John 14:28

John 14:28-31 . If ye loved me — With a wise and rational affection, it would allay your sorrows in the mean time, and howsoever you might have a mournful sense of your own loss; you would rejoice on my account, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father — Whose servant I am, as Mediator; is, in this respect, greater than I — Consequently, it must be my honour and happiness to be in a state of greater nearness to him than the present world will admit. “These words,” as Dr. Macknight justly remarks, “afford a strong argument for the proper divinity of our Lord. For had he been a mere man, or even a mere creature of the highest order, the comparison would have been foolish and impertinent.” And now I have told you before it come to pass, &c. — I have foretold my sufferings and death, in order that, when they happen, your faith, instead of being shaken, may be confirmed. Hereafter I will not talk much with you — I shall not have much opportunity to talk with you after this; for the prince of this world cometh — To make his grand assault. The devil will stir up wicked men to kill me; but he hath nothing in me — No right, no claim, no power. There is no guilt in me to give him power over me; no corruption to take part with his temptation.

Be assured, therefore, that I shall undergo the punishment of death, not because I deserve it; but that the world may know — On the most substantial evidence; that I love the Father — I suffer Satan thus to assault me, and I undergo death, to show the world how much I love the Father: for it is the Father’s will that I should thus act; and as the Father gave me commandment — Or, commission; (see John 10:18 ;) even so I do — Because I can refuse no act of obedience to him, (how painful or expensive soever it may be,) whereby his glory may be advanced. Arise, &c. — And therefore, that we may be prepared for this hour of trial that is coming upon us, let us go hence — And retire to a place where we may more conveniently give ourselves to prayer, and where I may be ready, when my cruel enemies shall come to apprehend me, to yield myself into their hands, and to submit to what my Father has appointed for me.

John 14:28 . On the contrary quite other feelings should possess them: joy in sympathy with Him in His glorification and in expectation of the results of His going to the Father: ἠκούσατε … πατέρα . “If ye loved me,” an almost playful way of reproaching their sadness. There was no doubt of their love, but it was an unintelligent love. They failed to consider the great joy that awaited Him in His going to the Father. This going to the Father was cause for rejoicing, ὅτι ὁ πατήρ μου [ μου is not well authenticated and should be deleted] μείζων μου ἐστί , “because the Father is greater than I”; and can therefore fulfil all the loving purposes of Christ to His disciples. “The life which He has begun with them and for them will be raised to a higher level.” They had seen the life He had lived and were disturbed because it was coming to an end: but it was coming to an end because absorbed in the greater life He would have with the Father. The theological import of the words is discussed by Westcott, who cites patristic opinions and refers to Bull and Pearson. In all that Jesus did, it was the Father’s will He carried out, and with powers communicated by the Father: the Father is the Originator and End of all His work in the world. Throughout the ministry of Jesus the Father is represented as “greater” than the Son. That it should require to be explicitly affirmed, as here, is the strongest evidence that He was Divine.

{10} Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is {l} greater than I. (10) We should in no way be sorry for the departing of Christ from us according to the flesh, but rather we should rejoice in it, seeing that all the blessing of the body depends upon the glorifying of the head. (l) This is spoken in that Christ is mediator, for in this regard the Father is greater than he, in as much as the person to whom request is made is greater than he that makes the request.

28. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father, for my Father is greater than I—These words, which Arians and Socinians perpetually quote as triumphant evidence against the proper Divinity of Christ, really yield no intelligible sense on their principles. Were a holy man on his deathbed, beholding his friends in tears at the prospect of losing him, to say, "Ye ought rather to joy than weep for me, and would if ye really loved me, "the speech would be quite natural. But if they should ask him, why joy at his departure was more suitable than sorrow, would they not start back with astonishment, if not horror, were he to reply, "Because my Father is greater than I?" Does not this strange speech from Christ's lips, then, presuppose such teaching on His part as would make it extremely difficult for them to think He could gain anything by departing to the Father, and make it necessary for Him to say expressly that there was a sense in which He could do so? Thus, this startling explanation seems plainly intended to correct such misapprehensions as might arise from the emphatic and reiterated teaching of His proper equality with the Father—as if so Exalted a Person were incapable of any accession by transition from this dismal scene to a cloudless heaven and the very bosom of the Father—and by assuring them that this was not the case, to make them forget their own sorrow in His approaching joy.

Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you; they had heard our Saviour saying so, John 14:3 . It is of the nature of true love, to rejoice in the good of the object beloved, as much as in its own, nay, before its own. Saith our Saviour, if ye loved me, that is, as ye ought to love me, (for our Lord had before owned that they did love him, giving it as a reason why he rather revealed himself and manifested himself to them, than to the world, John 14:23 ), you would not have been so unreasonably disturbed at my telling you that I shall leave you; because I not only told you that I would come again to you, but because I told you that I was going to my Father, John 14:2 ; from whom though I was never separated, as I am God over all blessed for ever, yet my human nature was yet never glorified with him; so that I shall be there much happier than here; being highly exalted, and having a name given me above every name, Philippians 2:9 . For my Father is greater than I; not greater in essence, (as the Arians and Socinians would have it), he had many times before asserted the contrary; but greater, 1. Either as to the order amongst the Divine Persons; because the Father begat, the Son is begotten; the Father is he from whom the Son proceeded by eternal generation: in which sense, divers of the ancients, amongst whom Athanasius, Cyril, and Augustine, and some modern interpreters, understand it. Or: 2. As Mediator sent from the Father, so he is greater than I

. Or: 3. In respect of my present state, while I am here in the form of a servant; and in my state of humiliation: which seemeth to be the best interpretation, if we consider the words before, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father; for the true reason of that joy must have been, because Christ in his glorious state of exaltation would be much more happy than he had been in his state of humiliation, while he was exposed to the scoffs, reproaches, and injuries of men, the temptations of Satan, &c.

John 14:28 . Ἠκούσατε , ye have heard ) On other occasions His wont is to say, εἶπον , I have said ; but this which He has said , concerning His departure, His disciples eagerly had attended to, and that, too, with sorrow.— ὑπάγω , καὶ ἔρχομαι πρὸς ὑμᾶς , I go away, and come unto you ) In relation to the world He saith, I came and depart [“I leave the world”], ch. John 16:28 : Καὶ , and forthwith.— ἐχάρητε ἂν ) ye would rejoice , or rather, ye would have rejoiced . As to the Pluperfect, we have slightly touched upon the subject in John 14:2 .[353] Ye would have rejoiced for My sake, as I am setting out upon a wished-for journey of departure, and for your own sakes, as love makes you capable of perceiving that My departure is advantageous even to yourselves. Love begets joy, both of itself, and also because it keeps the word of Christ, which opens out all the most joyful prospects to us.— μείζων μου , greater than I ) Many and various were the former disputations and treatises on this passage, which Dion. Petavius has collected, Tom. ii. Theol. Dogm. l. 2, de Trin. cap. 2; G. Bullus Def. Fid. Nicæn. Sect. iv.; Jo. Casp. Suicer. Thes. Part ii. coll. 1368, Reinecc. ad N. T., fol. 387.

Not a few of the Greeks and Latins have answered the Arians, and laid it down, That the Father , not as God, but as the ἀγέννητος Father ( not-begotten ), is said to be greater than the Son, not regarded in His character as God, but as the Son, begotten of the Father; and that this fact does not do away with His unity of essence ( τὸ ὁμοούσιον ) or consubstantiality with the Father. To these is to be added G. Arnold. Evang. Bottschafft , p. 697. Others affirm, that Christ is inferior to the Father in respect of His human nature;[354] which phrase of comparison has in it nothing inept; comp. 1 John 3:20 , “God is greater than our heart.” Jesus both had in His most holy soul, at one time, a greater feeling of His glory, at another time of His humility, and expressed that feeling accordingly in His words. Comp. note on Mark 13:32 , “Of that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels, etc., neither the Son, but the Father” [spoken in relation to His human nature, and His humiliation]. In this passage He speaks under the feeling of His ταπεινότης , lowliness : language such as was best adapted both to the capacity of understanding which the disciples had at the time, and to the present (existing) time and circumstances, when He was treating of His departure to the Father.