Jesus’ Prayer for Harmony / John 17:20-26 / Pr. Ted A. Giese / Sunday June 1st 2025 / Season of Easter / Mount Olive Lutheran Church

Mount Olive Lutheran Church / Pr. Ted A. Giese / Sunday June 1st 2025: Season of Easter / John 17:20-26 “Jesus’ Prayer for Harmony”

[Jesus says] “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word, 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. The glory that You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one even as We are one, I in them and You in Me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that You sent Me and loved them even as You loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, may be with Me where I am, to see My glory that You have given Me because You loved Me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know You, I know You, and these know that You have sent Me. I made known to them Your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which You have loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in Your sight O Lord. Amen.

Grace peace and mercy to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Good Christian Friends, Jesus does many spectacular things; He calms the storm, He walks on water, He casts out demons, He feeds thousands with something equivalent to a box lunch, He has no fear of cleaning out the temple with nothing more than a cord of rope and the will of His Father, He raises the dead, and heals with the touch of His hand or with one word, and He always kept His word, even when He would say things like, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him. And when He is killed, after three days He will rise.”[1] Jesus did just that. After His crucifixion and death, Jesus—three days later —did just as He said and rose up from the dead, alive.

There is one more thing that Jesus did all the time and it’s a miraculous thing too, yet we often count the doing of it as little, or not much in the grand scheme of things, Jesus prayed. Jesus prayed regularly, and what’s more, we see in our reading from the Gospel of Saint John, that Jesus prays for you: for this reason “we might well inscribe this text in letters of pure gold, as one that refers to us in particular,”[2] as words prayed specifically for us. Jesus prays for you! This Gospel reading is from a section of Scripture which records Jesus’ Thursday evening prayers prior to His Good Friday crucifixion and death. It is often called Jesus’ High Priestly prayer.

When we pray, we pray for the things we want, so what does Jesus pray for when He prays? As we see in today’s Gospel He prays for us. And what does Jesus want for us when He prays, what does Jesus desire for us to have:  

1) Unity with each other and unity with the LORD God,

2) Belief in God, and for people to believe that God the Father sent Jesus Christ to them,

3) Knowledge that God the Father loves us as He loves Jesus,

4) Communion with Jesus Christ, so that we will be with Him wherever He is and so we can see His eternal glory.

5) Love for each other like the love God the Father has for His only begotten Son Jesus, the love Jesus has for His Father.

Today we’ll focus in on the part of Jesus’ prayer for us where He prays for our unity as Christians in Him. Saint Paul urges this unity in his letter to the Christians of Ephesus, “I therefore, [as one captive to the Lord,] urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with 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. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”[3] Hummnnn, this sounds the same as what we heard Jesus pray. Saint Peter likewise writes in his first Epistle, “Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless [each other], for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.”[4] Hummnnn, this sounds the same as what we heard Jesus pray too. Here we see a picture of Christian unity, and a unified teaching about it.

On Friday at Elsie Schweitzer’s funeral, using music as an example, I preached these words in the sermon, “When we think of music, the best music is music with harmony and not discord. First you want every note in the right place, and then if there is a wrong note anywhere you want forgiveness and a chance to be in harmony again.”[5] I’ll expand on this, when an orchestra is playing and there’s a musician playing a different tune the symphony is thrown into discord. When everyone is trying to play the same tune but someone is struggling it’s likewise the work of the conductor to keep everyone on track, to bring everyone together musically. Sometimes there is a difference of opinion between the first violin and the conductor over the tempo of the music or what pieces to play. The best outcome in such situation is one where unity prevails and everyone is encouraged to improve their playing for the good of everyone both the players and the listeners. You likely are no Bassoonist or Piccolo player do you play one of the instruments you’d find in the orchestra ... I heard someone say the only thing they can play is the radio ... I hope you’re get the drift. No matter where you are whether at work or in the family or even among friends or in a congregation there are conductors and first violinists and Bassoonists or Piccolo players too. This is just an illustration of how harmony works and what unity is like. For us, Jesus then is the Good Conductor and His pastors are His under-conductors tasked to keep tempo and tune together in His stead and by His command and we are all then musicians in the orchestras of the Church. Call to play in unity and to make music without discord.

But knowing that there will be sour notes from time to time, knowing that there will be well meaning but misplayed notes, knowing that there will be broken strings and tuning issues along the way Jesus gives His under-conductors, and indeed the whole orchestra, a ministry of reconciliation: opportunity and ability to forgive, to draw together into harmony what has been in discord. Forgiveness then is what creates unity among Christians, and when Christians are in unity they have what the Holy Trinity has, they have what God the Father and Jesus His only begotten Son have naturally. For us it doesn’t come naturally, for us it is a gift that we are given in Christ, and what a wonderful gift it is and so King David, who was a musician himself writes in Psalm 133, “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!”[6]

Now for those three years leading up to His crucifixion Jesus’ disciples would see Him go off alone to pray, and when He did Jesus was going off to pray to His heavenly Father and so when they asked Him to teach them how to pray Jesus gives them His Prayer tailored for them and for each of us, this is the prayer we now call The Lord’s Prayer. With this prayer we are invited into Jesus’ prayers with His heavenly Father. He and the Father are one and Jesus wants this same unity for us with Him and with His Father. In this prayer we pray, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Now you may say, ‘hold on Jesus had no sins, of His own, to ask forgiveness for,’ this is true and yet He took on all of your sins all of my sins all of the sins of the whole world at the cross and in His death your sins are forgiven by your heavenly Father. Upon the cross Jesus even prayed to His heavenly Father for the ones who were sinning against Him, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”[7] Forgiveness then is of utmost importance for unity as Christians. Forgiveness is the way in which we win back brothers and sisters in the faith when there has been a falling out, when there have been bad notes and discord between them. 

One time in those years leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion and His resurrection Saint Peter asked Jesus, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to [Peter], “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.”[8] Which is to say every time: the perfect number of times, times perfect completeness, times the perfect number of times: every time. The end result of forgiveness is unity and here we see that God the Father, Jesus His only begotten Son, and the Holy Spirit desire unity, not just some of the time but all of the time. Our unity with each other as Christians and our unity with Them as their redeemed heirs of heaven and the very apple of Their eye, Their very creation, is what the LORD most want for us. This is what Jesus died for, to pave the path for this unity by forgiving sin and setting right what has gone wrong. So Saint Paul encourages and admonishes us, to “[bear] with one another [in love] and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive,”[9] Saint Paul says, and he says this more than once, “be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”[10]

You might think, ‘well that’s all well and good, Saint Paul is a Saint so it’s easy for him to talk about forgiveness and unity. I however have my struggles with it, I find it hard, I have people I’m in discord with, and we are not hitting the same notes right now, I’m not sure if we’ll ever be able to hit the same notes, I’m not even sure we’re playing off the same sheet music!’ dear ones, Saint Paul didn’t always get along with everyone.[11] He even had disagreements with Saint Peter, and yet there was forgiveness, and what was in discord was brought, by the grace of God, into harmony once more.[12] Yes, there is always opportunity for unity and it is the prayer of our Lord that we would have it. If someone you’re in discord with offers an olive branch of peace and unity and forgiveness, take hold of it. This is what we are called to pray for and this is Jesus’ prayer for you. Until our final and perfect unity comes on The Last Day let us strive and pray for such unity as best as we can in these days. Now the world may not consider our prayers as miracles, and they may not see forgiveness as a miracle, but they are. These blessed miracles are made possible for us, not by our work, but by the life, death and Easter Resurrection and Ascension of our Lord Jesus. Let us be glad and rejoice in them. Amen.

Let us pray: Lord have mercy on us, Christ have mercy on us, Lord have mercy on us, “take our minds and think through them, take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire; for the sake of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Amen.

[1] Mark 9:31
[2] Luther’s Works, Volume 69, American Edition; Sermons on the Gospel of St. John Chapters 17-20, Edited by Christopher Boyd Brown, Concordia Publishing House 2009, pg. 101.
[3] Ephesians 4:1–6
[4] 1 Peter 3:8–9
[5] Elsie Schweitzer’s funeral Sermon May 30th 2025 Mount Olive Lutheran Church.
[6] Psalm 133:1
[7] Luke 23:34
[8] Matthew 18:21–22
[9] Colossians 3:13
[10] Ephesians 4:32
[11] 2 Timothy 4:14–17; Acts 19:23-41
[12] Galatians 2:11-14, Acts 15

Photo Credit: Main Photo of conductor with orchestra from wikimedia commons.