously, adorned with all sorts of gifts of the
Spirit. It then extends its hands to raise up shepherds and soldiers who pursue
the work of converting those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death and
who struggle against the enemies of the truth.
“Satan
knows all too well what kind of power the Church exercises when it is united.
It then not only greens and bears fruit, but it also stands invincible against
all of its enemies, conquering them and extending its borders. Therefore,
Satan’s most important and dangerous strategy, which he employs to damage the
Church, is destroying its unity and sowing discord among its members. And how
easily he succeeds! How quickly is the holy bond that binds Christians together
torn apart! How quickly an ember of discord among the ashes is fanned into a
bright flame that seizes and lays waste entire congregations! How necessary it
is, then, that the Church carefully cultivate unity, pursuing it as a precious
jewel!”
The next time you are eating Oreos with a group of people
who twist, dunk or stuff the whole thing in their mouths, notice how all of you
have different skin colors, come from different countries, and have different
vocations in life. But you also realize you all share the same faith in Jesus.
Take a moment and marvel. Marvel that God has united us together in His Son,
Jesus Christ. “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity”
(Psalm 133:1)! Amen.
“Continue until we all
reach unity in the faith
and knowledge of the Son of God” (Ephesians
4:13).
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