Make Us One

He desires that the indissoluble and superhuman unity that is inherent in the Father and the Son by nature be conveyed to His disciples also by grace.

Jesus Christ - His Life and Teaching, Vol. 5: The Lamb of God, by Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev

I think it is something other than super “human,” not just in magnitude, but in category. But I understanding his meaning.

Jesus closes His discourse with a prayer: a prayer for Himself, a prayer for His disciples, and a prayer for all believers. It is the lengthiest of all prayers offered to us by the evangelists. In a sense, it is the culmination of the Gospel of John, as what follows is in many ways captured in the other Gospel accounts. In any case, Alfeyev will end this study with this prayer.

While the prayer occurs in witness of the disciples, they take no part in it; it is entirely a prayer from the Son to the Father. The Father sent Him on this mission, and this mission will soon culminate with His death and Resurrection.

Yet, He said this prayer in their presence with a purpose; we know of other occasions when Jesus would separate Himself from the disciples in order to pray. He does not do that here. This is a prayer that He wanted them to hear.

First, the prayer for Himself:

John 17: 1 Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, 2 as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. 4 I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. 5 And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.

Jesus has finished the work He was given; He prays that He is glorified as He was before the world was. He prays that He is glorified as He has given eternal life to as many as He was given. This is for all flesh – not only Jews, but also Gentiles. This is a prayer unlike any we find anywhere else in Scripture.

Next, His prayer for His disciples:

John 17: 6(a) “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world.

“Manifested Your name….” Alfeyev makes several points about the meaning of this phrase, but not the one that I believe is most meaningful: the Name of God is synonymous with God Himself. Jesus has made manifest God – He is the Second Person of the Trinity, the One who became flesh. He who has seen Him has seen the Father.

6(b) They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. … 10 And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them.

We are reminded that all belong to God, but we see here that the Father has entrusted them to the Son.

11(b) Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.

A prayer for unity among the disciples as well as unity in the Church. As for the latter, I could write chapters on this topic, examining all aspects of the term “unity” and the term “Church.” There certainly is One True Church; however, I don’t accept that it can be identified institutionally.

Further, one sees a glimpse of the idea that believers are drawn into the relationship between the Father and the Son: deification or theosis.

12(b) Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

I saw recently that Bishop Barron suggested it is at least possible that Judas was saved. I do agree that God can save anyone, but we see here some evidence that this did not happen. The son of perdition, Judas, has been lost – but lost for a purpose, lost in order that the Scriptures are fulfilled.

13 But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves.

Jesus returns to this theme we saw in the previous post: these disciples will see joy, and this in the face of the persecution that He told them would come.

The holiness that God possesses within Himself is to be transmitted to the disciples through Jesus, who sanctifies Himself for them, and through the truth by which God is to sanctify them.

Finally, His prayer for believers:

John 17: 20 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word;

Earlier Jesus said that He had sheep not of this fold; it is for these that He is praying, and through time – even for us. He prays for us as if we are present with Him then – which, for God, is true in any case, as God is outside of time.

21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.

Here is a much more direct prayer that aims us toward deification or theosis. Salvation means to be one with the Trinity. This unity between and among the faithful, and especially as between the faithful and the Trinity for which He prays is not possible at a human level or with human effort alone. Jesus is praying to the Father that He accomplish this work of unity.

Conclusion

A conclusion for the book….

Much more so than the Synoptic Gospels, John takes us outside the bounds of earthly understanding, placing Jesus of Nazareth in the context of the eternal God and as the pre-eternal Word of God. John begins his entire narrative emphatically making the point that Jesus Christ is God Incarnate.

John does not attempt to compile all the traditions and events that are found in the Synoptics. He selects episodes that correspond to his larger purpose: to present this Incarnation of the Son to the believer. He does not merely convey events; he interprets these for us.

In fact, the two most enduring and important events, what all Christian traditions and denominations consider as sacraments, are missing: Jesus’ baptism by John in the Jordan, and how Jesus imparted His Body and Blood at the Last Supper. With this said, he writes more than the others of the themes of water and bread.

Epilogue

As mentioned, Alfeyev ends this narrative here. He discusses the last chapters in another book in his series, one that captures narratives common to all four Gospels.