Holy Entanglement: Living the Unity Jesus Prayed For

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Sometimes you know, you kind of look at what you’re singing and what you actually believe as a follower of Jesus. And you’re kind of like, “Wait a minute, do I really believe that? That’s incredible. That’s out there.”

Paul says actually it’s foolishness to the world, right? And sometimes it feels a little—it’s on the edge. It’s on the edge of belief. That’s why we need faith.

Today, in the scripture, we hear Jesus pray, and he prays for us, which is beautiful. He prays for you, right here, today—his future followers. And what he prays is pretty radical. It’s definitely beyond our reason, but it’s so beautiful.

I want to start by reading this, then we’ll pray that the Holy Spirit would open our minds and our hearts to see what is beyond our capability to see in the natural.

Here’s the prayer that Jesus prays:

My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one.

Father, just as you 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.

I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity.

Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me.

I have made you known to them and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.

Lord Jesus, thank you for praying for us. I thank you for praying for us. Thank you for your desire for us. Thank you for the intimacy of relationship—the oneness in your very being that you offer and make available.

God, again as we said, I pray: would you open our minds and our hearts, our full selves, to the reality of what is possible, what you have made possible, where you are moving us. May we see it, may we be excited by it, may we be motivated through it. In Jesus’ name, amen.

So here is a prayer that Jesus prays. It’s part of a larger prayer in John 17 where he is praying—oh, where’d my notes go? Can you get me to my sermon notes?

He is praying, and there’s three parts to this prayer. First, he prays for himself. Then—there you go—he prays for his followers that are right beside him in that moment. And then he prays for future followers, and that’s us.

It’s beautiful to think that Jesus is looking into the future and realizing that there will be a worldwide movement in his name of people that follow him and are brought back home to their Creator, and he prays for us in this moment.

We’re going to focus on that last part of the prayer that he prays for us. Here he has just finished his last teaching in the Gospel of John to his disciples. These are his final words before he is going to be taken, arrested, crucified, buried, and resurrected.

This is the final moment of a man sentenced to death. He knows what is coming. He knows what he will suffer. And so he is getting his last words to his disciples, and he prays for them.

At the edge of the cross, with death pressing close, Jesus prays.

And notice what he prays for in this most desperate moment—it’s not for escape, it’s not for vengeance, but it’s for you. It’s for us.

It’s for his people. And it reveals this deep desire in God.

Do you ever wonder what God wants? What God desires? What God longs for? We see it here. His desire is laid open. He says:

My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message.

And here’s the prayer:

That they all may be one.

So his deepest desire is that we would be one. We need to unpack that, but that’s his desire. That’s his dying prayer.

His last prayer to God that we have on record is him praying for our oneness.

I’m going to quote the Pope today a couple of times, okay? Because the Pope—Pope Benedict, this is a couple popes ago—wrote a great little treatise on this prayer.

Pope Benedict XVI calls this moment we see here the opening of the inner life of God. It’s a glimpse into the eternal communion of love between the Father, Son, and Spirit.

So here we get a glimpse into the nature of God and what we’re invited into. And Jesus here doesn’t just teach on unity—he longs for it, he aches for it, he prays for it.

This is not a side issue. It’s the beating heart of God. It’s what God desires.

The unity of believers is meant to reflect— we’ll see—the unity of God himself, the Trinity:

As you, Father, are in me and I in you.

When we hear this prayer, sometimes we just hear it as a call to unity, like a kumbaya moment—you know, we just gather around the campfire, put aside our differences, and sing kumbaya.

But this is so much more than that. This is so much more than surface-level unity.

This is a sharing of life.

If you put your hands together—oh, let’s have you do this because it’ll wake you up too—this would be intimacy, right? This would be closeness. But if you do this, this is a sharing. This is unity. This is intermingledness. This is oneness.

And if we could, we would meld our hands together into one. This is—even closer than this—what Jesus is calling us into: a shared life with the shared life of God.

Jesus says, I in them. I am in you, Father, and you are in me. And I want them to be in us.

This oneness—this is what Jesus is praying for. It’s an indwelling, a communion that is not institutional conformity, it’s not groupthink. It’s relational participation in the very love that exists between God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

He’s inviting us into the divine life of God—the communion of the Trinity.

I like to go back to creation here. Why did God create the universe and cosmos in the first place?

Was he lonely? Was he lacking something? Did he need worship? Did he need adoration? Did he need people to pat him on the back and reassure him? Did he need people just to obey him and do what he says?

No. There is no lack in God. Father, Son, Holy Spirit—God is relationship. God is loving, self-giving, other-centered relationship existing in eternal loving relationship constantly.

Father, Son, Holy Spirit—there is no lack. There is no need. There is no deficiency. There is no loneliness. Fully content, God lived in that way for eternity past—before anything happened—and continues that way now and forever.

So why would God create the world?

It’s like what we prayed last week: May our love abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment.

It’s an overflow.

Love can’t help but be shared and expand and grow. This love is an outpouring. Creation is an outpouring of God’s very character and nature—to be in loving relationship with as much as possible.

So the cosmos, humanity, and all creation are intended from the beginning to live in this shared life of God: to love, to be loved, and to give love. That’s what it’s about.

This is why creation began, and this is why Jesus came.

Jesus’ primary purpose—our purpose—is not to be better people, not to be more just people, not to be anything other than to be restored into that loving communion with God. To be restored fully into that oneness of walking with God in the garden.

Creation is a context for relationship with God and with one another. And that is what Jesus is praying for—he’s praying that this restoration into communion would be made complete.

This is why he has come. This is what he prays for—that we would return to our intended purpose: to be in communion, in loving relationship, in the loving shared life of God.

Am I making any sense? I hope so. I hope so.

Thank you, thank you.

Let’s unpack this a little bit.

This unity—it’s not just this—it’s this. And what does this look like?

First, unity—this kind of unity that Jesus prays for—is not sameness. It’s not homogeneity. It’s a holy entanglement.

We talked about this a few weeks ago: a holy entanglement. A holy entangled mess of humanity sharing in the life of God.

This is the scandal. This is the miracle. This is the glory of this prayer. Jesus prays for those who will believe—all of us across all continents, across all spaces and times and cultures and languages and races and politics and backgrounds.

We are being invited together into this shared life.

Willie James Jennings helps us see this in his commentary on Acts. It’s beautiful. He talks about Pentecost in Acts 2.

What’s the Spirit doing? He’s bringing everyone back—all peoples from all places and all nations and all languages and all cultures. He’s bringing them together.

The Holy Spirit is the one who entangles people—crossing borders and boundaries and fears, creating communion through difference, not in spite of it.

God’s kind of unity is not to make everyone the same—it’s to reconcile all the differences together. That we would coexist. That we would be a beautiful, diverse community that displays the multifaceted beauty of God.

Too often, unity in the church and in church history has been understood as assimilation.

We’ve brought people into a way of Jesus that looks the same.

And what were the results of that in church history? How about Indian boarding schools, where they said, “Kill the Indian, save the man”?

What did they mean by that? Cut their hair so they have a Western haircut—because following Jesus looks like sameness, right?

We’re going to have a Western haircut, speak English and not your native tongue. And we punished them for speaking their own language.

This is a long-standing tradition in the church—to understand unity as conformity and sameness.

This is not at all the heart of God.

The heart of God is a holy entanglement of a beautiful diversity. And it’s a communion so deep, so radiant, that it can hold every difference in love. God’s love is so strong that it holds all the ways we’re different in love.

It’s a holy entanglement. A holy mess. It’s not clean, it’s not neat—but it is sacred, it is real, and it is beautiful.

The image that came to my mind is of these huge magnets that grab stuff.

Everything is just drawn to their power. And within that magnet—again, I’m not a physicist or whatever kind of science explains this, I have no idea—but I’m assuming that the energy of the magnet is pulsing and drawing and working through all of that stuff.

The force of the magnet draws everything together and surges through it all.

This is a picture of God’s love—of the Trinity inviting all people from all places and all backgrounds into a holy entanglement that is drawn to his love, made one by his love.

The love of God, the presence of God, the nature of God is surging through every single piece.

This is a holy, beautiful entanglement. It doesn’t look clean and pretty, but it is beautiful, it is sacred.

When we first started our church in the International District, we had a core value called the beautiful discomfort of diversity.

Because if we all truly bring our full selves—our full culture, our full background, our full personality—and we let that breathe and live, and we don’t adjust, we all come together, that’s beautiful…and also really awkward. Really uncomfortable.

That’s why as churches and communities we long for assimilation and sameness—because it makes us feel more comfortable.

I don’t want to hear a different language or a different way of communicating—it’s hard, it takes all this work to understand this person.

But we’re being drawn by the love of God into this beautiful mess called unity.

The Spirit of God crosses borders, dismantles walls, brings Jews and Gentiles, men and women, adults and children, slaves and free, Black and white, rich and poor into one body—not by erasing difference, but by reconciling it.

By reconciling us, by helping us know and understand and listen and work together.

So that’s the first point: not homogeneity, but entanglement.

And then—this unity is a glory.

This unity is bound together by love—a glory that is shared, not hoarded.

Verse 22 says: I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity.

Glory—what is the glory that Jesus has shared with us?

I don’t see anyone glowing. I don’t see a halo on anyone’s face. So what is this glory?

What is the glory of Jesus?

In the Gospel of John in particular, the crucifixion follows the enthronement of a king.

He is robed with a crown of thorns, he has a procession as he carries the cross, and his exaltation is him being lifted up on the cross.

For the Gospel of John, this is how he understands the glory of God—it’s a love that is shaped by the cross. It’s a serving, other-centered, dying love of God.

This is the radiance of God—the glory of God—that he shares with us.

It’s a self-giving love, empowered and shaped by the cross, and it is shared with us.

The glory of God is love.

The glory of God is not power standing above the world, but the humility of love.

Jesus shares his glory so that we may be drawn deeper into his love, his own life of love within the Trinity.

Theologians call this participation in the divine dialogue.

God—Father, Son, Holy Spirit—is in constant relational communication with one another: perfect, self-giving, other-centered love.

And we are being drawn into that conversation, into that love shared between God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

N.T. Wright says: The people of God, the church, are those caught up by the Spirit in the love shared between Father and Son.

We’re in this holy conversation.

When I was a kid, I loved going to my grandparents in Phoenix. Maybe I’m weird, but I remember at five or six years old my favorite thing was just to listen when we arrived and my parents and grandparents would talk—talk about Uncle Wes, Uncle Rod, Aunt Susie—all the drama, all the gossip about what was going on.

I just loved listening to that conversation and being sometimes invited into it—being involved in that communication, that relationship, that thing bigger than myself.

I think of it this way: we’re being drawn into the family of God, into the conversation of God. We’re being formed and shaped by what we’re hearing, and we are even invited to participate and to share in the life of God.

So this unity is a glory that looks like the cross—that looks like servant love—that we are invited into.

And it is not abstract.

How do we know that we are experiencing this kind of unity?

How do we practice this kind of unity?

It’s in our relationships.

It’s in the entanglement.

It’s in the mess of the magnet.

As we’re drawn together from all across the globe, from all different life experiences, we’re drawn together, the love of God is radiating through us, making this holy entanglement.

Then we practice unity.

Unity and sharing in God’s glory is when we forgive across deep wounds.

When someone says something really hurtful to you and you choose to work through it rather than walk away and forgive—that’s sharing in the glory of Christ. That’s practicing the unity of God.

When we break bread with people who are different from us—that’s sharing in the glory of Christ.

When we love those the world tells us to hate, when we refuse to “other” and make enemies of the people who disagree with us, or the people our tribe says are the enemy—then we are sharing in the glory of Christ.

That’s beautiful.

So what’s the result of this unity?

Let’s look at verse—oh, I missed the slide, but that’s okay.

The result of this unity, Jesus says, is that the world will believe.

When it sees this kind of love, when it sees this kind of communion, when it sees this kind of unity—the world will believe that Jesus is who he said he is.

In verse 23 it says: Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

I find it interesting—the amount of energy and resources that go into apologetics (which is fine, it’s not a bad thing). Argumentation, debates—we put all our energy into arguing people into the faith.

Or we put all of our energy into dismantling “the world’s agenda” or whatever political agenda.

But what Jesus says is—the way that people will believe is if you live as if who I am is true.

If you live in unity.

If you forgive across great divides and woundedness.

If you have this beautiful entanglement of love—that is the greatest apologetic.

It’s not argumentation.

Our communion, lived out, is our witness to the world.

What will bring people to Jesus?

Not primarily our intellectual prowess, our debates, our argumentation.

Not our lively, fancy worship services.

Not our eloquent preaching, Instagram, or websites.

Not even our acts of service and justice are the greatest apologetic.

It is our unity—the way that we are committed to holy entanglement across difference.

The way that we choose love in great difficulty with different kinds of people.

Jesus is looking and drawing us into a community that loves one another across difference, class, border, and boundary.

And this will cause people to believe that Jesus is the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the Prince of Peace, and the Giver of Life.

This is what the fragmented, angry, polarized world needs to see.

This is the apologetic—that we would love one another.

A communion of difference.

A fellowship of the forgiven.

A holy entanglement of love.

A people who say, “Yes, you are different, and you are reconciled. You belong. You are welcome. Let’s figure it out. Let’s learn to love each other even though we don’t understand each other.”

Here’s the good news—the beautiful news.

I think it’s worth pausing and just recognizing that Jesus prays this prayer for us.

Again, let’s go back to the desire of Jesus—the desire of God laid open.

The heartbeat of God is that we would be one, that we would share his life.

It says in Hebrews 7:25 that Jesus is interceding for us.

He’s still praying for us.

He’s still praying for us right now—that we would have unity.

I want to go to verse 24 here.

As I was preparing for the sermon on Thursday, I had one of those rare moments where I was just overwhelmed by this idea—the emotional desire of God for me, for you, for us.

Listen to what he says:

Father, I want those you have given me to be with me.

What does God want?

What does Jesus want?

What is his desire?

He wants us.

He wants you.

To what? To behave? To obey? To be perfect?

He wants to be with us.

Like a parent wants their children to be with them even when they’re not perfect.

He wants to be with us.

Father, I want them to be with me where I am, and to see my glory—the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

Here’s the quote again: At the heart of being Christian is an encounter with a person, Jesus Christ, and through him with the communion of the triune God. John 17 shows us that the whole drama of salvation is about love that desires to share itself.

What is all of this about?

All the sanctification. The overcoming of sin. The works of justice and mercy. The acts of forgiveness and all the things we try to do—that’s only the result of sin. It’s not God’s intent.

The design—the why we’re created, why this all exists, why Jesus came—is because he wants to be with his creation.

He wants to be with you.

He wants you to be where he is.

That’s as simple as it is.

That’s what this is all about.

That’s why Jesus died. That’s why he rose from the dead. That’s why he’s coming back. That’s why his Spirit is at work in the world.

Ultimately, it is to be reunited in this relationship of love—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—that we would share in the shared life of God.

That we would be one: he in us, in him as he is in the Father and the Father is in him.

This communion—the shared life—is where all is healed, where all is whole. That is where eternal life comes from.

I don’t think God gives us eternal life. He invites us into his life, which is eternal.

That make sense?

We only live because we are connected to the Life-Giver. And so our life—this is what it’s all about.

I want to end with this: Jesus’ desire is to be with us.

His core desire is not that we perform for him. His core desire is not that we behave for him. His core desire is to be with us, and we with him—sharing in the love that God shares, his eternal life.

He invited us into the eternal life of God.

I have a friend who has been a part of our church in the International District since the beginning, but he doesn’t come to church.

So many people consider our church their church—and they don’t come to church. And that’s okay.

It kind of hurts my feelings sometimes, but it’s all right.

Why doesn’t he come?

He comes only if he’s had a success. He comes only if he feels like he has something to bring or something to offer.

I’ve told him so many times: We don’t want you for what you bring. We want to be with you. We want you to be with us. We want to be with you. We want you to be where we are. We just want you.

So much of the human experience and human dysfunction is trying to be something in order to be with somebody, right?

We have to bring our accomplishments. It’s not just us.

Man, what freedom, what life, what joy would we have if we could just come and realize that Jesus just wants us to be where he is.

Not because we’ve done anything for him. Not because we’ve overcome whatever sin we’ve overcome.

He just wants to be with us.

How would we move through the world differently?

How would your goals change?

How would your priorities change?

How would your anxieties and your stress change if you believed that you are wanted—and that God wants to be with you—apart from anything you’ve done or haven’t done?

He just wants you.

I think it would change everything.

It would change the way we do church.

It would change the way we parent our children.

It would change the way we seek to be married.

It would change the way we pursue our careers.

It would change everything if we would rest in this thought of Jesus praying:

God, I want them to be with me where I am, and to share in my glory.

And we know that this is a strong desire, because what did Jesus do to make this possible?

He’s about to go to it in this prayer. He’s about to die on the cross.

He’s about to be crucified and tortured. Sweat drops of blood.

He did the work.

Let’s accept the invitation to be with him.

And this is really what communion is all about.

It is this sacrament where Christ becomes visible, where his prayer becomes visible—that the body of Christ comes to the one table, and we in some mysterious way partake.

We take God into ourselves—the bread and the wine, symbol or mysterious presence of God’s very self, taken into us.

We—and that bread and that wine—it becomes a part of us, becomes the energy by which we walk, move, live, breathe, have our being.

This symbol is a powerful representation of the kind of unity and oneness that God has made possible in Jesus Christ.

I invite you to the table.

I invite you into the communion that God has provided for you and ultimately will be perfect between us and God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.