⁸ Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”

Philip’s turn, as Thomas slinks to the background, the third one of the disciples to venture an interaction with the Lord. Not wanting to be overly ambitious and risk rebuke, his concern is not to go where Jesus was going, or even to know the way. He had seen Peter’s rebuke when stumbling over the feet washing incident and his rebuffed claim of loyalty. Philip’s request was simple, not overly demanding, yet at the same time offered what seemed like a simple request. Like the others, he seemed to be tracking ever so slightly with the Lord’s words, but at a very superficial level.

“Show us the Father,” he asks, and that will be sufficient. Satisfactory was what he was shooting for. It was a good request, though, wanting to see the One whom Jesus so intimately called “Father.” To a Jew, this request bordered on futility, since it had been clearly taught that, “No one can see God, and live” (Ex 33:20). Philip and the rest were about to discover a new understanding of what it means to “see” God, namely to see Him in the incarnate Christ. The aged John, writing years later, came to understand this truth quite well when he wrote, “No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him” (John 1:18). The disciples in the Upper Room were just being introduced to this idea.

Indeed the disciples would eventually learn that Jesus was “enough” to satisfy the righteous demands of the holy law of God—for God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself on the cross. The depth of understanding expands as we contemplate this incarnate truth. The Father is revealed in the Son, because the Son is the incarnate God, “the express image” (Heb 1:3 NKJV) of God. To be sure, it is indeed “enough” to see the Father. But the Father must be seen in the Son, or the Father cannot be seen at all.

Jesus would not allow Philip, or his fellow disciples, or even us today, to be satisfied with a limited, superficial understanding. One day’s knowledge is not enough for tomorrow’s spiritual growth. The Christian life is a continual, on-going exploration and discovery of God. This pursuit of the knowledge of God is never finished, because He is of infinite proportions in every category of thinking or existence. We never arrive where we fully know Him. We can know Him more fully than we did before, but there is always infinitely more to know about Him. And the more we know about Him, the more we know Him, and therefore the more we become like Him—until “He appears (when) we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is” (1 John 3:2).

Lord, I look forward to learning more of You in Your word, in life and in glory