The Life of God Given to Us–John 17:1–13
At that time, Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him power over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work which you gave me to do; and now, Father, you glorify me in your own presence with the glory which I had with you before the world was made.
“I have manifested your name to the men whom you gave me out of the world; yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you; for I have given them the words which you gave me, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you did send me. I am praying for them; I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are mine; all mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me; I have guarded them, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you; and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.”
There is a quiet solemnity in the moment when Christ lifts His eyes to heaven. The hour has come, and He stands on the threshold of His Passion—not teaching, not healing, not confronting His accusers, but praying. In this prayer we glimpse the heart of the Son laid bare before the Father.
Jesus speaks of glory, but not the glory the world recognizes. The glory of the Cross is already shining in His words—the glory of self-giving love, the glory of obedience, the glory of a life poured out for the world. And in this moment, Christ reveals something astonishing: that eternal life is not a distant reward, but a present communion. “This is eternal life,” He says, “that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou havst sent.”
To know God—not merely to know about Him, but to know Him as one knows a friend, a father, a beloved companion. Eternal life is this relationship, this union, this shared life. It is the life of the Trinity opening itself to humanity. It is the life Adam lost and Christ restores. It is the life that begins now, in the fragile, imperfect, grace-filled journey of faith.
Christ prays for His disciples, and through them for us. He prays that we may be kept in the Father’s name, that we may be one, that His joy may be fulfilled in us. These are not small petitions. They are the shape of eternal life lived on earth: to be held by God, to be united with one another, to carry within us a joy that the world cannot give and cannot take away.
For Orthodox Christians eternal life is not an abstract doctrine or a far-off hope. It is the quiet strength that steadies us in prayer. It is the forgiveness that softens our hearts when resentment tries to harden them. It is the love that draws us back to the Eucharist, week after week, hungry for the life that only Christ can give. It is the unity we struggle toward in our families, our parishes, our fractured world. It is the joy that flickers even in sorrow, because Christ has prayed for us, and His prayer does not fail.
In His final hours before the Cross, Christ does not ask the Father to take us out of the world. He asks instead that we may live His life within it. Eternal life is not escape. It is presence—God’s presence in us, and our presence in Him. It is the slow, steady transformation of the heart. It is the beginning of the Kingdom, already unfolding in the lives of those who know Him.
And so we stand with the disciples, listening to the Son speak to the Father, hearing our own names carried in His prayer. Eternal life is offered to us not as a promise for later, but as a gift for today. A life to be lived. A communion to be entered. A joy to be received.
Christ prays that His life may become our life. And in the quiet of this prayer, we discover that eternal life has already begun.
