Lenten Reflections 2

Read: John 17:20-23; Galatians 3:28; and Colossians 3:11

²⁰ “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, ²¹ that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.²² The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, ²³ I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me (John 17:20-23).

²⁸ There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28).

¹¹ Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all (Colossians 3:11).

Scot McKnight writes in his book, A Fellowship of Differents, about the cultural hierarchy in the Roman world that provides the backdrop for the New Testament. “In the workshops, in the Roman agora, in the belly of ships, and in the villas of citizens there were clear societal distinctions. Romans were obsessed with status, and their clothing reflected their status – marked for some with thin or think purple stripes. Citizens were not slaves, and slaves were not citizens (whose rights were protected)…Hierarchy, status, reputation, and connections were the empire. The church, though, was not the empire!” In the church, there was to be “a wild revolution of equality”!

Jesus agreed with Paul. On the night before his crucifixion, Jesus prayed for his disciples and he prayed for us who would believe in the generations after them. In John 17:20-23, we see part of his prayer. It is a prayer for unity. It is a prayer that followers of Jesus would be one in the same way the Father and Son are one. Christ in us and the Father in Christ so we may be “perfectly one”. Jesus said the result of this unity would be that the world would “know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”

Do you think the church today lives out this unity? Why do you think that? What could we do better/differently? What could you do?

What do you believe is the impact of the church’s unity (or lack of unity) on its witness? Could the lack of power we have in our witness to the world be a result of being divisive, un-unified, and out-of-step with Jesus’ prayer?

Both Galatians 3:28 and Colossians 3:11 invite us to think differently about some of the things that divide us. Many of the differences we have as people cannot be changed – gender and ethnicity for example. Believers in Jesus are a diverse bunch. McKnight asks, “Are we willing to embrace the diversity of the church as the very thing God most wants (emphasis his)?” What do you think would need to change for us to live this out? Is there anything that would need to change in you?