Seeing Jesus, Seeing the Father

  

“If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.” Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father, how can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’” John 14:7 – 9.

 

What do you think about what Jesus is saying? What do you see? Here, once again, is the Divine mystery, the Holy Dance; to attempt to “figure it out” and explain it leads to frustration and profanation, to receive Jesus’ Word leads us into the Trinitarian Family of God.

 

Jesus says (Matthew 11:25 – 27), “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well- pleasing in Your sight. All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”

 

We are utterly dependent on the grace, mercy, and kindness of God in all things, including in knowing Him. When Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven” (Mt. 16:17).

 

We ought not to be surprised at the images and language Jesus uses in the Upper Room, for John begins his Gospel with, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” This is shortly followed by, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth…No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known.”

 

John’s Gospel begins with a dance, in the Upper Room the dance continues. Then on Easter morning (Jn. 20:17), we hear the melody, “…but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’”

 

Paul writes that Jesus is “the image of the invisible God” in Col. 1:15. The writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus the Son “is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature” (Heb. 1:3). As we see in Revelation chapters 4 – 5, and 21 – 22, our destiny, our ultimate existence, is rooted in and focused on and lived with the Lord God Almighty (the Father) and the Lamb (the Son) as the Holy Spirit gives Life to all the redeemed in the Lamb.

 

There is enigma in Jesus’ words to Philip, “If you had known Me…” Hadn’t Philip been with Jesus since right after Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist? (John 1:43). Wasn’t it Philip who found Nathanael and told him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote – Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph”?

 

Why does Paul write, well into his life with Jesus Christ, well into his apostolic ministry, “…that I may know Him…”? (Phil. 3:10).

 

We know Him but we don’t know Him, we see Him but we don’t see Him; for Jesus Christ is God and we are always coming to Him and He is always coming to us for He is infinite and we are not. Yes, yes, we live by His life, His eternal life and Nature dwell within us – but He is always God and we are always not God – even though we are His Body, even though we are His Bride – and so here is yet perhaps another enigma.

 

Yet is it really an enigma? If it is “here” it won’t be “there” – for “there” His overwhelming light and life and love, and His glory in “one another”, is such that I doubt we’ll ponder these things the way we do now – O what peace we will have in Him, what peace with one another in Him!

 

Of course Philip knew Jesus, but then again of course Philip did not know Jesus – isn’t this the most natural/supernatural thing in the world and in heaven? Wherever we are in Christ, we know Him and yet we don’t know Him; we know Him and yet there is so much more of Himself that He is giving to us.

 

Our arrogance ought to frighten us. How many Sunday school lessons and commentaries treat Jesus Christ as a psychological and religious specimen for study – rather than bow before the God of the Incarnation? We are not called to “master” the life of Jesus, we are called to submit to Jesus Christ in obedience and to allow His life to master us.

 

Thomas, Philip, and Judas (not Iscariot) all ask Jesus questions or make requests of Him in John 14, and Jesus responds to each one. They do not ask in the challenging attitude of the religious leaders, but rather they ask in the posture of disciples and friends – for they love Jesus, whether they understand Him or not…they love Jesus.

 

What about us? Do we love Jesus Christ? Is He our Lord and Master?

 

Are we coming to know Him, and do we daily see Him coming to us?

 

Do we realize that while we may know Him, that yet we do not know Him?

 

I have a friend who says, “I want to love Jesus more today than I did yesterday.” I first heard my friend say that years ago, and since then I have woven it into the fabric of my morning prayer and daily desire.

 

I want to love Jesus more today, to know Him deeper today, to receive more of Him today…than I did yesterday….knowing that In seeing Him, we are seeing the Father…Jesus is bringing us home to our Father.

 

What about you?