“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. 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” (Jn. 14:12-14)
I’ve always been troubled by these words in John 14. In particular, I find the statement “greater works than these” unsettling. How could anyone do a “greater work” than Jesus did in his death and resurrection? The obvious answer is that no one can. Clearly, Jesus did not mean that believers will do “more powerful” or “more important” works than he himself accomplished. They may carry the gospel to further lands than Jesus visited, but in doing so, they at most announce a headline of which the subject is “Jesus”. Jesus is and will always be the greatest servant in the household of God. His feats are incomparable.
Now, I was recently reading this passage and saw it in a fresh way. The first thing I did was ignore the word “greater”. Instead of thinking about the qualitative bigness of the works we are invited to do, I merely thought about the fact that God wants us to partner with Him. It’s an incredible thought that God has projects for each one of us to be involved in. The truth is that the bigness or smallness of these tasks is of little importance. What is amazing is that none of us is overlooked. To be a disciple is to have a role in the mission of God. The implications of this are staggering.
As I began to ponder this truth two things stood out to me. The first was the need to discern what these works are. So often I fall into the pattern of treating God as if He is my side-kick. I figure out all of the things that I would like to happen in life and then, when I pray, I ask God to partner with me in my self-wrought, me-centred endeavours. This mindset would be comical if it were not on the fringe of being diabolical. What Jesus is encouraging us to do in John 14 is to invert the all-too-common paradigm for prayer. Rather than using prayer as a means to get what we want, he is inviting us to find a place in the greatest mission of all, the advent of the kingdom of God. Is prayer a matter of asking for things? Absolutely! But the things we should be most earnestly requesting are not our own pet wishes but the things that align most directly with the mission of God.
Now, this raises a massive question: how do we intuit the purposes of God? Here much of the answer is prayer. As many Christian writers have said, the essence of prayer is not getting God behind our hearts but getting our hearts behind God. The more we commune with God the more we are aware of the things He is already doing, and it is this insight that enables us to pray boldly “in the name” of Jesus.
The second thing that stood out to me was the importance of praying into the will of God. Prayer truly is what people used to call a secondary cause. Just as God uses rain to grow plants and wind to scatter seed, so he uses the activity of believing prayer to develop his purposes in the world. Prayer is not passivity. Prayer is not perfunctory. Prayer is not a game of pretend. Prayer is in the spiritual realm what sunlight is in the physical realm. It is a genuine means that God uses to bring about His will. This is why Jesus is so insistent in his summoning us to pray.
Where does all this lead? It should lead to a feeling of excitement. What an incredible thought that Jesus has staked his position in heaven so that we can collaborate with him on earth! He is in the position of power; we are in the position of need. If we link our need to his power, there is no end of what God may accomplish through us.
“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.”
By Joe Barnard
