I have been reading John 17 over and over. Sometimes quietly and sometimes out loud to keep my attention focused. I am not sure why I am doing it, honestly. Maybe I am a slow learner and need to slow down to soak it in.
Probably, though, it may be because I feel like I need to be taught to pray. I don't need to be taught how to speak...I have been doing that for years. I need to be taught how to pray.
Part of that, is not just Jesus' words as he prayed that evening, but that unexplainable quality of his prayer: he was relating to the Father. It was the overflow of their relationship. The text uses the metaphor of "oneness," and as I read Jesus' prayer, I get a sense of that oneness.
What I want to explore with you is the truth that Jesus prays about that oneness and says it is not just for himself and the Father. It is also for us with the Father. To go one step further, it is also for us with the Father and with each other! That's too much for me to process.
Instead of trying to figure it out, how about I invite you to pray with me? Instead of analyzing it (alone), let's pray like that together...
John 17:22–23: The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 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. (ESV)