19 May 26 | Jesus Prays for His Disciples
Jesus defined eternal life and it was not what most people think it is.
The Gospel: John 17:1-11a
¹ When Jesus had said this, he raised his eyes to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come. Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you, ² just as you gave him authority over all people, so that he may give eternal life to all you gave him. ³ Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ. ⁴ I glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do. ⁵ Now glorify me, Father, with you, with the glory that I had with you before the world began.
⁶ "I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. ⁷ Now they know that everything you gave me is from you, ⁸ because the words you gave to me I have given to them, and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. ⁹ I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me, because they are yours, ¹⁰ and everything of mine is yours and everything of yours is mine, and I have been glorified in them. ¹¹ And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are."
Today’s Focus
Jesus opens the high priestly prayer by asking for the mutual glorification of Father and Son through the cross, defines eternal life as the relational knowledge of the Father and Son, reviews what He has accomplished in the disciples, and asks the Father to keep them in His name so that they may be one.
In the Margins
The farewell discourse is finished. Jesus raises His eyes to heaven and begins to pray. This is the high priestly prayer, the longest recorded prayer of Jesus in the Gospels, and it opens with the most intimate request in it. Father, the hour has come. Give glory to your Son so that your Son may glorify you.
The hour that Jesus has been managing throughout John’s Gospel, the hour that had not yet come at Cana and in the Temple and at the Feast of Tabernacles, has arrived. The cross is hours away. And the first thing Jesus asks is for the glorification that will accomplish the Father’s glorification. The request is not for rescue or relief. It is for the completion of the mission to be allowed to proceed.
He defines eternal life in a way that shifts everything. This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ. Eternal life is not primarily duration. It is the knowledge of the Father and the Son. The Greek word for know here, ginōskō, is not intellectual acquaintance. It is relational knowledge, the same word used for the intimate knowing between husband and wife in the Greek Old Testament. Eternal life is an ongoing, deepening relationship with the Father through the Son. It begins now. It does not wait for death.
Jesus then reviews what He has accomplished. He glorified the Father on earth by completing the work. He revealed the Father’s name to those the Father gave Him. He gave them the words the Father gave Him and they accepted them and understood that He came from the Father. The disciples are presented not as those who fully understood everything but as those who received the words and kept them and believed in the sending. That is the portrait of sufficient faith.
The prayer then turns to the disciples specifically. I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those you have given me. This is not indifference to the world. John 3:16 has already established God’s love for the world. This is the focusing of the high priestly intercession on those who have received the word. And the request is that they be kept in the Father’s name so that they may be one as the Father and Son are one.
This prayer is the theological foundation beneath everything the disciples are about to face. Arrest, abandonment, fear, confusion, the long silence between the cross and the resurrection. Jesus prays for them before all of it arrives. He presents them to the Father and asks for their keeping. Whatever you are facing, this is what was prayed over those who follow Jesus before the hardest night of their lives. It was sufficient for them. It was not revoked when they scattered. It holds for everyone who has received the word and believed in the one who was sent.
Reflection Question
If eternal life is the ongoing knowledge of the Father and Son rather than a future destination, how would your daily life look different if you treated it that way today?