“Lord, show us the Father…”
Philip’s question, or rather Jesus’ answer to that question, speaks volumes about who this Jesus is, and why he is relevant in the world.
“Have I been with you all this time, and you still do not know me”
To look upon Jesus is to encounter God. He is far more than a wise teacher. He is not merely a prophet. Jesus is God incarnate in human flesh. God has come among us as one of us.
If we miss this, Jesus is at best a wise man of history. As such, we who live nearly 2,000 years after the Gospel can only glean wisdom from him. But we can just as easily dismiss him as irrelevant, or relegate him to be one among a number of wise voices and presences in human history. And when this is the view, it is little wonder why the world, both those who accept the wisdom of Jesus the man, and those who reject the message of the man of history, fail to apply these things to daily living.
But Jesus is God in our midst. When we see him, and when we are encountered by him, we are face to face with God. The Word spoken by Christ is the eternally relevant wisdom of God. Today we do well to embrace this Jesus as Thomas will at the end of the Gospel, calling him, “My Lord and My God.” For only then can we apply this Word to our daily living and to the world around us.
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