Sermon for the Fifth Sunday of Easter
Grater Works Than These Will He Do
Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed!) Alleluia! In today's Gospel, Jesus
tells you and all Christians that you will do greater works than Jesus
Himself did. "Truly, truly I say to you," says the Lord, "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."
Dear Christian friends,
Imagine the reaction you would get at a dinner party or some other gathering
if you were to start the conversation by saying out loud, "I do greater
things than Jesus did." If you were to say such a thing to others, they will
probably think you are either crazy or you are making tasteless and
ill-mannered joke. The few people who take you seriously will probably
suggest that you think way too much of yourself. Perhaps you personally find
it difficult to picture yourself saying that you do greater things than
Jesus did. After all, you are just little old you and I am just little old
me. Neither of us are the Son of God in human flesh. Nicodemus was speaking
to the Lord Jesus and not to you or me when he said, "Rabbi, we know that
you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do
unless God is with him" (John 3:2). How can it be that you or I would dare
even to joke that we do greater things than the things our Lord Jesus did?
Who are we to make such an audacious claim?
We are the hearers of God's living and powerful Word, that is who we are. We
are the ones in whom God has planted His miraculous gift of faith; we are
the believing ones who are undeniably included in Jesus' Words from today's
Gospel. We dare to confess by faith that we do greater things than Jesus did
because Jesus Christ Himself has said, "Whoever believes in Me will also do
the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do."
These Words are not Jesus' command to you. These Words are Jesus' promise
and assurance to you, that you will do greater things than He. Here is the
logic Jesus wants you to use when you hear this Gospel:
· First, say to yourself, "I am undoubtedly a believer in Jesus. My
belief is not powered by any reason or strength of my own, but by the power
of God's miraculous Baptism, in which I became His child and heir."
· Second, after you have remembered that you are one of God's
divinely-created believers, place your finger on Jesus' Words in today's
Gospel. "Whoever believes in Me will also do the works that I do; and
greater works than these will he do."
· Now draw the inevitable conclusion for yourself: You are a
believer, and Jesus says His believers will do greater things than He.
Therefore your deeds are by definition greater than His deeds. (Far be if
from us to suggest that our Lord might have been mistaken about this!)
Right now, you are probably feeling a little bit like the Virgin Mary felt
when the angel appeared to her and declared that she would be the mother of
God. Through the angel, God said to Mary some things that sounded just as
impossible for her as today's Gospel might sound for you. God told Mary she
would do something that was totally possible to for her to do: "You will
conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus"
(Luke 1:31). In a similar way, God is saying something to you in today's
Gospel that sounds equally impossible: "You shall do greater works than
Jesus did." As impossible as this sounds for you, we know and believe that
"nothing will be impossible for God" (Luke 1:37).
There are a couple of ways to think about Jesus' words in today's Gospel,
that you will do greater things than He.
· Luther explained this Gospel to refer to the limitations of Christ's
human body during the days of His humiliation. Simply stated, Jesus did not
get around that much. Any of us who has ever been outside of Missouri has
traveled farther than Jesus traveled in Palestine. "[Our] Christ preached
and worked miracles only in a small nook, and for just a short time"
(Luther, AE 24, p. 78). By comparison, most of us here have been baptized
and confessing the faith from the earliest days of childhood. Even if we
counted only those times we spoke the Apostles' Creed, each one of us here
as proclaimed the life-giving, faith-bestowing Word of God more times and
possibly in more places than Jesus did. Our Lord certainly initiated the
work of spreading the Gospel throughout the world, but this work extended
"farther and farther through the apostles and preachers who came after them"
(Ibid.) than it did through Jesus alone. The same work of spreading the good
news of God's salvation continues to happen through you even today. This
speaking of God's life-giving Word happens through your confession of faith,
through your giving of gifts, through your personal reliance upon God's gift
of Holy Baptism and through your reception of Holy Communion. In view of
these things, which proclaim the wonders of God unceasingly to the world
around you, Jesus says to you today, "whoever believes in Me will also do
the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do." This is true
because there are many more of you than there is of Jesus.
· Another way you should understand this verse has to do with the
great love and compassion Jesus has for you. Stated another way, Jesus'
Words in today's Gospel have to do with the way He regards and cares for you
in comparison with Himself. As far as Jesus is concerned, He is the lesser
and you the greater. Jesus regards Himself the servant, and you the ones
whom He has come to serve (Matthew 20:28). Your life holds much greater
value for Him than His own life holds. In the same way, your works have much
greater value for your Lord Jesus than His works have. Any earthly father
would naturally consider his own life's work to be inferior to the future
work his children will do. A father regards his own work as inferior to his
children's work because his own life is spent working for the sake of his
children. In the same way, Jesus regards His life and work inferior to yours
because He spend His life and work exclusively for you, for your
forgiveness, and for your life. Again, just as the servant of the household
would not regard his own menial tasks as being superior to his master's
tasks, so Jesus does not regard His own works as greater than yours. But
what does Jesus say? "Whoever believes in Me will also do the works that I
do; and greater works than these will he do."
But you still kind of feel like Mary, don't you? Even after Mary had heard
the angel's thrilling proclamation that she would be the mother of God, she
still could not grasp what it all meant for her . Mary said to the angel,
"How will this be?" (Luke 1:34) In the same way, when you hear Jesus saying
to you in today's Gospel that you will do greater works than He, you may
also be wondering to yourself, "How will this be?" This is how the angel
answered Mary: "the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the
Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called
the Son of God" (Luke 1:35). By comparison, listen again to how Jesus in
today's Gospel answers your question of how it can be that you would do
greater things than He: "greater works than these will [you] do, because I
am going to the Father." Stated another way, Jesus makes you able to do
greater thing than He by the power of His mighty ascension into heaven!
With these Words, "I am going to the Father," Jesus makes it clear that we
are not left to our own devices when it comes to doing "greater works."
Rather, Jesus promises to be the One who lives and dwells within us-within
each of you individually and also within me-empowering and creating these
"greater things" that we do. By going to the Father, Jesus ascends to fill
the heavens and the earth, subjecting all things under His feet. By going to
the Father, Jesus leaves the confines of being in one place at one time and
He takes up resurrection residence in the hearts and minds and lives of all
His believers. By going to the Father, Jesus declares to you,
I will work in you who believe in Me and who have My Word, Baptism, and
Sacrament, and remain faithful to these. And just as I am Lord over sin,
death, hell, the devil, the world, and everything, so you shall also be
lords over these and be able to glory in the same power. This is yours, not
by reason of your own worthiness or strength but solely because I am going
to the Father (Ibid., 85).
Dear Christian friends, Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed!) Alleluia! Not
only has Christ risen from the dead, but He has also ascended to the Father,
sitting in power and glory at the right hand of God. Only do not think that
Christ's going to the Father means that He has gone away from you. Far from
that! The risen Christ has placed His life-giving Words into your mouth and
His merciful works into your hands. Because He is always with you, Jesus
declares to you His undying promise today: "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."
Do you still feel like Mary, still wondering what sort of words are these
that Jesus has spoken to you in this Gospel? Don't feel too bad. Mary's
response is the only response we Christians will ever need: "Behold, I am
the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your Word" (Luke
1:38).
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