You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.
There are many things about this verse that we could discuss. Jesus refers to what he said a few minutes earlier in verses 2 and 3, and also in verse 12. “I am going away and I am coming back…” Jesus sounds like a parent talking to a child.
Then he says, “If you loved me…” Taken at face value it sounds like he is saying that the disciples do not really know how to love him yet. That makes sense because they do not yet have the Holy Spirit. Only after the Holy Spirit is given them do they seem to start to understand what is going on.
The third thing of interest is Jesus’ statement that, “… the Father is greater than I”. I confess that I am one who struggles with the Trinitarian perspective. Thanks to Pastor Rich’s patience and guidance, I have come to see the relationship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit in many places in the Bible. When Jesus says “I and the Father are one,” (John 10: 30) I want to assume certain equivalencies from a human/engineering point of view. But, in God’s economy, “oneness” is not the same as “sameness” or being “equal.”
Continue reading “Going Away – John 14: 28”