Scripture: John 14: 8-17
Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
“If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
Consider:
I love Philip, he feels so VERY real to me… “just show us God, and that’s it, that will be enough to believe.” Just show me and I’ll believe… no amount of miracle working, no amount of teaching will actually breed belief in some folks… they have to SEE the real thing. No more, no less. And in classic fashion, Jesus gives what is needed, not necessarily what is wanted. Philip wanted a vision. Jesus offered a relationship.
All too often I think we get in our own way of doing the work of God because we’ve become too busy looking for “signs” of God. We shouldn’t need a dramatic display of God — we have Jesus and example after example of God’s presence through him.
When we long for clarity, Jesus says, Look at Me.
If we get right down to it, Jesus has been very specific. The directive is simple…keep my commands. The command is simple to remember but difficult to achieve…love one another.
So will we continue to ask things of God like Philip asked? Will we keep looking for those “signs” we need to prove something, or will we take Jesus seriously and know we’ve got all we need to get about the work of really loving one another as God loves us?
Respond:
Take a few minutes today to actively love a neighbor. Perhaps it looks like cookies to someone who might live alone. Maybe it’s a phone call to a family member you haven’t spoken with in a while. Maybe it looks like simply being intentional to make eye contact and smile at people everywhere you go today. Be active in the command to love neighbor, and at the end of the day, take stock of whether or not you saw more “signs” of God in those moments.
Pray:
God help us to see signs of you all around us, everyday. For you are, indeed, in and of and through everything. Amen.
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