Seeing the Father Through the Son
Rev. Aniekan "Mbomboyo" Okokon ·
Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. — John 14:9
Philip asked for the one thing every human heart wants: "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." Jesus' answer was almost a rebuke. "Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip?" He had been showing them the Father for three years. They had been looking for something else.
The problem of an imagined God
Everyone has a picture of God, and most of them are assembled from spare parts: a father who was absent or harsh, a religion that was cold or frightening, a culture that made Him a policeman or a genie. People pray to the God they picture, and if the picture is wrong, the prayer is directed at a stranger.
Hebrews says Jesus is "the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature" (1:3). Exact. Not a partial view, not one side of a many-sided God. If you want to know what God is like - how He treats sinners, what He does with the sick, how He speaks to the ashamed, whether He is angry or glad to see you - you look at Jesus, and you have your answer.
What the Son shows about the Father
- He runs toward prodigals. The father in the parable is Jesus' own description of the Father.
- He touches lepers. The Father is not afraid of your uncleanness.
- He weeps at graves. The Father is not indifferent to your grief.
- He washes feet. The Father's authority stoops.
- He says "neither do I condemn you" before "go and sin no more". The Father's order is grace, then holiness.
- He goes to the cross. The Father's love is not sentiment; it cost Him everything.
Correcting the picture
Take the God you actually pray to - the one you flinch from, or bargain with, or assume is disappointed - and set Him beside Jesus in the Gospels. Where they differ, the Gospels are right. This is not lowering God to Jesus' level; it is discovering that Jesus is God's level. He is what the Father has always been like.
Show us the Father, and it is enough. He has. Look at the Son, and it is.