If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him. (John 14:7 NIV)
Growing up with a father on the PGA Tour, I met many of golf’s greatest players. I got to know some of them very well over the years, from sharing meals, being paired in tournaments, and exchanging family Christmas cards. I never thought much of it. They were my dad’s peers.
However, it can seem a lot different for other people who are big fans. I could not guess how many times people have asked me if I had met or knew a big named player. Then after receiving a “Yes,” they almost inevitably ask, “What’s he like?”
Well, so far, they have all been human.
I say that in jest, but it is true. No matter how high a pedestal we sometimes place people, we mustn’t dehumanize them. They go through highs and lows just like you and me. They have victories and failures in their jobs, marriages, parenting, and other aspects of life, just like the rest of us.
It is easy to think of celebrities in a different light than people you know personally. I also know how easy it is not to see and get to know the person of Jesus in his humanity. This is not to deny his deity but to stress the importance of also knowing him in his humanity.
In many of today’s Christian environments, it feels as if what you know is more important than who you know. Jesus did not put his disciples through a three-year rigorous academic course on theology so that they could spread “the one true religion” around the world.
Instead, he called them to be learners of his words and actions by teaching about the way of the kingdom of God so that when he sent their future helper, the Holy Spirit, his kingdom would spread.
Jesus taught what the way of heaven looks like lived out here on earth. He emphasized loving others, and he de-emphasized religious traditions. After three years of discipleship, none of the disciples had a degree in theology, but they knew the character of God.
At the last supper, they were still clueless that Jesus was going to prepare a place in heaven for them with God. That leads to today’s verse, followed by Philip’s response, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us” (John 14:8 NASB).
“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.’ (John 14:9-11)”
Jesus, in his final moments with his disciples, demonstrated that his humanity was dependent on the Holy Spirit to deliver what the Father wanted him to say.
He taught his disciples what dependence on the Holy Spirit looked like; when lived out, it is focused on others. “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you” (John 15:12)
If you want to know what God the Father is like, dive into the four Gospels and learn what Jesus was like.
Prayer: Holy Spirit, help us get to know the person and character of Jesus so that we may truly know what God is like.