Jesus prays for his followers to be with him.

John 17.24-26.

The last bit of Jesus’s John 17 prayer concludes with Jesus asking his Father for his students, his followers, to be with him where he is. Historically Christians have interpreted this a few different ways, and I believe some of those ways are valid:

• That we be on the same page as Jesus—theologically, mentally, spiritually, devotionally.
• That we continually follow Jesus. Where he goes, we go.
• That we continually obey Jesus. What he says, we do.
• That he has various missions he’s assigned us, so we oughta be doing them.
• That we’re gonna be in heaven (properly, paradise) after we die, and Jesus will be present there for us.
• That we’re gonna return with Jesus at his second coming, and rule the world with him.

I should add they’re simultaneously valid. You’re gonna find some Christians who only wanna focus on being with Jesus in the here-and-now, and other Christians who only wanna focus on being with Jesus in the afterlife and resurrection. If we deny this passage isn’t about being with Jesus in the entirety of our Christian life, it means we’re trying to avoid him in one part of it or another. Nope; that won’t do. Jesus wants his followers to be with him both now and later. That’s what he was praying for.

Time to quote him:

John 17.24-26 KWL

24“Father, about these whom you¹ gave me:

I want them to be with me,

where I am,

so they might see my glory

which you¹ gave me

because you¹ loved me

before building the world.

25Righteous Father, the world also didn’t know me,

and I did know you,¹

and these students have come to know

that you¹ sent me.

26I made your¹ name known to them,

and I will make it known,

so the love with which you¹ love me

might be in them

and I in them.”

There are those commentators who think this prayer of Jesus was only for his followers at the time—for the Twelve and his other first-century students. But when Jesus says in verse 26 he will make the Father’s name known—future tense—he clearly means he’s gonna make it known to people beyond the students he had at the time. He’s gonna make the Father known to the 3,000 added later that year at Pentecost, Ac 2.41 to the thousands more added after that, Ac 4.4 to later generations of Christians throughout the Roman Empire, Ethiopia, the Holy Roman Empire and western Europe, the Russian Empire and eastern Europe, the Americas, China, Korea, the Pacific, the global south, and to the people Jesus still personally appears to in visions to lead ’em to salvation.

So we can see his glory.

The reason so many Christians figure Jesus is talking about the future—in particular his second coming—is because he’s totally talking about that. He wants his followers to see his glory. Well, that’s when he gloriously appears in the clouds.

Mark 14.61-62 ESV

61BAgain the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” 62And Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.”

Daniel 7.13-14 ESV

13“I saw in the night visions,

and behold, with the clouds of heaven

there came one like a son of man,

and he came to the Ancient of Days

and was presented before him.

14And to him was given dominion

and glory and a kingdom,

that all peoples, nations, and languages

should serve him;

his dominion is an everlasting dominion,

which shall not pass away,

and his kingdom one

that shall not be destroyed.

He wants us with him so that we’ll personally see that. It’ll be awesome.

But in order to be there with him when he takes dominion, we gotta be with him now. We gotta be part of his kingdom now. Not trying to set up inferior phony replicas of his kingdom through political means, force, and violence; actively following Jesus, actively loving God and our neighbor, being Jesus’s hands and feet to a cruel, suffering world. We gotta be with him in that sense, before we’ll be in any way ready to be with him in his millennial kingdom.

If we’re not… well, Jesus describes such people as the least in his kingdom, Mt 5.19 which implies we’re not gonna be entrusted with any responsibilities once he rules the world. Nor should we! Such Christians have a lot of growing up to do first. Jesus has to first teach them to be humble servants. Gonna spend a few years cleaning bathrooms till they learn to like it. Maybe a few centuries if they’re stubborn enough. But I digress.

Jesus’s desire, and prayer, is that we be with him throughout. Not just in the age to come, but this age, doing the works and will of his Father, producing good fruit. And if we’re praying along with Jesus, this should be our desire as well: We wanna be with him, abiding in him forever. So when you pray, pray for that.