Answer
Jesus said, “The Father is greater than I” (John 14:28) to His troubled disciples on the night of His arrest. Jesus had announced His imminent departure, and this puzzled them (John 13:33–38; 14:1; 16:16–18).
Jesus tells them, “You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I” (John 14:28). So, if they truly loved Him, they would have rejoiced that He is going to the Father. Jesus had already promised that He would go and prepare a place for them in His Father’s house (John 14:2). He also promised that He would come back and take them to be with Him forever (verse 3). This should have been a cause for joy. Another cause for joy is that “the Father is greater than I” (verse 28).
John 14:28 is often taken out of context to allege that Jesus is not God: “If Jesus is God,” the critics say, “how is the Father greater than He?” The apostle John, however, insists that Jesus is God (John 1:1, 18; 5:16–18; 10:30; 20:28). John also insists that Jesus was obedient to His Father (John 4:34; 5:19–30; 8:29; 12:48–49). How do we resolve this perceived difficulty? Arians deny that Jesus is fully God, while Gnostics deny that Jesus is fully human. Both positions are unacceptable. Jesus is fully God and fully man. What, then, does Jesus mean when He says, “The Father is greater than I”?
First, the doctrine of the incarnation teaches that Jesus “emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:7–8, ESV). Thus, “for a little while” (Hebrews 2:9), the Father was greater in glory and exaltation. The Father was greater in that He was not subject to pain and illness and death—the Son was. The Father was greater in that He did not live in weariness and poverty and humiliation—the Son did. The “greatness” spoken of in this verse relates to role, not to essence.
Second, the doctrine of eternal Sonship teaches that the Father begat the Son. This is a difficult doctrine to grasp, but the Bible repeatedly affirms that Jesus had no beginning (John 1:1; 17:5). In other words, there was never a time when Jesus was not. To claim otherwise is to fall into the heresy of Arianism.
Jesus has always existed: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:1–3, ESV).
In John 1:14, John writes that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (ESV). Jesus did not cease being God; He simply took on human flesh, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15). This is the most incredible moment in history! The omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent Son of God assumed a human nature and lived as one of us: He was God and man at the same time.
Since Jesus always had a deep and intimate relationship with the Father, the disciples should have rejoiced that the Son was returning home (John 14:28). Jesus would leave behind all the pain and sorrow of this world and regain the glory that He had with the Father before the creation of the world (John 17:5). If the disciples loved Him, they would be glad for Him. But His going home was for the disciples’ benefit, too, because, once in heaven, Jesus would send the promised Holy Spirit to be with them forever (John 14:15–31).
We should praise God for the love that exists between the Father and Son, a love that was on full display when Jesus endured the shame of the cross for our sins (Hebrews 12:1–2).
