‘I only wish I could see God – and then I would believe!’ I’m sure many of us have heard this line expressed (or something like it) by people we know and love. They want concrete proof of God’s existence: ‘if only I could see for myself…’
Today’s passage gives us a surprising answer. Humanity can see God, and thousands of people did see God, here on this earth, albeit many, many years ago. God’s name was – is – Jesus.
‘Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.’ This is Jesus’ extraordinary reply (v9) to Philip’s question: ‘Lord, show us the Father!’ (v8). It’s an even blunter answer than the one Jesus gave to the crowds a few days previously after his arrival in Jerusalem (12:45). Here, in the intimate setting of the Upper Room with his friends, he is completely open and candid. And, in case they didn’t absorb the message first time, he immediately repeats it: (v10) ‘I am in the Father and the Father is in me.’
This is the true response to all our loved ones who long for proof: it is right here, in the life of Jesus. Jesus himself points to two specific categories of evidence to back up his claim. First, his words: (v10)’’ 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.’ Jesus taught like no teacher in the whole of human history: before, or since. Such teaching could only be divinely inspired – the words of the Father, living among us.
Second, the works: ‘Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.’ Jesus didn’t just preach, he practised what he preached, and confirmed his word with miraculous works – demonstrations of his divinity.
His words and his works – they all point to the Father. We can see God, and his name is Jesus.
This allows us to receive the hard word about no-one coming to the Father except through Jesus (v6). It sounds ‘exclusive’ – but if Jesus is the only true, complete and real manifestation of Almighty God who has ever lived here on earth, then he must be the way to the Father. And that Way is big enough, wide enough, to draw all people to himself. People from across the world: different cultures, different backgrounds, and even from different religious worldviews, have found true life, and met the true Lord of all, in Jesus. He is the pinnacle of all religious thought, and the summation of all human searching for meaning. The Way, the Truth and the Life.
As we begin our week, give thanks that we can see God, through the pages of scripture and in the depths of our hearts. And may the words and the works of the Son dwell in us, and be manifested through us, today.