Thursday, April 2, 2015

A Maundy Thursday Devotion: This Is Eternal Life (April 2, 2015)

This Is Eternal Life
John 17:1-11
April 2, 2015

"And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent."

Jesus prayed these words after the last meal with His disciples.  After offering to them the Bread of Life and the Cup of Salvation, and after washing their feet to demonstrate the life of service to which they were called, Jesus demonstrates to them the life of prayer which would sustain them.  

In this prayer, we find Jesus pouring out his soul to God as He approaches His final hour.  In His prayer, Jesus offers us this short definition of eternal life.  Packed into these words, we find:

Eternal life is now.  We don't have to wait for some future event; eternal life is offered to us in our present experience.

Eternal life is knowing God.  The knowing for which Jesus prays is not simple awareness or casual acquaintance.  To know God means relationship, intimacy and trust.  That is why God made us--so we could be in relationship with God.  Our brokenness separates us from God; eternal life means that we have been restored to that relationship.

Yet this can be so difficult to comprehend.  Maybe that is why Jesus offered us a simple way of embodying His presence--the simple meal of bread and wine that we celebrate this night.  In the same way that the bread and wine become part of us, we become one with God as we receive Him into our hearts and lives.

How do we receive God?  The Good News is that God through Jesus Christ already has done the work--He has offered to us the Gift.  We simply need to accept it!

Lord, I am broken, yet You still love me and You call me to come home.  Help me to know You, to love You, and to serve You.  Thank You for Your Gift!  Amen!

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