What did Jesus mean when he said we would do greater work than he did?
First
of all, he said that to his disciples and only to us indirectly, if at
all. He is speaking to the first-century church, and he makes the
statement that the works they do will be greater than the works that he
performed.
Let me tell you what I don't think it means. There are
many today who believe that there are people running around this world
right now who are performing greater miracles, performing miracles in
greater abundance, and actually doing more incredible acts of divine
healing than Jesus himself did. I can't think of any more serious
delusion than that, that somebody would actually think they have
exceeded Jesus in terms of the works he has done. There's nobody who
comes close to the work that Jesus did. Some say that perhaps we can't
do greater works than Jesus individually but that corporately we are
able to exceed in power the things that Jesus did.
We see amazing
things happening in the first-century church through the power that
Christ gave to his apostles. We see people raised from the dead through
Peter and Paul. But at the same time I would challenge people by telling
them to add up all of the miracles that, according to New Testament
records, were wrought through the hands of Paul, Peter, and the rest of
the disciples corporately, put them all together, and see if they
measure a greater degree than those which our Lord performed.
If
Jesus meant that people would do greater miracles than he performed in
the sense of displaying more power and more astonishing things than he
did, then obviously one of the works that Jesus failed to perform was
sound prophecy, because that just didn't happen. Nobody exceeded Jesus'
works. That's what leads me to believe that's not what he meant.
I
think he's using the term "greater" in a different way. I heard a
church historian say that he was convinced that when Jesus made the
statement "Greater works than these will you do," he was referring to
the whole scope of the impact of Christ's people and his church on the
world throughout history.
I know a lot of people look at the
history of Western civilization and say that the bulk of the church's
influence has been negative—the black eye of the Crusades, the Galileo
episode, and holy wars, etc. If you look at the record, you will see
that it was the Christian church that spearheaded the abolition of
slavery, the end of the Roman arena, the whole concept of education, the
concept of charitable hospitals and orphanages, and a host of other
humanitarian activities. I think, personally, that that's what Jesus
meant when he talked about greater works.