Day 33: I am the greatest
John 14:12-14 (In case you're just joining us, check out Day 31 and Day 32 which also looked at these two verses in John 14.)
“I am the greatest.” So announced Muhammed Ali in 1963. He was a remarkable boxer and an even more remarkable showman. He knew how to attract an audience.
Beyond ego, there is something about that phrase. It yells “control”. More than knowing the outcome of a situation, our desire is to control the outcome. In fact, many of us have jobs where that is exactly what we strive to do.
I learned at an early age that hard work pays off. Before I was old enough to work, I worked. Beyond my day job, I would go to the garbage dump, find old bicycles, repair them and then rent them. It seemed that if you worked hard you could get what you wanted.
Well, almost. I couldn’t get the muscles I wanted. I struggled with weight through my teenage years. While all my buddies in the weight room were getting “guns”, I barely had “pistols”. One of my coaches noted the hours I spent lifting weights; he noted my struggle and said, “Some things are beyond your control, David. People’s bodies often develop at different rates.” I did not like hearing that.
“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.”
I probably prayed to Jesus for muscles. Seriously.
I have slowed down through these three verses because I believe finding our way through these verses just might unlock your understanding of Jesus’ hope for you.
Jesus’ great hope is that you will have a relationship with the Father, through Him.
At times relationships disappoint. Sometimes they disappoint because people hurt us, but sometimes it’s because we expect different things from each other.
We read that we will be able to do “great things”—things we ask “in Jesus’ name”—but then they don’t happen. Disappointment. Perhaps our relationship with him ends, or never even gets started.
In these last of Jesus’ hours on earth, he was working on the disciples’ expectations. He is working on our expectations.
Jesus has been working to help his disciples “see their connection with God and God’s world”. They’re struggling.
We struggle, too.
He starts with a natural idea: home. Now he goes deeper: one-ness.
God’s world is more than this physical world…it is everything…infinity…spiritual and physical.
Jesus is inviting his disciples, and us, to understand that we are Spiritual beings…
I ended Day 31 asking if how you viewed yourself. Are you a spiritual being having a physical experience, or the other way around?
I am not trying to be “religious”, I am trying to get you to think about who you are: your identify, and what you were created for.
The Bible, and Jesus, assert we are spiritual beings, created as children of God, and made for eternity.
Our time here on earth is important, but it is only part of infinite life. The question is, “Do you desire to be with the Father in eternity?”
Disappointment drives people away. We understandably get caught up in our immediate world.
Realistically, I imagine most of us don’t want greatness. Our daily concern is for things to go well, here on earth, for those we love, and those in the world.
Jesus daily concern is much larger. It is the Father’s concern. That we be with Him for eternity—in body and spirit.
What are the greater works you therefore will do?
I believe it is one-ness with God. Not that we become gods, but rather that we become His children.