After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.
Dean Honnette, Senior Pastor
Hope Center Covenant Church (Pleasant Hill)
This portion of Scripture is a wonderful gift to us. To “listen” to an intimate prayer between Jesus and His Father is a privilege. Much of it is too deep for us to understand completely, but we can grasp this: Eternal life is found in knowing God the Father and Jesus His Son (verse 3). This knowledge is clearly not just head knowledge but a personal, life-changing knowledge. This kind of knowledge of the Father would be impossible without the Son. We could only know of God the Father from a great, great distance without the redeeming work of Jesus on the cross. And we would not really know Jesus as the Christ without the Father raising Him from the dead.
Perhaps this is why Jesus asks the Father to glorify Him in this prayer. Jesus had already been glorified in the miracles that He had done, but the prophets had also done things like that through the Father’s power. The resurrection of Jesus by the Father gave Jesus the glory that made it clear He was divine “before the world began.” Let’s revel in the good news that the Father and the Son worked together to give us eternal life, which we now have through the Holy Spirit’s residence in our lives by faith.
Thank you God for making it possible to have a life-changing knowledge of You. In Jesus’ name, amen.
