As One.

Now, I don’t fancy myself a theologian. I’ll leave that up to somebody else. But I do love the Word of God. Maybe that makes me sound like a good-two-shoes. Perhaps I’m exactly that.

A lot of that Word confuses me. All the stoning of sinners and wrath and grace mixed in. Don’t get mad. Sometimes, I don’t know how it all works together. The Bible is full of mysteries and I pity the person who claims to understand it all.

It’s good to wonder. It’s good to question and doubt and turn to God and say, “I don’t get it”. Because if we 100% got it, would we really be in need of Jesus?

But what I do understand is that Jesus prayed for us. Those of us who would believe in Him because of the witness of the ancient apostles.

He didn’t pray that we’d win the debate.

Or that we’d split up into millions of congregations.

He didn’t pray that His followers would make themselves a “brand”.

Or that we’d be really good at convicting others of their sins while hiding our own behind a veil of self-righteousness.

He prayed for us. Us. And hours before His temporary death. He prayed that WE would be AS ONE. Like He is ONE with the Father.

We’ve blown it.

That’s how I feel on this Good Friday.

We have failed. We hate each other. Fight. Try to be right (not righteous…right). We kick each other when we’re down. We don’t turn the other cheek or walk the extra mile to serve our enemy. We ignore the least of these. Even say that they deserve their suffering.

We put more hope in our government than it deserves. More hope in our government than we put in God.

We put so much energy into fighting against something which is out of our control and forget to do what is most important. Feeding the hungry. Loving the unloved. Keeping our eyes on our marriages.

We are hated. Not because of our devotion to Jesus. No. We are hated for how very unlike Him we are.

Jesus prayed for us to be as one. He died for us. Our sins are covered.

And we keep messing it all up.

But the tomb is empty. He is not dead. He has risen.

And our messed up body of Christ can be resurrected. Healed. Brought back to life.

You know what we need to do?

Stop fighting to stay in the tomb. Stop pushing the stone back over the entrance. Stop whitewashing over the outside and start thinking about the inside.

We’ve blown it. But He will redeem it.

And one of these days we’ll realize how beautiful it is to be as one.

This Good Friday, I despair. Sunday morning, hope.