Jesus prayed that his disciples would “all be one” (John 17.21). The unity of Jesus’ followers stands out as a persistent New Testament theme. Jesus intended our Christian harmony to become a demonstrable witness to the world of the power of the gospel.
Some members of our “cloud of witnesses” invested their entire lives to honor Jesus’ prayer for his followers to become one. Marc Boegner (1881-1970) was clearly one of these people. He was a pastor and professor of theology in the Reformed Church of France before and during World War II. He labored to unite conservative and liberal Christians together to resist the growing influence of Nazism in Western Europe. Marc was the first Christian leader in France to register opposition to the persecution of Jewish people. His 1941 letter and subsequent appeals to French Protestant pastors challenged antisemitic laws and denounced the deportation of Jews. He wrote, “The Reformed Church of France cannot remain silent in the face of the suffering of thousands of human beings who have found asylum on our soil…Our cries of Christian conscience must be heard.”
It is estimated that a thousand or more Jews owed their survival to Marc’s tireless efforts. He organized escape routes and safe houses. He arranged for a hundred Jewish children to be smuggled out of concentration camps to safety in Switzerland. He prayed for a steady will in today’s prayer that God graciously answered: