Knowing God
On the night before he suffered, in the quiet of the upper room and after a long evening of fellowship and final instruction, Jesus gathered his disciples around himself one last time and turned his eyes toward heaven. What follows in John 17 is often called the High Priestly Prayer, and for good reason. Jesus is not simply asking for strength or comfort for himself; he is performing a priestly act of consecration in which he hands the mission he has received from the Father over to those who will carry it into the world after he is gone. The hour has come. His work on earth is nearly finished. And before the cross overshadows everything, he prays. He prays for himself, he prays for his disciples, and through them he prays for us. To read John 17:1-11 in the lectionary is to be drawn into one of the most intimate moments in all of Scripture—a conversation between the Son and the Father that we are privileged to overhear.
At the very center of this prayer is a definition of eternal life that ought to change the way we think about salvation. Jesus says that eternal life is this: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Eternal life, then, is not merely a quantity of time stretching endlessly into the future; it is a quality of relationship with the living God that begins the moment we come to know him through his Son. To know God is to know Jesus. There is no back door, no alternate path, no spiritual shortcut that bypasses the Word made flesh. The Father is known only through the Son, and the Son is the One who has been sent to reveal him. Everything that follows in the passage—every petition, every reflection on the disciples, every word about glory and oneness—flows from this single, foundational truth.
If knowing God is the goal, then faith is the door through which we enter. Jesus tells the Father that he has given his disciples the words the Father gave him, that they have received them, and that they have come to know in truth that he came from the Father. Faith, in this passage, is not a vague spiritual posture but the trusting reception of the Word, the Sending, and the Name of Jesus. We come to know God when we believe what Jesus has spoken, when we trust that he was truly sent by the Father, and when we receive the Name he has made known. This is why the Christian life begins not with our effort but with our reception. Before we ever act, we must first believe. Before we ever love, we must first trust. Faith is the soil in which every other Christian virtue takes root.
But faith alone is never the end of the story. To truly know Jesus is to do what Jesus did, and what we see Jesus doing in this prayer is loving—loving the Father by glorifying him in obedience, and loving his disciples by interceding for them in their hour of need. Notice how Jesus models the moral life even in the way he prays. He does not pray for his own comfort or escape; he prays for others. He lifts his eyes to heaven and pleads on behalf of those entrusted to him. And he tells the Father that he has glorified him on earth by accomplishing the work given to him. This is what love looks like in action: prayer for others, and labor for the glory of God. If we want to know whether we truly know Jesus, we need only ask whether our lives are marked by intercession for others and by the daily, often unnoticed, work of giving God glory in whatever vocation he has placed before us.
Finally, this passage opens the door to hope. Jesus prays that his disciples may be one, just as he and the Father are one. He prays that they may have eternal life, that they may share in the very unity of the Triune God. The knowing that begins now in faith and matures in love is destined for consummation in perfect communion with God in the age to come. This is the Christian's hope—not merely that we will survive death, but that we will be drawn into the eternal fellowship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And because Jesus himself has prayed for this, we can be sure it will come to pass. The prayers of the Son are never refused by the Father. What he has asked is already secured. So when we live by faith, when we express that faith in love, and when we pursue our hope in him, we are not merely improving ourselves; we are growing in the knowledge of Jesus and stepping more deeply into the eternal life he has won for us. To know Jesus is the greatest thing anyone could ever achieve. And by the grace of God, it is the very thing he has prayed we would have.
Peace be with you,
Pastor Bruce
