Passages like this one wait for us at the end of the day. They beckon us to ponder them after our daily duties. They encourage us to probe and ponder. So, what does it mean? Well, we first must ask, what does it say?
Some Bible passages are perplexing. That may be an understatement. We wonder about some of them. Like unruly children who cannot be harnessed and corralled these passages too are hard to handle. When we have finished our daily chores and obligations we ponder them. Better than the illustration of unruly children we might think of them like a diamond we turn this way and that. We study them to understand them. But sometimes these passages leave us with more questions than answers…a lot more. John 14:12 is like that. Think about it, what does Jesus mean when he says, “[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.” We will do greater works than Jesus? Is that what the Lord is saying?
Passages like this one wait for us at the end of the day. They beckon us to ponder them after our daily duties. They encourage us to probe and ponder. So, what does it mean? Well, we first must ask, what does it say? So, what does it say? Our pondering must take in the context. Context is a word made up of two Latin words. “Con” doesn’t mean a shady character on the street corner but is an assimilated form of com meaning “together” or “with.” And text is texere meaning “to weave.” The context asks what is texts are woven together with the text under consideration? And the answer to that is what took place on the evening of the Passover meal reported in John 13-17.
