Eavesdropping; it isn’t something that’s often considered ethical behavior. Certainly it isn’t something through which one often learns good things, particularly about one’s self. However, that is just where we find ourselves in the scripture from John today, eavesdropping on Jesus. This passage picks up in the middle of Jesus’ prayer at the end of his last supper with the disciples before heading back out into society where capture, trial, and crucifixion will ensue.

In this moment, before all of that, Jesus is praying. In the first half of the prayer, which isn’t part of the reading for today, Jesus prays for the hour that is at hand and acknowledges the work he has done through his ministry to give glory to God on earth. Where we step into the passage today at verse 20, Jesus has switched gears and is praying for his followers, and not just for those seated around the table with him, but also for those who will come to believe in Jesus through their message.

In essence, Jesus is praying for us.

It is through the passed down messages of those who were present and journeyed with Jesus in person, and all of the Jesus followers that have come since, that those of us who are now in the world are able to learn about Jesus and the love of God that Christ reveals. Likewise, Jesus is also praying for those we share life with now and those yet to come, for it is also through each of us who choose to be Jesus followers in this time that the message of God’s love continues to be revealed.

The past few weeks, as I have pondered this prayer of Jesus from John 17, I have not been able to keep my brain from breaking into lines from the Bud Abbott and Lou Costello comedy routine: Who’s on First.

I would guess you also probably know bits of the sketch. It’s about a baseball team with players named things such as: Who, What, I Don’t Know, Why and Because. Poor Costello is the brunt of many jokes in the sketch as he desperately tries to get Abbot to tell him the names of the players and their positions on the field:

Abbot starts out the sketch saying: On our team we have Who’s on first, What’s on second, I Don’t Know’s on third.

Costello breaks in and says: That’s what I want to find out, the guys’ names.

Abbot says: Huh?

Costello: I want to know the names of the guys on the team.

Abbot says: That’s what I’m telling you: Who’s on first, What’s on second and I Don’t Know’s on third.

Costello: What?! You’re telling me you’re the manager of the team and you don’t know the guys’ names on the team?!

Abbot: I should!

Costello: And I’m asking you to tell me the names.

Abbot: I’m telling you! Who’s on first, What’s on second and I Don’t Know’s on third.

Costello: You haven’t said nothing to me yet – go ahead and tell me.

Abbot: I’m telling them! Who’s on first.

Costello: Go ahead and tell me. Who’s on First?

Abbot: Yes.

Well, you get the idea – the scene goes on and on, round and round and poor Costello gets confused and infuriated that Abbot won’t tell him the names of the guys on the team while Abbot is simply affirming what he thinks he has clearly communicated.

So why is this sketch in my head when I read John 17? Listen again to the end of verse 2o through the beginning of verse 23: 

I pray also for those
who will believe in me through their message,
that all may be one,
as you, Abba, are in me and I in you;
I pray that they may be one in us,
so that the world may believe that you sent me.
I have given them the glory you gave me
that they may be one, as we are one –
I in them, you in me –

While it certainly isn’t as funny as Abbot and Costello’s sketch, these lines from Jesus’ prayer at first glance seem just as circular and muddled:

You, Abba, are in me and I in you, they in us, that they may be one as we are one, I in them, you in me…Who’s on First?

Just as Abbot and Costello send us in circles for the sake of humor, Jesus’ prayer sends us in circles for a purpose as well: unity.

Jesus’ prayer is that all people, in all times, are able to experience and live in the love of God. While that prayer may be clear enough, Jesus’ method for explaining the progression of that love is where we have to follow the stream of the conversation closely or we, like Costello, may end up exasperated.

Jesus prays:

I have given them the glory you gave me
that they may be one, as we are one –
I in them, you in me –
that they may be made perfect in unity.

This is the circle of the love of God. It is a love that God shares with Jesus and which Jesus reveals and gifts to humanity so that we too may participate in the love which God directly offers us. Through that love we become hosts of the living Christ and are made one with each other. It is a circle of love which encompasses and unifies all things.

If your head is still spinning and a bit lost in the circles, don’t worry, so is mine. I think that part of the unity of God’s love is that it is mysterious and challenging to fully grasp is because we are a part of it. It continuously circles around and through us. God’s love is not something separate from us that we can quantify or qualify, it is a part of us and we are an active part of it. God’s love requires participation from us both as we seek to understand it for ourselves and as we offer it to others. And that active participation in the mysterious love of God draws us into circles of experiences again and again, unifying us with each other and God as we journey those paths together.

That is part of the reason we believe in the gathered community, why we dedicate children and their parents into care of the community, why we practice radical hospitality, why we are moved to seek justice and freedom with the oppressed, it is why we celebrate all kinds of diversity including racial, cultural, ability, religious, sexuality, and gender identity. Through the love of God, we become aware that we are one with everyone and are called into relationship with and for everyone so that, as Jesus prays, all may have the chance the live to their fullest in the love of God.

Unity is at the heart of Jesus’ prayer in John 17. It is a unity that is not bound by time or space but is present in and through the love of God. A love that verse 24 reminds us was present before the foundations of the world and which Jesus knows will continue to swirl around in the world even after he is physically gone because he has gifted all of humanity with the ability to live in and reveal the love of God in the world.

Jesus ends his prayer with these words [verse 26]:

To them I have revealed your Name,
and I will continue to reveal it
so that the love you have for me
may live in them,
just as I may live in them.

As I mentioned earlier, eavesdropping isn’t an act in which we normally expect to overhear good things. After eavesdropping on this prayer, however, I suppose that, in the vein of Abbot and Costello, if we were to ask Jesus: Who is in the love of God? His answer would be: Yes. And while that answer is mysterious and challenging in moments, it is also really good news.