How Can Jesus Say Believers Will Do Greater Things Than He?

In John 14 Jesus speaks to the Disciples and says, "Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. 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. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son."

How is it possible that we will do greater works than Jesus? I have not fed 5000 people. I have not healed the sick. I have not cured the blind. I believe in Jesus as the fullest expression of God known to us, however the only thing greater than Jesus I have ever accomplished is the amount of anger I have expressed. 

When we read the Gospels it is helpful to remember that we tend to default to interpreting it as an individual. So while as an individual I have not done much greater than Jesus, I can tell you that the single body of the Church has done very great things. I was told some years ago (and I have not yet been able to recover this to still be the case) that the United Methodist Church feeds 1 million children each day. Jesus fed 5000 in one day, the UMC (a single body full of believers) feeds many more than that everyday. 

Could it be that the message of Jesus is not limited to me and Jesus but extended to we and Jesus. We do things greater than Jesus... Me? Not so much.

Wisdom From "Senior" - A Man Living Under a Bridge for 2 Years

I met "Senior" when I was passing out cheeseburgers during Lent in San Antonio. My friend, Sam and I, fasted during lent then took the money we would have spent and bought as many McDonald's cheeseburgers we could each Friday in Lent. After a few weeks of doing this we got to know a couple of the people who lived downtown San Antonio. One of those men went by the nickname, "Senior" because he had lived there the longest. Apparently, it is a less a name and more a rotating title so that when the one "Senior" died or moved on there was a new "Senior". 

I cannot recall the birth name of this current incarnation of Senior but I do recall his out of control mustache. It was roughly a collection of fifteen thin hairs all caked together and more or less pushed to one side of his top lip. He joked and called it his "comb over". It was the oddest facial hair I have ever seen. 

Senior shared a lot of stories that I don't recall and frankly only understood about 1/4 of what he said. Truthfully, it was not so much how he spoke that was the main problem but of my anxiety to "move on" to the get the burgers to the next person. I regret that I was not present to where I needed to be. A lesson that I still am trying to learn.

One thing that Senior told Sam and I that impressed upon us both was that there is a difference in being homeless and being houseless. Senior said that he had been houseless for about fifteen years, but never homeless. He knew some people who were homeless, but most of his friends were only houseless. 

It is one perspective of one man that may not be affirmed by anyone else, but it seems to me there is a bit of wisdom in Senior's words. 

While I have not passed out cheeseburgers recently, it remains clear to me that people need houses. On the flip side, there are a good number of people who have a house but are homeless. May we have the courage to address both these conditions and the humility to not see them as one in the same.

Stop Expecting Elected Officials to Lead

We talk about the office of the President as a position that leads the American people. And then, every four years we are disenchanted with the leadership provided. We talk about blowing up the whole thing and throw the bums out. We say we want leaders in the offices we elect people into, but it is worth remembering that in a democracy, elected officials are not leaders in the way we might think, and they never have been. 

The reality is that elected officials are not leaders because they cannot be. That is not what an elected official is elected to do. Leadership and elected office are related but only loosely. Perhaps the words of the late great Mitch Hedburg are helpful here:

When you're in Hollywood and you're a comedian, everybody wants you to do other things. All right, you're a stand-up comedian, can you write us a script? That's not fair. That's like if I worked hard to become a cook, and I'm a really good cook, they'd say, "OK, you're a cook. Can you farm?" 

Cooking and farming are related only in that they both work with food, but these jobs require a different skill set.

So if elected officials are not leaders, what are they? Fine tuned followers.

They follow the wills of their constituents. They can only get into office if they do just that. There is a reason that a prophet (a leader) is not elected to be Ruler of the Land. So do not forget that any elected official is not leading but reflecting back a large group of people. You can hate the elected official if you want to, but do not forget that they are only a proxy for a much larger group. Are we willing to hate large groups of people represented by an elected official?

If we are looking to the elected officials to be leaders, I might suggest we look elsewhere.