Did You Hear That Right?

If you knew that someone was talking about you with someone else, would you want to hear what they were saying? 

What if you could eavesdrop and hear every word? Would you? Would the person doing the talking make a difference to you?

If it’s someone you don’t respect, how much does it matter what they say? Why would you value someone’s opinion of you if you don’t value their opinion of anything else?

But what if the person talking was very important? What if — imagine this — what if the person was the most important person you knew? What if their opinion transcended every other opinion ever? Would you care to know how that person talks about you?

Well, I can tell you.

In John 17, Jesus talks about you with God the Father.

The “High Priestly Prayer,” as it’s called, is a rare vantage into Jesus’s own prayer time, and he says this: 

Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. (v. 24)

Jesus is telling the Father what he wants. He is expressing his desire, as any son would to his father. And what Jesus wants, believe it or not, is for us to be with him.

You read that right. How quickly we skim past these words!

“I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am.”

Jesus wants us to be with him where he is. He’s already been with us where we are, here in this world. That was temporary, though. It was mission-centered. He wants us to be with him where he is — why? Because he wants us to see his glory, the glory that the Father has given him before the foundation of the world as the Object of the divine eternal love.

We don’t have the capacity to see that glory where we are. Not here, not like this. We need to be where he is, in glorified bodies. He wants us with him there. 

So, in fact, he’s going to bring the “there” to “here.” 

In his Second Coming, when he consummates the new creation and establishes the New Jerusalem come down from heaven (see Revelation 21:1–3), Jesus will get what he wanted. 

Us. With him. “There.” Seeing his glory.

Which is our eternal life, just as he said as the beginning of his prayer: 

And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. (v. 3)

The manifestation of Jesus’s incomprehensible glory — our seeing and knowing him more fully — is our eternal life. He wants that for you.

Could you imagine overhearing Jesus talking about you like that?