John 17:1-11 Commentary

Jesus speaks the heart of the Trinity out loud in prayer for the disciples to hear. He speaks in the third person about himself at the beginning, but very quickly moves more passionately, intimately, and emphatically into the first person. This only deepens the significance of the words’ revelation about the heart of God.

And the most striking thing to me in this passage is that Jesus centres knowing God as what is essential for eternal life—not salvation and redemption through the forgiveness of sins as we have traditionally come to understand it. It’s a sign that Jesus Christ’s work of atonement stretches beyond the instance of the cross and involves all of his birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension (as it is even outlined in Heidelberg Catechism). Jesus’s own words point us in this direction: he chooses to use a past tense participle when he says he has finished the work the Father gave him to do (v 4).

Centring knowing the Father and Son roots us in relationship and helps us think of eternity more clearly as a relational reality. It allows us to eschew questions of works righteousness and rewards for a life lived in holiness—though this matters—and reminds us of why we exist in the first place: to be in relationship with the Maker of Heaven and Earth. Of course, we know that the forgiveness of sins and new covenant established by Jesus’s work on the cross is part of what God does and how we come to know God, but Jesus’s prayer makes as equally clear that God was motivated to do so that we might know God. If we identify as the ultimate prize being saved from our sins so that we can live in paradise, then we do not yet know the love that motivated God to give us such a gift.

Jesus’s prayer also makes clear that this is a relationship and reality that is begun to be experienced here on earth. We continue to know God right here, right now, through all things Christ. Jesus says that he has made known the Father, done all that the Father has asked him to do, and as a result, his beloved have kept the Father’s word. Isn’t it remarkable how there are no caveats or acknowledgments about how much of a mixed bag our faith and obedience are? For Jesus, it focuses on who they know him to be—and he appears to know this about his disciples more than they know about themselves. I wonder if he’s thinking about their futures as they become apostles, willing to do all that Jesus commanded them to do while he was with them but they could not fathom—especially their future martyrdoms.

I think it is likely given how Jesus moves from this description of their obedience to petitioning God the Father to provide protection. Jesus reminds God the Father what does not need to be said between them, so it is obviously for those listening like you and me: these beloved belong to their Heavenly Father. Jesus is speaking this out loud to a group who has no real clue about what’s to come. They know the hardships that have been involved in following Jesus; they know the things that Jesus has said that they have tried to downplay or avoid. And now Jesus is reinforcing that they not only belong to him, but they belong to the Father.

The disciples (and all who come after them) will have to lean into belonging to someone “out of this world.” Until he comes again, there is not the same physical presence that Jesus had while he was on earth. But they are not alone. Along with the other recent promise we’ve heard in this Easter season that the disciples will not be left orphans because Jesus and the Father are giving the Holy Spirit to them, Jesus prays that the Father’s protection will remain—that the Father will literally “keep watch” over their mutual beloved until one day they too are joined into the unity that the Trinity have with one another. Because then, in the experience of eternal life, each of those whom God has guarded and kept will know the glorious “only true God, and Jesus Christ” who loved them there.

Textual Point

The section opens with Jesus looking up to heaven as though he received an invisible signal that it was time to put the plan in motion. We know that “the hour has come” has theological weight to it, and one aspect that should not be missed is that the first thing that Jesus does when it’s time to get into action is to pray for his disciples. The first act looks like not an act at all.

Illustration Idea

The running joke on ordination of elders and deacons at our church was to “have a light touch” when you laid hands on the new office bearers. Those prayers could start to feel a lot longer than they actually were with someone else’s arms getting heavier and heavier on your shoulders. Of course, that experience itself is an image of what’s possible in the life of a servant of the church—expectations or needs laying heavy on the shoulders, and feeling the weight of responsibility that pushes you to lean more on Christ and the Spirit. Though Jesus doesn’t have his hands upon each of the twelve disciples, I can’t help but imagine that the weight of Jesus’s words—even the ones that they couldn’t quite grasp or make sense of—made that room feel heavy. Hearing Jesus tell them they will have trouble, then hearing him pray for the Father to protect them as they face that trouble… it’s a blessing they both need and maybe don’t want…