Jn 16:23b-28
[Jesus said to his disciples,] 23“Amen, amen, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you. 24Until now you have not asked anything in my name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.
25“I have told you this in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures but I will tell you clearly about the Father. 26On that day you will ask in my name, and I do not tell you that I will ask the Father for you. 27For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have come to believe that I came from God. 28I came from the Father and have come into the world. Now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.”
I CAME FROM THE FATHER: Resisting the influences of the various cultures and religions around them, the Jews upheld a strict monotheism: Yahweh alone is God; no one is equal to him. Jesus causes a stir among the Jewish leaders because of his assertion that he came from the Father. Jesus is accused of “blasphemy” and is put to death through the instigation of the Jewish leaders mainly for this reason (see Mt 26:63-66).
Written towards the end of the first Christian century, John’s Gospel has, behind it, not only the apostolic preaching and the Jesus tradition, but also the reflection and meditation of the Beloved Disciple and his community on what St. Paul calls the “mystery of Christ.” The Gospel features a strong and continuing affirmation of Jesus’ unique relationship with God as his Father. This unique relationship starts with Jesus’ preexistence; he was with God even before the creation of the entire universe (see Prologue, Jn 1:1-3). As the Logos or the Word, Jesus already existed in the beginning.
Jesus’ “coming from the Father” then means his becoming man. But it is not just the birth of another human being; it is God being incarnated, taking on the human “flesh.” Jesus is the self-revelation of the Father. He existed as a distinct personality from the Father, but he also is on par with the Father. Whatever attributes God possesses, Jesus—the Son—also possesses. That Jesus “came from the Father”—in the context of Jn 16:28—also alludes to the resurrection/ascension. Since he is from God, Jesus is set to overcome the world and return to God.