warning:: crazy reflections::
ramifications=overkill on blogging.
i taught youth today although i had some reservations in doing so. i felt so unprepared for a lesson that i was so interested in. it’s in john 17:20-24…
the whole chapter is a prayer of Jesus to God the Father. This is after Jesus had already emplored His disciples to abide and remain in Him, for He was the vine, and they were the branches. Time was drawing near for His arrest and i can feel the urgency of His desire for them to understand that it is through Him that they can have Life. What secrets He longed for them to understand…knowing that they’re going to have to put everything together once He is crucified. He wanted to love them so…even in John 15…He emphasized with sweet refrain, “abide in me and I will abide in You.”
Then in John 17, we see an intimate portrait of Jesus in His own prayer closet, pouring His most intimate desires to the Father…what was in this deep heart of our Savior????? Wouldn’t you want to know? Have you ever admired a person, so much so that you wished if only you could hear their prayers, their deepest desires and vulnerable whispers in such a moment of desperate need and reverence? It’s like reading their hearts.
So know the Savior’s…
First, He prayed that the Father may give Him glory. [this is some other devotion, let’s not travel upon tangents]. Second, He prayed for His disciples [present circle, present need, knowing what will befall on them once He leaves]. Thirdly, our Savior’s intimate desire was a prayer for us- yes, you and I. How beautiful to know His thoughts for us.
What were His thoughts?
He prayed for unity. In “Sacred Romance” by J.Eldridge, the author speaks of the relationship between the trinity…more specifically, the Father and the Son…in a time when it was just this entity. They shared such an personal relationship, a close sweetness of company, and a love that even Jesus said, “He is mine, and I am His.” Even Jesus acknowledged the great love of the Father to Him. One can only imagine their unity, and the love between them!! And i believe that when there’s such a high concentration of love, it must overflow to another area of low concentration. God had a passion for Him, and it was soooo sweet, a glory so grand, that He longed for a beloved to share it with Him.
Here is where we are introduced to the story…His beloved. This is where we must place ourselves in the standard of God’s ideal for unity. Jesus’ desire to the Father was that our unity in the body must be of similar mold with the unity between Him and God the Father. The love between the body of believers must reach the par of the sweetness and greatness of the Father’s Love for the understood love to Jesus.
Furthermore, our unity must bear the common factor…Christ. If we are unified under anything else but Christ, we are not under God’s body…and it is a false idol we run passionately for. This bond can be easily severed, easily attracted to something ephemeral…but the bond under the Christ commonality is granted provision and strength through God, and we cannot be moved. But it is this ideal we must strive for, and yes, the bar for unity is high…the standard seems distanced from reality, but if you truly long for the heart of Christ, this is it. This was His prayer.
UNITY
I admit these days, i falter in being up to par with loving, with being united. I try and become disappointed, and i tire of the reason to remain within the homeostatic body, but i rest in imitation to Jesus’ prayer when i can’t find my own prayer. I’ll try to mold to His desire that john 17 day…to love God as God loves me, and that i can love the believers so that the world may see God’s ultimate message of Love. All through unity.
