Jesus Showed Up, And The Father Showed Out

What Did Jesus Do?

“Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”
John 14.8

Nobody likes a showoff, but that's what Jesus was. I mean, Jesus was the light. He came while there was light (see John 9.4; 12.35), and walked and talked and worked in the light, so that everyone could see and could know, not him, but the Father. When Jesus showed up, the Father showed out.

Not that God had been hidden before the Incarnation of the Son. For ever since the creation of the world what can be known about God has been revealed in the things that he made (see Romans 1.19-20). But it's one thing to know about God, and to perceive his divine attributes, and quite another to personally encounter him, up close and personal as it were, in the flesh. So, when Jesus showed up in the flesh, the Father showed out, well, in the flesh. The author of Hebrews put it this way, “He [Jesus] is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.” (Hebrews 1.3)

Oh, don't get me wrong here, the Father and the Son are two quite distinct persons. Yet so absolutely alike in their attributes and substance, as to be quite literally and perfectly one. The very same holds true for the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. And so, the disciples, like Philip, who had known Jesus, had in fact known the Father, seen the Father, heard the Father (John 14.9-10). But their faith still had some catching up to do.

While faith comes by hearing (Romans 10.17), Jesus recognized that, for many, seeing is believing, and so the Son showed up, that the Father should show out, and the people may see and know. Of course, Philip's request to be shown the Father reveals that seeing does not always mean understanding, or believing. So we hear Jesus clearly declare that he and the Father are one (John 10.30), and then make repeated references to the unity of the Father and the Son (10.38; 11.42; 12.44-45, 50; 13.20; 14.24; 15.24; 16.27; 17.21). For Philip, and the other disciples who had known Jesus, yet not discerned the presence of the Father in the Son, Jesus recalled the works he had done, works that were clearly of God, and urged his followers to believe because of the works themselves (John 14.11).

And God is still working today. The truth is, wherever and whenever the Son shows up, there and then the Father shows out. There are no exceptions to this. When Jesus promised that he would always be present where “two or three are gathered in my name” (Matthew 18.20), he was guaranteeing that the Father would also be present in the midst of his people. Even so, the Church, wherever and whenever it gathers in the name of the Son to glorify, serve, and worship the Father, is the place where Jesus shows up and the Father shows out, and the works of God are accomplished.


S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4