That Time Jesus Prayed For Unity
Navigating my current season of life, feeling the weight of the pandemic, and watching tragic events unfold around the world, has all made me hesitant to show up here. Most days I feel as though I have nothing to offer anyone else in this season.
No words of encouragement, because I feel discouraged. No words of wisdom, because I’ve been seeking wisdom myself. No thought provoking questions, because all I do is ask questions.
I’ve been told you can’t lead people through a wilderness you haven’t experienced yourself. And you definitely can’t lead people from a place of unhealth.
To some degree, I believe this may be part of the chaos we’re collectively experiencing.
“Unprecedented times” has led to watching unhealthy leadership throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. Which has created a big mess.
In the last 18 months we quickly went from “we’re all in this together” to blaming and “othering” one another.
I believe the reason we’re so divided isn’t because we can’t all agree. We’re divided because we’re no longer united, and we don’t even know what that word means anymore.
In John Chapter 17 Jesus prays to God right before he’s betrayed and arrested. The prayer is broken up into three parts: prayer for himself, his disciples, and current/future believers.
I encourage you to read the whole chapter, but the best I can tell, as Jesus prays for believers (v. 20-26), he’s praying for three things:
We all join together as one (as the father, son, and spirit are one)
Through this perfect unity the world will believe
Through this belief people will know and experience the love of God
Just as the trinity has different parts, each playing a unique role, humanity is also made up of different parts, each of us playing a unique role in this world.
The Spirit’s role within the trinity is to guide and convict us. With that said, I believe it's entirely possible for two people to both be connected to the Spirit and have different convictions, which affect their lives differently.
“Unity” is not about everyone thinking and doing the exact same thing. That’s conformity. Unity can involve a difference of opinion, while still coming together as a whole. At the end of the day unity says, “I still love you.”
Ultimately, our job here on this earth is to love. Over and over again Jesus tells us to love God and love people.
Some might say:
“Yea, BUT if you love God and people you would _______.”
But that's not how love works.
Consider the people Jesus was closest to:
These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
(Matthew 10:2-4)
Simon, being a Zealot, was a very religious Jewish man who rebelled against the Roman Empire. He was essentially anti-government. Matthew, being a tax collector, worked FOR the Roman Empire. I have to imagine these two disagreed on a lot of things. While they probably brought some tension to the group, they ate meals together, followed Jesus together, and ultimately started the early church together.
I believe this is what Jesus prayed for when he prayed for unity. He prayed that even though we’re all different, we’d come together as one and show the world what God’s love is all about.
I thought about ending this blog post here, but I felt a nudge to go on. I’m going to say something that might result in some negative comments - and that’s ok.
In the last 6 or so months I’ve seen a lot of Christians and a lot of people in government use verses from the Bible, like, “Love thy neighbor” in order to coerce people into doing things. This feels cheap and lazy to me when the very act of coercion cancels out the possibility for love. On top of that, we should be uncomfortable watching our Catholic President of the United States pitting Americans against one another, causing division. This is the opposite of unity - the opposite of what one of Jesus’ last prayers on this earth was before he died.
If the above paragraph makes you angry, I apologize - that’s not my intent.
Referring to my newsletter from April, I encourage you to protect your intake. Pay attention to what you’re consuming - what you’re reading, watching, and listening to. Some of the things being played 24/7 in the background are interfering with our ability to truly love all people, and interfering with God’s desire for unity.
I’ll leave you with some questions I’ve been asking myself:
Is there anything preventing me from loving?
Is there anything distracting me from connection with the Spirit?
Do I need to turn off the news? Unfollow an account?
Is there someone God has placed in my circle that I don’t agree with? Is it possible to share a meal and hear their story?
Where do I need to repent for contributing to division? For “othering” groups of people? Where have I gotten in the way of God’s desire for unity?