Jesus Joined

What Did Jesus Do?

…that they may all be one, just 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 have sent me.
John 17.21

President Theodore Roosevelt is famed for, among many other things, joining the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific by pushing through the completion of the Panama Canal. Wilbur and Orville Wright are remembered for their successful joining of a motor to a glider, thereby creating powered flight. Jonas Salk is celebrated for joining the right ingredients together to make a life-saving polio vaccine. Those who join are worthy of honor; just think of Mr. Reese who joined chocolate with peanut butter (Just kidding.).

The Father sent the Son on a “joining” mission. Jesus testified before Pilate that the reason He came into the world was to bear witness to the truth (See John 18.37), and the truth is, without Jesus we are all tragically, mortally, eternally, separated. So it was that when Jesus prayed to His Father as His mission neared its end His prayer was for successful joining. Modern songwriters may lament that “One is the loneliest number,” but in fact it is the exact opposite—the perfect unity of our being one with the Father and with each other in Christ is the very longing of God’s heart.

A bunch of wild, untamed, even rebellious, branches incapable of producing any good fruit of our own, Jesus, the true vine, comes and joins us to himself. (See John 15.1-5) Apart from abiding in Christ, and by the Holy Spirit having Christ in us, we are hapless, helpless, and headed for the flames (John 15.6). But in Christ, as He joins us to himself, we glorify the Father through bearing much good fruit for the kingdom. (John 15.7-8) Jesus joins us to himself.

When we were lost, alone, unloved and unlovable, Jesus came and told us that He is the one and only way to the Father. (See John 14.6) As Jesus is the very image of the Father (See Hebrews 1.3), all who know the Son in fact see the Father. (John 14.9) And the Lord has promised that He will come to take each of us to himself, that where He is (With the Father), we may be also. ( John 14.3) Jesus joins us to the Father.

There was a time when a gulf separated God’s covenant people (The Jews) from all other peoples (Gentiles), but in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek. Through the millennia people have been separated by economic status, but in Christ there is neither slave nor free. And, ever since the unfortunate affair of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, men and women have had no little contention between them, but in Christ there is neither male nor female, for in Christ Jesus all are one. (See Galatians 3.28) Jesus joins us to one another.

If joining was at the very heart of Christ’s mission then we had better be about the business of being one, for it is in fact the calling to which we have all been called. (See Ephesians 4.1). Therefore, following the Lord’s example, we look to join and be joined, walking in all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. (Ephesians 4.2) That’s what Jesus did.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4