Verse 28 If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, &c. The meaning seems to be, that they would rejoice in his approaching reunion with the Father, by which he would again be restored to the position of greatness and majesty, which he had left to assume the office of Mediator for man. (Comp. John 17:5.)--My Father is greater than I. Jesus Christ, as speaking and acting upon earth, in the execution of his mediatorial office, was in no sense equal with the Father. It was the Word which was God. But Jesus Christ, in whom this Word was mysteriously conjoined with human nature, always assumed the position of obedience and submission, which is plainly recognized in all his allusions to the Father, and is here distinctly declared. It true that, in one passage, (John 10:30,) he says, "I and my Father are one;" but the sense which he intended to be understood is made clear in John 17:11,22, when he prays that the same oneness which joins him, as Mediator, with the Father, may unite the disciples with him.