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Joh_14:28. Instead of being terrified and alarmed, you should rejoice, that I, etc. ἠκούσατε , κ . τ . λ . (Joh_14:18) prepares for this.
εἰ ἠγαπ . με ] intended by Jesus to be understood in its ideal sense, of true, complete love, which consists simply and solely in entire self-surrender to Him, so that all other interests are subordinated to it.
ὅτι ὁ πατήρ μου μείζων μου ἐστί ] Statement of the reason for the joy which they would have felt ( ἐχάρητε ): since my Father is greater, as generally, so particularly, more powerful (comp. Joh_14:12; Joh_8:53; Joh_10:29; 1Jn_4:4) than I; since I, consequently, through my departure to Him, shall be elevated in the higher fellowship with Him, to far greater power and efficiency for my aims, for victory over the world, etc. Comp. Melanchthon. In this gain, which is awaiting me, how should not he rejoice who loves me? Others find the motive to joy indicated by Christ in the glory and blessedness which awaits Him with the Father. So Cyril ( τὴν ἰδίαν δόξαν ἀναληψόμενος ), and several, including Tholuck, Olshausen, Kling, Köstlin, Maier, Hilgenfeld, Hengstenberg, Baeumlein, comp. Godet. But thus the motive would lie only in the departure to the Father generally (with which the attainment of the δόξα was necessarily associated), not to the Father’s superior greatness of being, irrespective of the fact, that on this view the reference which Jesus would be giving to the love of the disciples would contain something selfish. Others render: the occasion of joy lies in the more powerful protection which the μείζων πατήρ would assure to the disciples, beyond what He, during His presence on earth, was able to do (Theophylact, Euth. Zigabenus, and several others, including Kuinoel, Lücke, De Wette). But this does not apply to the condition of love to the person of Jesus, for the above explanation changes it rather into love towards His work. Others, as Luther, Beza, Grotius, Bengel, Lampe, mingle together in the determination of the cause of joy, the interest of Christ and of the disciples; comp. Calvin: “quia haec ultima est meta, ad quam tendere vos oportet.”
The μειζονότης of the Father (formerly the point of controversy with the Arians, see Suicer, Thes. II. p. 1368) does not rest in the pre-eminence of the unbegotten over the begotten (Athanasius, Faustinus, Gregory Nazianzus, Hilarius, Euth. Zigabenus, and many others, including again also Olshausen), for which special expedient the text offers no occasion whatever, nor again in the temporal humiliation of Christ (Cyril, Augustine, Ammonius, Luther, Melanchthon, Calvin, Beza, Aretius, and many others, including De Wette, Tholuck, and Luthardt), since God is also greater than the exalted Christ (see Joh_14:16, ἐρωτήσω , Joh_17:5; 1Co_15:27-28; Php_2:9-11; 1Co_3:23; 1Co_11:3, and generally throughout the N. T.), as He was also greater than the pre-existent Logos (Joh_1:1-3); but in the absolute monotheism of Jesus (Joh_17:3), and of the whole N. T. (see on Rom_9:5), according to which the Son, although of divine essence,[157] and ὉΜΟΟΎΣΙΟς with the Father (Joh_1:1; Php_2:6; Col_1:15-18, et al.), nevertheless was, and is, and remains subordinated to the Father, the immutably Highest One, since the Son, as Organ, as Commissioner of the Father, as Intercessor with Him, etc., has received His whole power, even in the kingly office, from the Father (Joh_17:5), and, after the complete accomplishment of the work committed to Him, will restore it to the Father (1Co_15:28). The remark of Hengstenberg is incorrect: Only such a pre-eminence of greatness on the part of the Father can be intended, as came to an end with the departure of Christ to the Father.
[157] This forms the previous assumption of the declaration, which otherwise would be without meaning and relevancy. Comp. on Joh_10:30. In truth, from the mouth of an ordinary human being it would be an utterance of folly.