Greater Works

Text: John 14:1-4

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

            It’s not an uncommon feeling at the end of an unforgettable trip or a nice visit to have a sense of letdown. There’s that shift from being in the moment, one that you truly enjoy, to realizing that it’s going to end. That leads to feeling down. It seems that Jesus recognizes this in His disciples in our reading from the gospel of St. John today. But this discourse from Him is during an even weightier moment. It’s not just that they’re going to have to leave some pleasant time behind. There’s real dread in the room. Jesus is going to die. It’s nearly all He’s been talking about. And now He says that His time is at hand and He’s going away. Their hearts are breaking at the thought.

            Yet Jesus begins this difficult conversation by saying, “Let not your hearts be troubled.” But this is more than just a platitude. He’s not just telling them to pick themselves up and not feel down. He gives them reasons not to be troubled. “Let not your hearts be troubled,” He says, “Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am, you may be also.” The reasons for hope are built on their trust of Jesus—what He’s about to do: He’s going to prepare a place for you. He will return to take you to be with Him. And this is all framed in a question: “If it were not so, would I have told you? You believe that I always tell you the truth, don’t you? Why would I lie to you know, at the threshold of the most important thing that’s ever happened, that will ever happen: my crucifixion, death, and resurrection?”

            To keep our hearts from being troubled, Jesus gives us something to look forward to—something even greater than the previous years that His disciples have had with Him as they wandered Judea and Galilee and everywhere in between. They have an eternal home, reunited with Him after all is said and done. And not only Him, but they will be in the presence of God the Father too.

            But then—to increase our wonder even more—Jesus tells us we will see, experience, and even do things that will marvel us, even in the meantime, even during this time of waiting for Him to return. Jesus doesn’t just reassure us about His departure. Instead, He reframes what His departure means for us. “Truly, truly,” Jesus begins—a sign that what He’s about to say is both true and surprising, “whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.” Now this statement has startled readers of Scripture since the time they were spoken: “Greater works than these;” that is to say, greater works than what Jesus has been performing will be done by those who believe in Him. So what do we make of it?

            We could get bogged down in what different theologians and groups have said over the years, but there are so many opinions and conjectures—many of them dead wrong—that we do best to just return to Jesus’ words to hear what He means. The key to understanding this entire idea is when He says, “Because I am going to the Father.” Listen again: “Whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.” This tells us what we need to know. Those greater works—greater than the healing of the sick in the villages throughout Galilee, greater than casting demons out the afflicted, greater than feeding crowds of five thousand—will be done because of what Jesus is going to do. He’s going to the Father. He’s going to sit at the right hand of God and rule over all things for the benefit of His people, those who believe in Him. That means that all creation is going to serve the Lord and His beloved people, as it was always meant to. The flesh-and-blood Jesus, a man with a human nature, is going to sit on the throne of the Father’s right hand and rule the universe. Jesus won’t be present only in one place—in Bethlehem or Nazareth or Capernaum or Bethany or Jerusalem—anymore. He will be everywhere, with all the power and authority, majesty and glory that was always His from eternity. And that means that He will also be with, and acting through, those who believe in Him. We’re dipping into our Gospel reading for next week a bit, but Jesus will go on to say only a couple sentences later, “In that day you will know that I am in the Father, and you in me, and I in you.” Jesus, the exalted Christ and Son of God, will be in and with His disciples as they wait for His return, and He will continue to do His good works, even greater works that He did before, through them. We can see it in the Acts of the Apostles. We can see it in the examples of the saints who have come before us. And yes, we can see it in the lives and works that the Lord sets before us. Even when they appear to be small and simple, because it is the risen and glorified Jesus who is doing it through your hands and words, they are greater deeds than these.

            So this is not a promise that any of Jesus’ disciples will become spiritual celebrities or that they will win more people to the Way, the Truth, and the Life than Jesus ever did. They won’t have more showstopping miracles. Nor is it a promise that the Church, the body of Christ, will always appear powerful and glorious, dazzling everyone with visible holiness that outshines even Jesus.

It also does not mean that because you feel like you’re not doing greater works that the promise doesn’t apply to you. It doesn’t mean that because you can’t seem get shinier or more impressive or further ahead that you’ve somehow failed at this. That kind of despair makes the mistake of thinking that these words are about us more than about the risen Jesus, or that you’re somehow working independently of Him, or that it depends on you. Remember, it’s about Jesus, who has conquered the world, sin, and death; who is risen and lives and reigns forever; who sits at the right hand of the Father.

The answer isn’t “Try harder” or “Look at the proof you’re generating.” The answer is that the works are Jesus’. They always have been. Because they’re His works, the scope and size and importance and significance of them are beyond what you see from this moment in time. Your Lord delights in using the weak to shame the strong, to use the simple to humble the proud. So if your works seem too little, He’ll still use them. In fact, He’ll use them all the more to show how His goodness and life overcomes evil and death. You are the instrument He uses to accomplish these great works. Only those who believe in Him and know that He has gone to the Father will be able to know these works for what they are.

            So in the meantime, as we wait, these greater works of Christ are done through us. And one of the ways He’s provided for that is giving us access to God the Father through Jesus’ name. “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.” Asking God in the name of Jesus is the way in which we do those greater works; the way in which the greater Jesus is glorified, and through Him, God the Father who grants it. Now this is not a blank check that God just signs and then lets us do whatever seems good to our fallen nature and will. It’s not turning God into a cosmic vending machine that spits out our whims simply because we put in the token of prayer. Rather, it’s reassurance that we do have access to God, even when we’re out of things we can do with our own hands, and that He will still accomplish those greater things, even if it’s just through our words, our prayers, silent or spoken out loud, prayed once or constantly. This promise about prayer in Jesus’ name is the seal on everything He’s said. It’s a doorway of access to the risen and reigning Lord.

            So we continue to rejoice, even when our hearts would otherwise be troubled. We see our Lord’s hand in everything and we hear His promise, as only He can give, for He lives and reigns forever, and He fills us with such great promises that we who believe in Him can’t do anything but be thankful and live in the joy and eternity that He gives us. In the name of Jesus, the Living One, Amen.