This chapter of John’s Gospel is a thoughtful prayer from Jesus who wants to leave well and wants the best for his disciples and the larger community. Jesus prays as the final act of the last supper before his arrest and crucifixion.

He knows things are coming to a head and he longs for oneness and unity among his disciples and the larger community of those who believe. For his disciples, Jesus asks for protection “so they may be one, as we are one (v11).” And for the larger community, Jesus claims he has given the glory given to him “so that they may be one, as we are one (v22).” Jesus later says that this unity is a piece of the world knowing that God sent Jesus out of love!

In both instances, Jesus uses his relationship with God as the model for what unity and oneness look like. We certainly need a model of unity in our world. It seems that we have disunity and division on the one hand, and we have false unity and conflict avoidance on the other. But the oneness shared by Jesus and his Heavenly Parent does not fit in either of our misguided categories of unity. Instead, the oneness they share is a mutual indwelling and mutual struggling—it is a mutual loving of one another and creation. Nothing is overlooked or skimped over in this model of unity; there is no disagreement when love is at the core. There is no hierarchy, no power struggle, no assimilation. There is no othering, no one excluded, and no one left behind.

Jesus longs for oneness and unity. A unity that levels the playing field, where equity and justice abound. A unity where we are all known and welcomed into the fold. A unity where there is mutual indwelling and mutual aid and mutual love. A true unity for all, that needs God’s protection because it is so radical and so countercultural. A oneness with no erasure because there is only room for embrace.