Who knows Jesus knows the Father!

John 14:6-14

Jesus said, “I am the Road, also the Truth, also the Life. No one gets to the Father apart from me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him. You’ve even seen him!”

Philip said, “Master, show us the Father; then we’ll be content.”

“You’ve been with me all this time, Philip, and you still don’t understand? To see me is to see the Father. So how can you ask, ‘Where is the Father?’ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you aren’t mere words. I don’t just make them up on my own. The Father who resides in me crafts each word into a divine act.

“Believe me: I am in my Father and my Father is in me. If you can’t believe that, believe what you see—these works. The person who trusts me will not only do what I’m doing but even greater things, because I, on my way to the Father, am giving you the same work to do that I’ve been doing. You can count on it. From now on, whatever you request along the lines of who I am and what I am doing, I’ll do it. That’s how the Father will be seen for who he is in the Son. I mean it. Whatever you request in this way, I’ll do.

Food for thought!

Jesus is making a series of revelations, thanks to the question by Philip: "Master, show us the Father, and we will be content." Philip was as if saying of Jesus, You represent the Father, but only partially; we want the real Father, not just a representative. To this, Jesus made us know that to see him is to see what God is like. "To see me is to see the Father." This means a lot. It means that:

(i) In Jesus, God entered into an ordinary home and into an ordinary family. In Jesus, God once and for all sanctified human birth, sanctified the humble home of ordinary folk and sanctified all childhood.

(ii) In Jesus, God was not ashamed to do a man's work. It was as a working man that he entered into the world; Jesus was the carpenter of Nazareth. We can never sufficiently realize the wonder of the fact that God understands our day's work. Yesterday we marked the Workers Day, 1st of May. We do well to remember that in Jesus God worked, and because he worked, He knows the difficulty of making ends meet; he knows the difficulty of the ill-mannered customer and the client who will not pay his bills. He knew all the difficulty of living in an ordinary home and in a big family, and he knew every problem which besets us in the work of every day. According to the Old Testament work is a curse; according to the old story, the curse on man for the sin of Eden was: "In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread" (Gen.3:19). But in Jesus common work is tinged with glory for it has been touched by the hand of God.

(iii) In Jesus, God knows what it is to be tempted. The life of Jesus shows us, not the serenity, but the struggle of God. Jesus shows us that even the holy people do struggle with life, with temptations, with life. Jesus does not show us a God who lived in a serenity and peace which were beyond the tensions of this world but a God who goes through the struggle that we must undergo. God is not like a commander who leads from behind the lines; he too knows the firing-line of life.

(iv) In Jesus we see God loving. The moment love enters into life pain enters in. If we could be absolutely detached, if we could so arrange life that nothing and nobody mattered to us, then there would be no such thing as sorrow and pain and anxiety. But in Jesus we see God caring intensely, yearning over people, feeling poignantly for them and with them, loving them until he bore the wounds of love upon his heart. Jesus shows us that s/he who loves suffers.

(v) In Jesus we see God upon a Cross. There is nothing so incredible as this in all the world. It is easy to imagine a God who condemns men; it is still easier to imagine a God who, if men oppose him, wipes them out. No one would ever have dreamed of a God who chose the Cross to obtain our salvation. "He who has seen me has seen the Father." Jesus is the revelation of God and that revelation leaves the mind of man staggered and amazed.

In today's Gospel, Jesus gives us a threefold assurance:
1. How can I reach heaven? He is the Way!
2. How can I be sure? He is the Truth!
3. How can I live? He is the Life!

In case you have more hows and whys and whats and wheres, know that Jesus is the answer to all human quests.