John 17:24-26 (NIV)
“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.”
In this closing section of His prayer, Jesus petitioned the Father that those in His inner circle (“those you have given me”) would be able to live in His presence for all eternity and to see His true glory. Jesus knew that this would not apply to Judas, whom He knew would ultimately choose to betray Him even as He named him one of the twelve. But the rest, despite their weaknesses and flaws, would ultimately prove true to Him and to His mission.
Jesus also assured the Father that these eleven apostles knew that Jesus had come from Him. Jesus states that He Himself knew the Father, that is that He had experiential knowledge of Him, not mere information. But at this point, the disciples only knew that Jesus had come from the Father. At the same time, Jesus had shared as much information as they could assimilate about who God was and what He was doing in the world. And He knew that when the Holy Spirit came, He would be able to use that head knowledge to open a path into their hearts for that same kind of experiential knowledge. And He knew that, at that point, genuine agape love would fill their hearts and transform them.
This whole section of Jesus’ prayer touches on the two-fold nature of the kingdom of God. There is a powerful aspect of the kingdom that is present today, wherever God’s people love Him and do His will. We are able to live here and now in vital relationship with God, and to experience His power and glory flowing through our own lives.
But at the same time, there is a “not yet” aspect of the kingdom. We who live in God’s kingdom while still residents of this world see God’s glory dimly, as if in a darkened mirror. But when this world is left behind, we will see Him face-to-face, and will know Him even as we are known (1 Corinthians 13:12). And we will then be able to live out the answer to Jesus’ petition forever.
Father, it is the tension between what we can experience here and now (which is actually a LOT), and what we are promised when our work here is done, that draws us ever forward, and instills in us a hunger for the righteousness that only comes to us through an intimate relationship with You. The amazing reality that Jesus prayed for these things for His disciples, and by extension, for us as well, is so easily lost as we face the struggles of life in this alien land. But His petition was real, sincere, and sure to be answered by You. Thank You for the hope that that puts into my heart. Amen.
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