“Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.” – John 14:12
As part of his farewell discourse to the disciples, Jesus begins to tell them they can know the Father because they know Jesus and the work that he has done on earth. Then he seems to make this outrageous claim that the disciples can not only do the work that he does, but will actually be able to do even greater things than what he did! How is that possible?!
A few years ago at St. Luke’s we were in the midst of a sermon series and we looked at a quote from John F. Kennedy that he gave during a speech at Rice University in 1962. The speech was about the space race and was making a promise that we would make it to the moon within that decade.
JFK said, ““But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas in football? We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, and one we are unwilling to postpone.”
At the time JFK gave that speech, it had only been 61 years since Orville Wright had declared it would be another 1000 years before humans would even be able to fly at all, much less fly to the moon. Yet, we dared to do the impossible.
We don’t dare to do greater works than Jesus because it will be easy. We dare greatly because it will be hard! It will put us to the test and cause us to put our full faith and trust in Christ and come together as the body of Christ to accomplish the mission God has given to us. Daring greatly that we can do greater works than Christ and fulfill the mission of God is a challenge “that we are willing to accept, and one we are unwilling to postpone.”
Rev. Josh Attaway, St. Luke’s Edmond Campus Pastor
