That We May Be One

Communion Meditation

July 6, 2025

Text: John 17:1-11

As Christ is preparing to go to the cross, His care and His attention is not for Himself, but for those He is going to leave behind in the world. He will not leave them alone, because He is going to send another Comforter to be with them. Nevertheless, particularly for these eleven men, the nature of God’s presence among them will be different. So before Christ takes His first steps in what will be the climactic chapter of His earthly ministry, He prays for the apostles and all who will follow in their steps. In other words, He also prays for us.

And what is His prayer? That the Father would keep us. To what purpose? That we might be One, just as Christ is One with the Father. This “one-ness” is not the sort of “one-ness” that the Buddhist or the pantheist dreams about, where everything becomes the same thing and we all congeal into the same cosmic goo. In the one-ness for which Christ prayed, there is still distinction of person, distinction of office, and distinction of action. But all of these things work together in a seamless harmony that reflects the very way the eternal Father and Son have worked together to bring about salvation for mankind. Jesus and His Father have set the standard for us by working together to save us from the wrath to come: Jesus has submitted to the Father in all things, and the Father will glorify His Son in all things.

To be “one” as the Father and Son are “one” is a lofty goal for fallen mankind. It’s hard to maintain unity in a single family, or a single local church, much less the totality of Christendom. We are a people prone to dividing over the wrong things. Oh, we can always find an excuse for our lack of warmth towards an individual or even a group, but so many times the real reason we lack one-ness is something petty – an imagined slight, or an unwillingness to forgive from the heart.

It isn’t geographic distance, or generational gaps, or personality conflicts that keep us from being one. We don’t squabble and fuss and fight because of how righteous we are. And it won’t be our own goodness and righteousness that fulfills Christ’s prayer. Christ prayed to the Father that we would be One, and so we acknowledge that this is a work that God must do. And how does He do it? He invites us to behold the glory of His Son! As the heavenly words of Christ dwell in our hearts, He beckons us to Himself, and the closer we get the more glorious He is, and the smaller the distance grows between us. Like a steadily shrinking circle, we surround the Son and find that we really are One in Him. The inevitable outcome for the people of God is that we will be one, because we will all be surrounding the throne of God in perfect worship. But we can start now. Come, let us draw near the Son today. Let us worship the One who gave Himself for us. Let us behold His glory together.