Father, consecrate them in the truth so that they may be one just as we are one. Another petition that we find in the Prayer of Jesus is that the disciples persevere in holiness (consecration). The disciples have been set apart (consecration means to set apart, to make holy) for a special mission, and the success of the mission demands that they remain “set-apart.” Jesus is praying to the Father that the disciples’ consecration be after his (Jesus’) very own. He wants it to be a setting apart just as he was set apart, that is, in the world, but not of it, otherwise their consecration would not be true (vs. 19b) and would thus not maintain. For this reason, he prays that the disciples be set apart IN HIM (vs. 17: consecrate them IN THE TRUTH: “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” Jesus had earlier said [John 14:6]. In other words, Jesus is praying that the disciples be totally immersed in him. Apart from Jesus, the mission of a disciple is null and void, for Jesus IS the mission. Just as Jesus became the face of God and revealed God to us, so is a disciple the face of Jesus. It is the mission of the disciple to reveal the face of Jesus to the world. Jesus was able to reveal the face of God because he and the Father were one. In like manner a disciple will only reveal Jesus to the world if he/she and Jesus are one. It is for this that a disciple is set apart. And it is for this that a disciple must be set apart in Jesus Christ.