On Being One

John 10 & John 17:11 – 26

Friends, each of us are here for different reasons. Most of us have been raised in one of the Christian traditions and consider Jesus to be the touchstone of our faith. I don’t think any of us attend these gatherings mindlessly. I have a sense that each of us here has examined ourselves in a way that possibly most people don’t. We’ve asked ourselves questions like; Who am I? What do I believe? Why Jesus? Why Christianity? This kind of intentionality around our faith is what I believe Jesus wanted to instill in his followers. There’s a level of commitment that Jesus had and that he wanted his followers to have that I would say your average Christian doesn’t have time for. Maybe I’m too cynical or critical, but that’s what I think.

The level of commitment that Jesus is assuming here is awfully intense. It is a full commitment of the way they live their lives in relationship to their core beliefs about The Holy and about the leadership of Jesus. But he doesn’t expect commitment from his followers without setting himself up as an example.

In John 10, Jesus tries to explain to the crowd his commitment to his followers. He is the shepherd and he is the gate. He will protect them at all costs. He is also asserting that he is not a victim, even if he dies for his commitment. In verse 18 he says, “No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this from my Father.” Jesus has the power and he gets this power through the authority of the one he calls Father. A little later he makes the proclamation that he gives his followers, his sheep, eternal life and that they will never perish. This too he bases on the authority of his Father. Then he makes a claim that is radical enough to those who are listening that they want to kill him. Jesus says, “The Father and I are one.” According to Bible commentators this word “one” does not mean Jesus is saying he and the Father are one person, but rather that he and the Father are united in their vision, purpose, ideals, and commitment. Even so, the crowd takes offense and wants to kill him for blasphemy. According to the text, they believed Jesus was calling himself God.

He couldn’t talk his way out of this one – he had to escape. Jesus’ self-proclaimed one-ness with The Holy, regardless of whether he was claiming Godhood for himself or just that he was intrinsically committed to God’s purpose, required him to escape. It seems like they weren’t buying his explanation. Earlier, remember, Jesus said that he lays down his life – it doesn’t get taken from him. This escape of his seems to bear that out.

In chapter 17 Jesus speaks of one-ness again. This time he is talking about the one-ness that he has with the Father; the one-ness of the followers with each other; the one-ness of the future believers (that’s us) with his current followers; and the one-ness of all these followers of his with him and the Father. Verse 21 says, “As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us.” And in Verse 22, “The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one as we are one.”

These are extraordinary prayers, hopes, and claims! This is the kind of talk that almost got him stoned to death just a few chapters back. Now, here he is, wanting us to make the same commitment to the Father and to the work that he himself has made. This prayer that he is praying is right before he gets he gets nabbed by the soldiers, police, and the religious authorities, at the betrayal of Judas. There is no question in my mind that the writer of this gospel is challenging her readers to this kind of full commitment to the one called Father, to Jesus, and to the community of believers.

What is this one-ness? “I in you and you in me, that they may become completely one,” it says. To what purpose? “So that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” This is the one-ness the crowd freaked out about. This is the one-ness that the religious authorities raged against. This is the one-ness that folks interpret to mean, “you are making yourself equal to God” – this one-ness Jesus prays for on our behalf.

In chapter 10 verses 35 and 36 the writer of this gospel tries to explain what this one-ness means, using the words of Jesus. “If those to whom the word of God came were called ‘gods’ – and the scripture cannot be annulled – can you say that the one whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world is blaspheming because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’?” Jesus then points to the work he is doing and says if it isn’t the work of the Father, then don’t believe him. But they don’t care about his work – they care about his words which they think indicate his attitude. They can’t stand that Jesus is claiming solidarity with the one he calls Father. Then in chapter 17 we see that Jesus is praying for that very same solidarity for his followers.

I can only tell you what I believe this all means. I’ve already stated, I think, that this means a full commitment on our part as followers of Jesus the Christ – a full commitment to his ideals and his work. But what I want to name goes beyond that. I believe Jesus is praying for us to experience and become what he himself experienced and became. I believe Jesus is praying for us to be christs. In chapter 17 verse 22 Jesus says, “The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one.” We are given glory. We are called to one-ness. This one-ness is centered around love. That’s critical! Otherwise I think we’re talking about simple arrogance. The ideals and works of The Holy and of Jesus must be based in love. Verse 26 says, “I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” The love with which Jesus has loved us will be in us and so then Jesus will be in us.

It is the love which compels us to solidarity. It is the love that fosters our commitment. It is the love that is so intimidating to those in the crowd that they will do anything, including murder, to exterminate it. We are called to be christs – to be unwavering in our commitment to the ideals and work of Jesus. We are to be unwavering in our solidarity to The Holy, to Jesus, and to each other.

To what purpose? What are the ideals and works of Jesus? Who or what are we christs to or for? These are the questions that I want to leave us with. I will say that the event that took place immediately preceding Jesus claiming one-ness with the Father was his healing of man born blind and the offense that the religious leaders took at this healing. But this healing is just one of many actions that Jesus took in solidarity with the one he calls Father.

I’ve been using this word solidarity – and I’ve been using it in relationship to our commitment to The Holy. That may seem odd. Why would our Divine Beloved need our solidarity? There are millions of people with whom we need to be in solidarity. I believe that our Divine Beloved is in solidarity with them. If we give ourselves fully to being the christs Jesus prayed for us to be, then I believe we will enter into the solidarity that our Divine Beloved has for these millions of humans who are suffering. Jon Sobrino, in his book Where is God? defines solidarity this way, “ Solidarity means not only giving but self-giving; this is not only or mainly an ascetic or romantically voluntaristic approach, but rather presupposes a fundamental anthropology. Solidarity means letting oneself be affected by the suffering of other human beings, sharing their pain and tragedy.” Sobrino emphasizes the words, “letting oneself be affected by.” It’s not just “helping.” It’s being in relationship. It’s loving. It’s being committed.

My questions remain … To what purpose are we called to be Christs? What are the ideals and works of Jesus? Who or what are we Christs to or for? Let’s think about these questions as we consider who are as a community and how we want to live our faith out in public.