“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe
in me through their message, that all of them may be one,
Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us
so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”
John 17:20-21

In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus poured out his heart in prayer to the Father as he braced for impending betrayal. Amidst the vast multitude of concerns that must have weighed on his mind the night before laying down his life, Jesus prayed for his disciples and those who would follow him throughout the ages. Looking not to his concerns alone, our Lord prayed for you and me. His prayer echoed across the heavens with his longing for unity among believers.

This prayer was rooted in God’s sovereign plan that the Body of Christ would reflect the very nature of God to the world. Jesus said, “Just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” Oh, what a glorious vision: Christians incorporated into the perfect, divine love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and that we might reflect this unity in love to the world!

Christ’s invitation to Christian unity takes on heightened significance in a world marked by dissension and discord. Our time has become increasingly fractured along ideological fault lines whose tectonic plates rub against one another, sending tremors across our land. Divisions run rampant in partisan politics, in public discourse, across generations, among friends, and even within families and marriages. However, as Christians, Jesus’ prayer for our unity reminds us that we have a higher allegiance that transcends all our differences. Our ultimate allegiance is to our Lord, a commitment that puts all other divisions in their proper places.

This second quarter edition of the Epistle explores the vision of Christian Unity, for which Jesus prayed amid a polarized world. It is my conviction that First Church shines brightly as a beacon of hope to the world precisely because of the unity we share in Christ and, just as Christ prayed, our witness goes out “so that the world might believe” in the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

by Pastor Brad Rogers