Jesus said to his disciples:
"If you know me, then you will also know my Father.
From now on you do know him and have seen him."
It was possible to experience Jesus on different levels. The most basic was that of his human appearance. This appearance seemed to reveal a normal human person. It was possible, indeed easy, to get stuck at that level of appearance and miss the greater reality not disclosed there. Many people were content to stay at there, and even to insist that Jesus himself stay there and not claim to go beyond what seemed obvious on the surface. Even the followers of Jesus, who came to see him as a great leader and teacher, possibly the Messiah, naturally still expected nothing beyond human, were still surprised at every turn as he revealed himself more and more. The enemies of Jesus understood that the claims he made about himself seemed to go beyond what any merely human individual ought to claim about himself. They desired to suppress anything said by Jesus that went beyond what he seemed to be on the surface, which was a poor rabbi from Nazareth.
Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you for so long a time
and you still do not know me, Philip?
Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
Jesus presence revealed something more and greater than a normal isolated human individual. In Jesus life and actions what was actually being revealed was the heart of God himself. In a human analogy we can imagine a husband or wife who simply can no longer be understood or imagined without the balancing presence of their partner. A story that seems to be about just one of them obviously contains the other as well for people who know the couple. The way in which Jesus revealed the Father was of course far more immediate than this analogy. But the point is that at every moment, in every act and gesture of Jesus, the Father was implicated, precisely because of their mutual love for one another.
How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?
We mustn't make the mistake of treating Jesus as merely a good person or a famous religious leader, as though we might use his teaching to point to something else beyond him and then leave him behind. We must instead allow him to do what he desires and reveal the Father to us, not apart from himself, but through himself.
The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own.
The Father who dwells in me is doing his works.
Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me,
or else, believe because of the works themselves.
We must not be content with a superficial understanding of Jesus as some kind of gentle religious coach. He is a friend, but he is more than a friend. He is the way, and therefore is our entryway in the very life of God himself, which he desires to share with us. His Father becomes our Father. His own obedience to the Father becomes the power that enables us to share in his Sonship and live lives pleasing to the Father. The principle by which Jesus worked his works is the same principle by which his followers are meant to work.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever believes in me will do the works that I do,
and will do greater ones than these,
because I am going to the Father.
He has left us even greater works to do than he himself performed on earth. No doubt the conversion of the world is at stake along with the future good of countless souls. He has left it to us precisely because doing is meant to glorify the Father and the Son even more than if they had done everything with no cooperation from the Church on earth. That is to say, working through our weakness to accomplish their desires is something that brings joy to the heart of God.
And whatever you ask in my name, I will do,
so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.
So let us not be content with leaving things at the level of 'buddy Jesus' but rather seek to discover exactly how the Son desires to glorify and reveal his Father. This in turn will make us bold when we come before the throne of grace (see Hebrews 4:16), ready to ask anything in his name that we believe to be his will.
In Acts we see the Judeans and the crowds observing only the human reality, constrained by their presuppositions and prejudices to be unable to accept the word of God. These limited beliefs filled them with jealousy rather than joy. But the Gentiles by contrast were able to accept the word. Those who accepted that there was more to Jesus than what one could see were also able to see beyond what appeared to be a bad situation, persecution, and to find in spite of it the presence of the Holy Spirit and the joy.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation by our God.
Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands;
break into song; sing praise.
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