At that moment, prior to the resurrection experience, it is doubtful if everyone in the room understood exactly what he meant; that he was counting on them to do as he did, to love as he loved, that the world might come to know him and have eternal life.

So Jesus began to pray to the Father, to his Father with whom he is one. Unlike at other times that we know Jesus spent in prayer, John's gospel gives us the text of this prayer of Jesus so that all can hear it and what it says. It is a prayer on which all who have read it down through the centuries and all who read it today still reflect and meditate.

Consider the following: "Now they know that everything you have given me is from you," Jesus prays. Do we know that? Do we realize that? And if so, how does knowing that change us?

He goes on: "… for the words that you gave to me I have given to them and they have received them…" How have we received them? How has receiving them changed us? How does having his words play out in our day-to-day lives?

The Son has come to bring us life, prays Jesus. "And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent."

What does Jesus mean by knowing God and Jesus Christ? He implies a relationship. In this case, specifically, to know God is to have a relationship with Jesus, and the grounds of that relationship is love; "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love."

For Jesus here in John's Gospel, eternal life -- salvation, if you will -- is not a prize or commodity to be gained by knowing the correct answer to a pop quiz. Eternal life comes as result of a relationship with God, relationship based on love. Eternal life doesn't begin at death, but at the moment we fall in love with God, which Jesus enables us to do. We fall in love with Jesus because of his supreme love for us and for others. If we know Jesus, we know God. Jesus has loved his followers into a relationship with God, and now entrusts them to God.

He also entrusts them with his same mission: Love one another, and thereby draw others into a loving relationship with the Father, a oneness which brings eternal life. The disciples have seen the Father in Jesus, and they now are entrusted to show the Father through Jesus to the world. Sometimes it's tricky to keep straight what's being said here.

To understand what this means to us today, all we have to do here is consider every reference to Jesus' disciples in this text as a reference to us, today's followers of Jesus -- which would be you and me. You heard me correctly -- we are the disciples to whom Jesus refers in this text. We are the ones to whom his words have been given, the words given him by the Father. We are the ones on whom his mission, which is God's mission, now depends. We are the ones through whom the world now sees God's unconditional love.

Lastly, Jesus prays for a most important thing for his disciples, and us, as well: That we may be one, as he and the Father are one. The relationship Jesus had with his father was inseparably bound by their love for each other. That is the oneness he prays for -- that our love for each other will overcome any possible disagreements or divisions, a request asked in the protection of his own name.

Now notice what Jesus does not pray for: Jesus does not pray for the success of our efforts; Jesus does not pray for others to be responsive to our message; Jesus does not pray that we will have everything we will ever need or want in this life; Jesus does not pray for the end of all hunger, disease and poverty; Jesus does not pray that everyone will see everything the same way -- that is not what he means by oneness here.

Jesus prays that our oneness will be based on mutual love, just as he and the Father shared an inseparable love. That type of love between all of his followers will be sufficient. If we can attain mutual love it will surpass all other things he could have prayed for. Our love for one another is the greatest example, the greatest witness, the greatest demonstration of God's love that the church could ever show the world.

And the church that does not seek this oneness in love hasn't fully grasped the good news of God in Christ Jesus. For Jesus prays that the world will come to know God by our love for each other and by our loving response to those in need. He gives no other approach for us to follow; no back-up plan to this one exists.

This is the plan that Jesus imparts in the final scene at the Last Supper. This is the way he would have us go. This is where we stand today. The message of the Gospel, of God's abiding love for the world, depends upon us for its telling. By virtue of this prayer of Jesus, we have become the messengers of eternal life. We are called to incarnate the Gospel, the Good News. It all depends on our love for one another.

Since Jesus has asked the Father to make us one, and believes that the Father will grant him this request, how then can we not try to live in this love for one another as he prayed for us to live?

The Rev'd Timothy M. Dombek
ST. JAMES EPISCOPAL CHURCH
301 Piney Mountain Road
Greenville, SC 29609-3035
(864) 244-6358
stjamesrector@mindspring.com

Copyright © 2002 Timothy M. Dombek All Rights Reserved.