By the Rev. Adrienne Stricker
“I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
“Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
– John 17:20-26
Here we have a plea for Jesus’ followers to become one. We get a glimpse into Jesus’ heart and longing for the believing community, which is another opportunity to try to grasp how Jesus understands unity. Verse 21 refers to a unity that moves beyond agreeing on important issues or accepting differences and into a mirroring of “the mutuality and reciprocity of the Father/Son relationship.” Here, as elsewhere in the gospels, we are given the model of the Trinity for our own relationships. Unity can be defined not in the specific terms of our own design, but as mutuality and reciprocity.
The foundation of the relationship of the believing community is based on the relationship of the Triune God, which the disciples glimpse in an intimate moment of Jesus’ prayer (vs. 23). The word “complete” is often used in the gospel of John to mean Jesus completing the work of God in the world. In other words, what happens in this prayer is not just a plea for the disciples to get along or work out their problems. Rather, the disciples reclaim their responsibility of continuing in the work of God through the act of reciprocating and living in mutuality, through which others on the outskirts of their community may come to see and know God.
New Testament scholar Gail R. O’Day presents this prayer as an opportunity for the disciples to learn: “Jesus places the church’s future in the hands of God and invites the church to listen in on that conversation.” Placing our future in the hands of God does not alleviate us of our responsibility to work for a future that reflects God’s love and justice in the world.
Jesus embodies mutuality and reciprocity by asking God to be with the disciples in a moment of intimacy, and trusting in his relationship to show such vulnerability as a model of true unity. Jesus is advocating for those whom God has marked by love and sent in love, for the benefit of the larger community. In the difficult and, often, painful work of trying to live together in community, we are called to take the next step and embody the presence of God for those “to whom love is a stranger.”