THE FATHER-HAVE YOU SEEN HIM?

REVEALING THE FATHER

“He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.”  JOHN 14:9.

In our translation of the passage, so simple is it that no word of two syllables is employed except the word “Father.” “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9); and yet so inspirational is it that among all the things Jesus said concerning His relationship to the Father none is more comprehensive, inclusive, exhaustive than this. Its very simplicity leaves us no room for doubt as to the meaning of our Lord. The last hours of Jesus with His disciples were passing away. He was talking to the disciples, and four times over they interrupted Him. Peter first, “Lord, whither goest Thou?” (John 13:36). While He was yet answering Peter, Thomas said, “Lord, we know not whither Thou goest; how know we the way?” While He was yet dealing with Thomas, Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.” (John 14:8-9). Before He was done with Philip, Jude said, “What is come to pass that Thou wilt manifest Thyself unto us, and not unto the world?” (John 14:22). The lonely Christ, recognizing the fact that the nearest friends of His life, His own followers, did not perfectly understand Him, could not walk with Him along the via dolorosa, were afraid of the gathering shadows, yet taught them, patiently and gently answering objections, clearing away difficulties, storing their minds with truth.

          Philip’s interruption was due, in the first place, to a conviction of Christ’s relation in some way to the Father. He had been so long with Jesus as to become familiar in some senses with His line of thought. He had heard over and over again strange things fall from the lips of the Master. He had listened to the wonderful familiarity with which Jesus had spoken of God as “My Father.” (30 references in the book of John alone). In all probability, moreover, Philip was asking that there should be repeated to him and the little group of disciples some such wonderful thing as they had read of in the past of their people’s history. He would have read therein of the great and glorious theophanies of days gone by, of how the elders once ascended the mountain and saw God; of how the prophet had declared that “in the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple”; (Isa 6:1) of how Ezekiel had declared that when he was by the river Chebar he had seen God in fire, and wheels; in majesty and glory. It was to that request, based upon a vision of Christ’s relationship to the Father, based upon the memory of how God had manifested Himself to the men of olden days that Jesus replied. I cannot read this answer of Jesus without feeling that He divested Himself of set purpose of anything that approached stateliness of diction, and dropped into the common speech of friend to friend, as looking back into the face of Philip He said, “Have I been so long time with you, and dost thou not know Me, Philip? he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” (John 14:9). Mark the simplicity of it. They were most familiar with Him. I think you will agree with me that it requires no stretch of the imagination to believe that they had looked upon His face more often than upon the face of any other during the three years. They had listened with greater interest to the tones of His voice than to any other sounds that had come to them during that period. The very simplicity of it is its audacity. The word may not be well chosen, and yet I take it of set purpose. If you want to know how audacious and daring a thing it is, put it into the lips of any other teacher the world has ever produced. Looking into the face of one man, who was voicing, though he little knew it, the great anguish of the human heart, the great hunger of the human soul, Christ said, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father,” (John 14:9) and in that declaration He claimed absolute identity with God. So much for the setting of my text and the claim thereof. That claim has been vindicated in the passing of the centuries. The conception of God which is triumphant, intellectually capturing the mind, emotionally capturing the heart, volitionally capturing the will, came to the world through that One Who, standing Man before man, yet said to Him, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.”