John 14:5-11
Key Verse: Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” (John 14:1-2)
We have all heard someone say, “He looks so much like his father” or “She’s the spitting image of her mother.” And indeed, some children carry a striking resemblance to a parent. Other times we hear, “He’s his father’s son.” Oftentimes, that means he not only looks like his father, but he acts like him.
When Philip asks Jesus in John 14:3, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us,” Jesus answers, “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” He sounds disappointed by the fact Philip does not recognize his identity with the father. Surely, Philip should have got that basic truth by now. We know it, but then we have so much more to go on.
Jesus is the face of God to humanity, the bridge between heaven and earth. John tells us in chapter one, “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known” (18). In 6:46, “No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father.” And Paul tells us in Col. 1:15, “No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father.”
What does Jesus mean by his words, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father”? He apparently uses these words in the most literal sense because he follows them with “Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?” He is not just saying, “I am like my father.” He is saying, “I and the Father are one.” This is a statement about the Trinity, and that would make it so much harder for Philip to grasp.
This has powerful implications. Jesus’ words are the words of God: “The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work” (v. 10). There can be no question about it. All that Jesus said and did was from God. He was the Son of God acting on behalf of the Father in everything he did and said. And he is still today the Son of God. He still says, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (v. 6).
Prayer: Lord, let me never doubt the divinity and dependability of the Son. He is divine without qualification and utterly dependable. May you Lord be praised, Father, Son, and Spirit.
