“…I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.”

I read it but couldn’t believe it.  I had never seen anything like it in my life.  Never even heard of such a thing.  I don’t hide the fact that I like sports: American football and basketball are my favorites (in that order).  I’ve learned to enjoy soccer since four of my five daughters played competitively, and Christi made county all-star.  Baseball’s a sleeper (except when Jessica was a standout all-star) but I always watch the World Series.  The Olympics are fun; but I detest shuffleboard.  When my parents took us kids over to see our grandfather who lived in a trailer park 5 hours away, all there was to do was play shuffleboard.  My brother was forever knocking my disks (is that what you call them?) out of position.  Drove me crazy!  Besides, it was mind-numbing.  So, what was it I read about?  A local high school basketball team beat a team from another city 96-1.  Yep, you read right: 1!  One lousy point!!  I read the players’ box scores for the losing team: all zeros for points, assists, free-throws, except for one player who made one shot, a foul shot.  Man, I can imagine what the bus ride back home was like.  If you’re the coach, where do you start?

In John 14:28 Jesus said something interesting about his Father in the context of his “bus ride” back to heaven: “my Father is greater than I.”  This requires a bit of pondering because on the surface, it looks like it contradicts Trinitarian teaching.  Actually, this is one of the verses that some cults, Unitarians and Muslims use to support their God-is-only-one-person ideology.  So what is Jesus really saying here?

We find another, almost identical description in John 10.  During the Hanukkah festival at the Temple, in a conversation with the Jews, Jesus said, “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.  I and the Father are one” (vs. 28-30).  Notice that he says first that, as the Good Shepherd (v. 11), not a single person can snatch his sheep/people out of his hand.  It reminds me of a game.  A marble in your open palm is easy to keep from a very small child.  You simply close your hand faster than the child can make a move.  The child quickly tires because it’s no contest.  But then Jesus says that his sheep are also in the Father’s hand.  I understand this to be illustrated thusly: the marble, representing the sheep, is inside two cupped hands pressed together, one representing the Father, the other the Son.  The marble isn’t even visible now, completely surrounded.  Jesus is saying, “OK, try to get them now!”  You can’t.  Here Jesus is equal to God: equal in power to protect, hands being equal, etc.  That’s what “I and the Father are one” means: one or unified in essence, strength, purpose, authority, nature, etc.  And that’s why the Jews tried to stone him (v. 31), claiming to be God (v. 33).

However, the context of John 14 is quite different: it’s the “bus ride” home, as I said.  Here Jesus and the disciples are wrapping up his last Passover meal and making their way to the garden to pray before he is arrested.  Time is short; words are precious.  In verse 28 Jesus reminds them that he was leaving but returning to them, and that if they loved him, they should be glad.  Then he adds, “for the Father is greater than I.”  The meaning is found linked to this fact, namely, that he is returning to the Father in heaven.  But let’s keep reading to get the full scope.  In verse 29 he reminds them of earlier predictions of this so that when it happens, they’ll believe.  Remember, faith was in pretty short supply in this group.

In verse 30 he says, “I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming.  He has no hold on me….”  This Jewish expression is the equivalent of “he has nothing on me.”  In other words, his bus ride back to heaven was by way of the cross, and Satan, his accuser and adversary, had no charge, no accusation, no sin of his to wave around saying, “He’s a sinner!  He’s guilty!  He’s a no good!”  No, Jesus was not only innocent, he was perfect and perfectly righteous.  And yet he was going to get his hands “dirty” — along with the rest of his body — in paying for our sins, to satisfy the Father’s justice and anger against sinners who violated his standard.  Jesus scored at every opportunity to win the battle.  No zeros appeared in his box score, except the 0 charges that remained against his people.  After that, his ride home was a triumphant victory parade (Colossians 2:15).  Meanwhile the Father, greater because he is unhindered in heaven and not “dirty,” supervised everything and declared his work completely successful.

“Greater than I”?  Absolutely!  Do you increasingly appreciate the Father and Son’s work for you?