Thursday of Trinity I - Devotion in Exile

Lection for Thursday after Trinity I 
Proverbs 20:5-25      John 17:1-26 

Our reading from John’s Gospel continues what came yesterday, Jesus in the upper room with His disciples, but now this is His prayer before He goes out to Gethsemane. In that prayer, is this portion that I’d like to consider:

But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. 14 I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. 18 As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19 For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.

20 “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; 21 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. (17:13-21)

Who is Jesus praying about? The first group of people He is praying for are His disciples. He is declaring that they will be hated in the world, but also praying that they not be taken out of the world. His fervent prayer is that they would just be kept from the evil one, that is Satan.

Furthermore, He asked that they be made holy. He asks that they be sanctified in the truth. God's word is truth! He Himself that Word of God, so He is asking that they be made holy – that they be sanctified in Him, that is, in Jesus.

But then we get to verse 20, we realize that Jesus is not just praying for His disciples, those seated around Him, those with whom he is praying at that particular moment in time, He is also praying also for you and me.

Why is he doing this? He tells us when He asks, "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."

You and I are one with the disciples. We are all together one Church. Christ’s Church is made up of all those who are united in the truth – all those who have the same confession. And that saving confession is that Jesus was sent by the father to be the propitiation for our sins.

Notice that there is oneness in truth – not an agreement to disagree.

It is in the Truth, in Christ, in the true faith, that we are made holy. As we are made holy, as we are sanctified, we are one with Christ – one with the Father. This is baptismal language, as Scripture declares we are baptized into Christ and have therefore put on Christ.

If we all in Christ, we are one with the disciples, just as Jesus prays. If we are one with the disciples, we are also one with all those who confessed the same Christ as we have from the time of the apostles until now. There is a continuity – no, it is even more – there is a oneness with them all. We are One body, in the One Head over the body, His Church. We hear this oneness even in the liturgy for communion when the pastor says in the preface, "with angels, archangels, and all the company of heaven we laud and magnify Your glorious name every more praising you in saying…" and then we sing the Sanctus.

We confess this oneness in the Creed's when we speak in either creed about believing in; the holy Christian Church, or the one holy Christian and apostolic Church.

There is a oneness with all, oneness that reaches back to the time of the apostles, and even to the time of Adam and Eve who trusted in the One God would send to crush the head of Satan – Jesus Christ. It is also a oneness that reaches into the future to all those who will confess the same saving faith in Christ. It is a oneness that is blind to cultural differences, nationalities, or any other differences between people.

It is a oneness that confesses, I am a sinner in need of the salvation Christ purchased for me unto the forgiveness of sins. That is truth! Christ sanctifies us in this truth! There is our oneness!

Let us pray:    Heavenly Father, by Your grace we who were once far off have been brought near to You – made one with you – by the blood of Your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Remove from us all pride and vanity, and give to us humble hearts that recognize that You have graciously made us members of Your household, One Church, without any merit or worthiness in us. Amen.