The end of the passage from John 14 is a telling one from Jesus: "I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father" (John 14:12).
So... should I quit my job, grow a beard and walk around barefoot all the time? Probably not, although I have picked up on two of the three requirements. :) There are things I have done that Jesus never did. I am married, Jesus was not. I live in one place, Jesus was homeless for sections of His ministry and was constantly on the move. I do not generally get confronted by demons, Jesus exorcised demons frequently. In short, I am doing a pretty poor job of doing the things that Jesus does.
That is, if I take His words hyper-literally. I would argue that taking Jesus' words seriously means an imaginative application of Jesus' life into the here and now. If we believe that Jesus just handed His work off to us, then it seems that Jesus is done working, which is fundamentally not true. Jesus doesn't expect us to mimic, but manifest (Leonard Sweet, I am a Follower pg 142).
So what is manifesting Jesus all about? For one, it implies that Jesus is at work within you. By the Spirit, Jesus reminds of the Gospel of His Lordship, Jesus continues the pruning work that takes place in all of us, Jesus replaces the barrenness of disobedience and sin with the Fruit of the Spirit, and calls us to greater love of God and neighbor. As that is happening, the life of Jesus will manifest in your own life. You will participate in the reconciliation of all things, the very mission of the Triune God, and great things will be seen. I pray that all of us pilgrims on the Way, as we become refreshed in the Truth, will manifest the Life of Jesus in our daily walk.
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