John 17:1-11 (NRSV)
Read John 17:1-11 on biblegateway.com
Chapter 17After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, Verse 2since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. Verse 3And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Verse 4I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. Verse 5So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.
Verse 6"I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Verse 7Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; Verse 8for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. Verse 9I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. Verse 10All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them.
Verse 11And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.
Devotion
This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent (v.3). Too often we think we have to die before receiving eternal life. Jesus tells us that if we know God, and Jesus whom God has sent, we are already living eternal life. Earlier in John's Gospel, Jesus says that in baptism we are born from above (3:3) and "everyone who lives and believes in me will never die" (11:26). St. Paul reminds us: "So then, whether we die or whether we live, we are the Lord's" (Rom. 14:8). Take time to reflect on the new life we have now through the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ. We don't have to wait until we die.
Prayer
Creator God, we thank you for the wind of your Spirit that moved over the waters of our baptism into Christ. Teach us to set our sails so we allow the Spirit of Jesus to move us more fully into the grace of eternal life right now. Amen.