God Shows His Own Face

There is only one thing to do. God has planned it all along, and at just the right time, Jesus comes to live and die as a human being and teach us firsthand what real unity is all about. First, He lives in a family - possibly a rather dysfunctional one in some ways. He shows us it is possible to love them anyway. Then He chooses a small group of people to take with Him everywhere and train. It is instructive that He seems to spend more time simply letting them follow Him around and watch Him work and work with Him, than telling them things. He does teach them, too, and when He does, He calls God “Daddy,” (a shocking idea to an observant Jew of the time), and talks a lot about God’s basileia or realm (from basis, a base, according to Strong’s), where things are completely upside down and sideways from anybody’s idea of a normal realm or kingdom.

In this “Realm of God,” people are supposed to be like little children. (Matt. 18:4) As Isaiah wrote, “A little child shall lead them.” (Isa. 11:6) In this realm, a son who ran off with his father’s goods, wasted it all, and ruined his life is welcomed back with open arms and no condemnation. (Luke 15:11-32) Did not Jeremiah say something like that? “Ephraim is my darling son … I will have mercy on him.” (Jer. 31:18-20) In this kingdom, the last was supposed to be first, the greatest like the youngest, and the ruler like a servant. (Luke 22:2, 27) Wasn’t the great King David himself chosen as the youngest of his house, and didn’t the law say that a king’s heart must not be lifted up above his countrymen? (Deut. 17:20)

When they listened to Jesus, the people’s hearts must have stirred and tingled like something long asleep beginning to awaken, like something lost showing up unexpectedly, like something forgotten, now newly remembered. Crowds followed Him, hanging on His every word. Women ministered to Him and paid His way out of their own pockets. Children brought Him their lunches, and thousands ate together like one family. A Roman centurion, lepers, women from Syro-Phoenicia and Samaria, demoniacs from “the other side of the water,” and at least one highly-placed Pharisee reached out to Jesus, and in so doing, came a little closer to each other. So this is what God means by fellowship!

By the end of Jesus’ earthly life, His friends may sometimes be bright-eyed with hope and possibilities, but they’re not really getting it. They argue over who’s greater and beg for the best places in His government and run away when He’s arrested. Two of them betray Him, one with a kiss and one with an oath. It is in the middle of this confusion that Jesus prays His ultimate prayer request for His followers in all ages.

“As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one, even 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 sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You, and these have known that You sent Me; and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17:18-26)

There are many fascinating mind-stretchers in this prayer. “You in Me, I in You, they in Us … I in them, you in Me.” Try drawing a diagram of that! But there is a good deal more than first meets the eye. It is most often assumed, for instance, that when Jesus asks His Father “that they … be where I am,” He is speaking of going with Him to heaven someday, and so He no doubt is. But take a look at Ephesians 2:6 where God “raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Was this, in fact, also an immediate prayer request? Was it fulfilled soon, in some way? Is it fulfilled now?

“So that they may see my glory.” Does this only mean His glory after all things are completed, or does it mean something present and immediate? When is/was Jesus’ moment of greatest glory? Is it the brilliance of His presence on the throne (with us, incomprehensibly!), the blinding flash of His second coming? Perhaps the second of the resurrection, when soldiers fell like flies? Or is it the bloody, gasping spectacle of the Son of God and man giving up His life for us? Those He prayed for that night were about to see that. Not only that, but millions have been staring spellbound, (or averting their eyes from) that heartrending scene for twenty centuries now. Here’s what we know. Jesus’ ideal of fellowship for us is higher than we ever could have imagined.