On the last day of Christmas the schedule of readings had me in John 14:6-14, where Jesus is explaining to his disciples the reality of his approaching death. Thomas expresses his discomfort because he doesn’t know where Jesus is going, nor does he know the way. Jesus responds: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me” (6).
Jesus then qualifies the works he has been doing as God’s Son and clarifies the unity of the Godhead, that he is in the Father and the Father is in him.
Next he makes a statement vastly important to the mission of the church: “Truly, truly, I say to you, 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” (12). Jesus promises that his followers, those who believe in him, will do his works, and greater works still. This is glorious and good news for followers of Jesus today because he has left us a task, a mission in which to participate. In addition, and this is the point that encouraged me so deeply on the last day of Christmas, those who believe in Jesus
do these “greater works” because Jesus is going to the Father. Here Jesus is speaking of his ascension where he is lifted up to the Father’s right hand, the control room of the universe as it were (see Acts 1:9-11). And, it is precisely because Jesus ascends that his body can do greater works than those he performed while on earth. For, while Jesus was on earth, he was limited by space, only present to those where he walked. But now that he has gone to the Father, his real absence is also his real presence to his people by the agency and power of his Holy Spirit.
So, on the last day of the Feast of the Incarnation, we are reminded that God in Christ takes our flesh on himself not only to live and die for us, but to be raised again and reign at the Father’s right hand in glory in order to empower his people to live lives of mission, doing “greater works than these.”
These truths have emboldened us to pray with faith and specificity entrusting ourselves to the Lord of the Harvest. In this new year, I encourage you to do the same.
