John 14:28-31 28You heard that I said to you, ‘I am going away, and I am coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29And now I have told you before it happens, in order that when it happens, you may believe. 30I will no longer talk many things with you, for the ruler of the world is coming. He has nothing on me, 31but in order that the world may know that I love the Father, and just as the Father has commanded me, so I do. Rise, let us go from here.
The disciples did not grasp the implications of what Jesus said about going away to the Father (verses 2–4, 12, 18–19, 21, 23). The disciples may have been shocked by the conditional statement in verse 28: if you loved me. Their lack of understanding implies that they did not trust Jesus’ words. Trust is an important indicator of love. They could have shown their complete love for him by trusting that what he was about to do would be to God’s glory and their benefit. In a way, their thinking was still about themselves and what would happen to them. The movement from fear to love requires the crucifixion of the self in complete trust in God’s grace and will. Jesus modeled this trust and wanted his disciples to imitate him. He wanted them to trust in the Father’s plan for him, for the Father was the greatest of all. Trusting in his plan for the Son would bring joy and peace.
The phrase the Father is greater than I has created much controversy over the centuries, leading back to the Arians who argued that Jesus was not fully God or was less than God. The Gnostics had a similar argument by claiming that Jesus was a lesser “god” or emmination from God. Modern Arians in certain sects still argue the same theology. John has shown clearly that Jesus was God in the flesh, the perfect human representation of God. The phrase needs to be balanced with other claims about Jesus in this Gospel. Jesus was returning to the one who sent him. While on earth, Jesus was fully human and dependent on his heavenly Father. He took the position of a servant and divested his authority to become one with us and to face death on a cross (Philippians 2:5-11). Jesus was returning to the glory of the One who sent him. Upon his return, he would be highly exalted as Lord because of his perfect obedience unto death and his resurrection over the most powerful enemy of humanity: death.
Verse 29 indicates that Jesus predicted all these things in order to grow the disciples’ faith. They may not have understood what he said before the events of his death and resurrection, but afterward, they could look back and see how everything fit together. Likewise, interpreters today can look back and reflect deeply on the events to see how they all fit together. Our faith grows stronger as we see the logic of the God’s plan and how Jesus’ death and resurrection fulfill Old Testament prophecy and bring unity to the whole Bible.
Verses 30-31 provide another brief summary of what was about to happen but from a different angle. Time was moving forward, but there was still more to the supper and what Jesus wanted to tell them. There would come a point when he would no longer be physically present with them. The enemy, the ruler of this world, Satan, was coming to start the whole process of suffering. Satan had filled Judas Iscariot and would use him to defeat Jesus. But Jesus could not be defeated because he had total faith and confidence in the Father. At this point, we could jump over the Synoptic Gospels and the account of Jesus praying in the garden of Gethsemane and see Jesus’ victory because of his faith in the Father’s will. When we put ourselves in the care of God in obedience to God’s plan, we will also have victory because greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4).
Jesus’ obedience unto death showed his perfect love for the Father. Jesus always did what the Father commanded (8:29; 15:10). He learned the Father’s will through the study of Scripture (the Old Testament) and prayer. He lived in awareness of the Father’s Spirit with him and guiding him. The proof of Jesus as the Son of God was in his life of perfect obedience. The power of his teaching was confirmed by the testimony of his life. The last statement of verse 31 has been interpreted to mean that the supper had ended, and Jesus and the disciples went out to the garden in Gethsemane right after. However, chapter 15 continues Jesus’ teaching. The phrase may be symbolic in this chapter as a defining moment when the disciples have been given the full message and it is time for them to go into action. The next few chapters build on the topics mentioned in chapter 14.
The path Jesus took becomes symbolic for the path of his followers in that he followed the Father’s will, even though it meant suffering and death. We may not face death or the great suffering he did, but we can have the same attitude and motive in all we do of loving the Father and Son through the power of the Spirit.
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