The Journey of Jesus to Heaven (John 14:28-31)

In these verses Jesus gives for the benefit of his disciples further insight into his return to the Father. In verse 29, he says that he has told them these details in order that their faith would be strengthened.

Some have suggested that in these verses Jesus begins to use military language. His closing sentence, which indicates that this was the point when they left the upper room, is the kind of words that a leader in an army would use when leading his troops into battle. Certainly he was going to face a conflict, whether or not he used words with tones of battle about it.

It is clear from this chapter that the several announcements by Jesus about his future had caused concern and disappointment to the disciples. They had imagined that they were on the verge of prominent roles in an earthly kingdom, but Jesus had made clear that this was not going to happen. Their thoughts were preoccupying them and preventing them get full benefit from what Jesus was teaching. Jesus’ words to them in verse 28 indicate that their love to him at that moment was not what it should have been. When friends have to part, they look for expressions of love. Jesus had given them several expressions of love, but they had not given him any. This is a reminder that personal sorrow and disappointment can diminish, for a time, our love for Jesus.

Of course, we should note how gently he deals with them. He does not give a heavy-handed rebuke but a short, precise sentence to get them back into a proper perspective on what was happening to him and them. In the upcoming events, they were to say to themselves, when he was arrested, tried and executed, that he was going to the Father, no matter how unlikely it seemed.

His departure a reason for joy (v. 28)   

The meaning of the greatness of the Father. These words of Jesus have been a source of theological controversy throughout history because opponents of the full deity of Jesus have used them as evidence that Jesus himself did not make that claim. Today they are used by groups such as the Jehovah Witnesses to deny the full deity of Jesus. But it is clear even from this chapter that Jesus claims to be fully God (vv. 1, 9). The inferiority that he is describing does not refer to his person but to his role as the Father’s servant; the Father was greater in the sense that he had sent his Son to be the Saviour. (In passing, we are familiar with the possibility of equality of nature existing alongside grading of roles. Each of us is as equally a human as the Prime Minister, but we don’t have equality of role with the Prime Minister.)  Jesus was returning to heaven to be enthroned, but he would still be functioning as the Father’s servant.

There are several reasons why they should have rejoiced at the imminent departure of Jesus. First, they should have rejoiced because Jesus was going to be exalted. Love delights in the promotion of their friends. Therefore they should have been glad at the prospect that awaited their Master.

Second, they should have rejoiced because they had just been told, in several different ways, that Jesus, once he had returned to the Father, would send the Holy Spirit to them. The coming of the Spirit would result in heavenly teaching, in increased sense of the divine presence, and in enjoying the Saviour’s peace.

Third, they should have rejoiced because Jesus was going back to the Father in order to prepare a room for them in the Father’s house. He was going there as their Representative to ensure that they would eventually live with him forever.

His departure would involve an attack by the devil (v. 30)

Jesus here refers to Satan by the title ‘the prince of this world’. The Saviour states that the devil has some authority. His domain is not geographic but moral. He holds sway over sinners through spiritual blindness. So far, his kingdom is very extensive; in fact there is only one human – Jesus – who has not been a subject of his rule.

Thankfully many thousands of sinners have been rescued from his rule, but they all had been subjects at one time. And they still retain, while on earth, within their personalities, particular traits and other sinful features which the devil can locate and use. It was different with Jesus. So here the devil is coming towards the one Man who has never been part of his kingdom and in whom there was nothing that the devil could find suitable for his schemes. In what ways would he come?

First, he would come with hatred. This meeting would not be a joyful one. The hatred had begun centuries before when Satan, then an angel in heaven, had attempted vainly and foolishly (they usually go together) to overthrow the throne of God. He failed, but his hatred developed. We know the strength that hatred can give to some people. In a different way, it fuelled the devil’s march against the Saviour.

Second, the devil would come with hordes. Satan would not come alone. This was not going to be a one-to-one combat. Alongside the devil marched all the fallen angels, each of them determined to destroy Jesus. No-one knows how many there are, although Revelation 12:4 pictures a third of the angels following Satan in his rebellion. Who are they attacking? One perfect Man.

Third, the devil would come with horror. We know that when an army attacks, they use horrible weapons. The devil had his arsenal, with his main weapon being temptation, although he had other weapons such as cruelty and pain. He was going to unleash these awful temptations on the holy mind of Jesus, attempting to get him to cease loving his God and fellow man. Of course, the devil failed. When his fellowmen nailed him to the cross, Jesus prayed for them. When his Father brought him into the state of abandonment, he cried, ‘My God.’ He never ceased to love God or man.

Although such a powerful enemy was approaching, Jesus was aware that there was nothing within himself that would listen to the devil’s temptations. This is the real difference between Jesus and every other human that the devil tempts. Whatever the devil suggested was abhorrent to the Saviour. It is not a sin to be tempted, it is giving in to the temptation that is sinful.

What did the devil learn when he attacked Jesus on this occasion? First, he discovered that God’s ancient promise was fulfilled. In the Garden of Eden, the Lord had pronounced the coming of a Champion who would crush the head of the devil. This crushing would occur when the devil managed to bruise the heel of the foot that crushed him.

Second, Jesus, through the cross, rendered the devil powerless as far as his claims against God’s people are concerned. Satan is called ‘the accuser of the brethren’, and perhaps this means that he was urging God to punish them when they sinned. But on the cross, Jesus provided a legitimate way for sinners to be forgiven their sins, which means that Satan’s accusations are no longer valid.

Third, the devil discovered a Man determined to go to his Father. He discovered that his attacks could not change the purity of the life of Jesus, that Jesus would continue to have a perfect life no matter what temptations he had to endure. This perfect life was essential for his people’s salvation. Only as sinless could he offer an atoning sacrifice. The devil was like a person in Israel who would try and mar the perfect animal that was being in sacrifice. No matter what the devil tried, he could not make the sinless Jesus sin.

His departure would reveal to all that he loved the Father (v. 31)

We are not surprised that Jesus desired to be in heaven in the presence of the Father. Yet it should be a sense of wonder to us that he was willing to take the route that was mapped out for him by the Father. The road to heaven for Jesus involved more than defeating the evil one. It also included giving full obedience to the commandment that the Father had given him.

The commandment that the Father had given to his Son required that he pay the penalty for sin. It necessitated that he go to the place of punishment and endure God’s wrath against sin. One aspect of its wonder is that he endured this wrath simultaneously to his defeating the devil. Jesus did not experience these things sequentially as if he first defeated the devil and then endured divine wrath against sin. As he paid the penalty, he also overcame the enemy.

What can we say about the love that Jesus had for the Father? First, it was a love that delighted in the will of the Father. This will had been made known in the eternal counsels, and it had been eternally embraced by the Son. The plan of redemption was the height of divine wisdom in which the Trinity revealed the greatness of their conceptions. It was the means by which divine grace and blessing would be displayed, by which mercy and forgiveness would be given. ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work’ (John 4:34).

Second, it was a love that was devoted to the will of the Father. Humanly speaking, the Son had had plenty time before his incarnation to reflect on the saving plan of God that required such a costly sacrifice from his Son. But his devotion to the will of the Father did not diminish throughout these eternal ages. When the moment came for entering into humanity, he came singing the words of Psalm 40: 6-8: ‘Sacrifice and offering you have not desired, but you have given me an open ear.  Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. Then I said, “Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me: I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”’

Third, it was a love that was dedicated to fulfil the Father’s will after the Incarnation. Several times Jesus, as it were, re-dedicated himself to lovingly carrying out the Father’s plan. An obvious example is his baptism where he publicly committed himself to obeying God’s will. Another example occurred shortly after this announcement in John 14 when he resolved in Gethsemane to continue with the task given to him.  It is likely that the Saviour made this determined resolution on many occasions. At one time, he declared, ‘But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!’ (Luke 12:50). At the end of John 14, Jesus again dedicates himself to obeying the Father’s will in all its requirements.

The cross is an expression of love by God

The cross was an expression of hatred from the devil’s point of view and from the standpoint of the human rulers. They arranged for the crucifixion out of malice and envy. But the cross was an expression of love from the perspective of God, and a loving expression in many ways. It was the love of the Father that gave his Son to be the sinbearer (John 3:16); ‘God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us’ (Rom. 5:8).  It was the love of the Son for the church that led him to give himself for his people (Eph 5:25). It was the love of the Son that caused him to take the place of individual sinners such as Saul of Tarsus (Gal. 2:20). This love is the theme of the praise of the redeemed (Rev. 1:5).

In completing his journey to heaven, Jesus had to defeat a powerful enemy and endure lovingly the wrath of God against the sin of his people. He arrived safely at his destination, therefore, let us rejoice that he has gone to the Father.