“I only do what I see the Father doing (John 5:19).” Jesus followed His Father’s will, but He was not robotic. On the night of His arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus famously struggled between His will and the Father’s. It was a real choice, not an affected posture. Choosing to agree with the Father’s plan, Jesus allowed the Temple guards to arrest Him. During His arrest, Peter, however, took matters in His own hands striking one of the guards to cut off his ear. Jesus instantly told Peter to put away his sword saying, “Do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels (Matthew 26:53)?” He had chosen and was not backing out. Jesus lived in perfect agreement with His Father’s will.
Lord Jesus, You do not need us in Your work, but You have chosen to include us for the sake of relationship. Working together creates the closeness which You desire, even more than the work we do with You. The unity produced from working with You releases Your power in the world, but it also shapes our relationship with You into the oneness which You prayed for during the Last Supper. Let us desire this oneness enough to passionately pursue You as the true north of our life.
AGREEMENT
Why did Jesus only do and say what He heard from the Father? He was fully capable of devising His own agenda and strategies. As we witnessed in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus CHOSE to deny Himself in preference for the Father’s will.
There is power in unity. Remember the Tower of Babel? The whole earth had one language and one speech. God recognized the power of this oneness and brought confusion, scattering the builders who were constructing a monument to themselves. The Lord said: “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them (Genesis 11:6).
Agreement with God empowers us in doing His work. Superficial agreement will not work. Believe me, He knows the difference. His will is not something we can just assume, we must actively seek to know it. His word is a primary guide, but taking time to listen to Him speak His will into our spirit and thoughts also matters.
LISTENING
If Jesus left His Father behind each morning, only to return to Him at night with a report of the day, how could He only say and do what He saw His Father doing? Jesus and the Father were always in touch through the Spirit. For instance, when Jesus was teaching in a house overflowing with a large crowd suddenly a paralyzed man was lowered on a mat before Him. The most obvious response would have been for Jesus to heal the man’s paralysis, but Jesus waited to hear from the Spirit. He heard, “Forgive his sins,” not “Heal his paralysis.” Jesus might have thought, this will no doubt agitate the religious leaders gathered here, but He was not there to please the religious crowd. Agreeing with His Father, not the scribes and Pharisees. He spoke, “Man, your sins are forgiven.” On cue, the scribes and Pharisees began to accuse Jesus of blasphemy but His next statement stunned and silenced them. He asked, “Which is easier to say, “Your sins are forgiven or take up Your bed and walk (Luke 5:23)?” To vindicate His authority, Jesus immediately healed the man’s paralysis.
As another example, in Peter’s hometown of Bethsaida, Jesus healed everyone who came to him and the people begged Jesus to stay with them. However, He declined to stay saying that He had to go to other towns. “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent (Luke 4:43).” How tempting
it would have been for Jesus to remain where success and acceptance were guaranteed, but this was not the Father’s plan.
On a later occasion, Peter took Jesus aside to let Him know that He shouldn’t be saying that He was going to Jerusalem to suffer and die. According to Peter, this was never going to happen to Jesus. As teacher Bill Johnson observes, it is not a good idea to correct the Son of God and Jesus strongly rebuked Peter. Turning to Peter, Jesus said, ““Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men (Matthew 16:23).” Jesus clearly delineates the choice that is always before us: the things of God and the things of men. Surely this could not be the plan of God allowing His Son to be killed. How could He then save the world? Rescuing Jesus was the plan of man, sacrificing His Son was the plan of God. How often do we, as Peter, assume our way is God’s way?
THE PAINTING
It is not difficult to find agreement in the mirror imagery that populates each of the twelve panels. The duplication in each image shouts unity. If the forms in each panel deviated from one another, it would impact the unity of the image, weakening the agreement between the two forms. The painting would be about something else, not agreement. This is not to say that we should always produce repetitive imagery but for the sake of visually expressing unity, mirror images seem to work best.
Although we are all different, signified by the diversity of forms and color in each panel of the painting, we can become one with God while retaining our distinctiveness, the same mystery displayed in the Trinity as three persons in one.
Unlike the other panels, the third panel in the top row, the golden stair case, has no gap between the forms. The two forms have merged into one form, suggestive of the unity and oneness Jesus prayed for at the Last Supper.
Lord Jesus, we have talked of the need for unity in working with You, but so often we miss the mark. We fail to take the time to let You bring us into oneness with Your intentions. You perfectly practiced oneness with the Father, confidently saying to Philip at the conclusion of Your ministry, “You have seen me, You have seen the Father.” Could that ever be true of us?
The same night You prayed for oneness between Yourself, the Father and all believers, You spoke of abiding in You, comparing our relationship to that of a vine and its branches. This seems to be another way to speak of unity. Just as You said, the branches can produce nothing on their own, but life must flow to them from the vine.
Unity comes from abiding in You, not standing aloof, but leaning on You, resting on You, listening to You, trusting You, becoming attached to You. As teacher John Piper says, “It’s huge.” Unity is about agreeing with Your will, but it’s also about living close to You.
[i] Piper, J., September 2017, What does it mean to abide in Christ?, https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/what-does-it-mean-to-abide-in-christ, accessed 5.25.2023.
Living faithfully won’t work without abiding in You. I’m afraid that we are very inconsistent about abiding in You, running hot and cold. When we feel that we’ve missed the mark, we tend to avoid getting too close, but what we most need, in those times, is to draw close rather than practice avoidance. We often have the wrong idea about our relationship with You, viewing it through a performance lens. But not You. You just want us to be in constant contact. Our efforts to impress You hold no attraction and condemnation is not the name of the game for You. The unity you seek is based on endless transparency and acceptance.
Help us to give up trying to live the Christian life for You, but rather with You and to know the difference.
Sydney Walker, May 25, 2023
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