It seems like people say the most important thing right before they depart. Many scenarios follow this pattern, whether we realize it or not. That thing we say right before we leave the room during a fight our spouse or kid, the thing that is brought up at the end of an intense meeting at work, pretty much any heated interaction with our teenage kid. It also happens when someone is nearing death. My late wife Anna's last words before she took her last breath was: "I did my best." The last words said by Connie, the founder of Teleios, to Art and me a day before he died was: "prayer and fellowship." He whispered it at least a dozen times, as if to remind us of what actually matters in life. A few days before he died, Jesus said a prayer for us, his followers. It appears that he is praying for the most important thing:
"I am not praying only for these men (the disciples) but for all those who will believe in me through their message, that they may all be one. Just as you, Father, live in me and I live in you, I am asking that they may live in us, that the world may believe that you did send me. I have given them the honor that you gave me, that they may be one, as we are one--I in them and you in me, that they may grow. complete into one, so that the world may realize that you sent me and have loved them as you loved me." (John 17:20-26)
Notice the theme of oneness. The final message of corporate prayer before Jesus heads to his death, and this is his plea: that they may be one. One with God and one with each other. Union is the final prayer of Jesus for his future followers (us). Biblical scholar Thomas Brodie, in his commentary on the book of John says this about the prayer of Jesus in John 17: "Oneness with ultimate reality (God) is not an abstract idea; it is a spiritual experience of knowing that the timeless God is as the door inviting you to full union. It is attentiveness to the present, a readiness at every moment, to receive reality, to enjoy deeply even the simplest things."
We are all invited into union. Jesus prayed this for his followers. Oh, that we would receive his prayer and live into the reality of union with the divine!
- Shawn
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