Philip said, ”Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
Philip’s comment in verse eight amazes me. It is almost as if he is saying, “Look, Jesus, we aren’t asking a lot here. Just show us the Creator of the Universe, you know… the Invisible God, the One who can bring people to their knees just by the sound of his voice, the One whom our forefathers feared to look upon or they would die…just show us Him and that will be enough for us.”
Enough for what?
Enough to turn you into a vapor? Dust? A pillar of salt? What did Philip expect to accomplish by seeing the Father?
Is Philip implying that seeing the Father will validate what the Son has said? Is he suggesting that seeing the Father will somehow make him understand the way to where Jesus is going? It seems to me it is a bit like asking to visit the center of our sun to see how it works. I just don’t think that would be a good idea.
Let’s Discuss: What is needed for you to believe? Do you have enough?
Good question. Faith at some point is involved. We have a lot of evidence. And it turned out that being an eyewitness of the resurrected Jesus was enough for Philip. It is interesting that seeing a pillar of fire for forty years was not enough for the Israelites. Seeing incredible miracles was not enough for many people in Jesus’ time on earth. He has given us much evidence. Yet, Hebrews 11:6 is still the needed response.
Philip already had “enough” but, as Jesus said, a wicked generation seeks a sign. Not to be trite, but believing is seeing, not vice versa. As Rich alludes, the faith chapter is one of many God-given gems. For me, John 3:18 was enough to bring me to Christ. Short term memory seems to plague us and we allow trials to make us near sighted.
I look at the evidence as a means of having a reasonable faith – God and his word makes sense. A reasonable faith doesn’t shut off its brain and blindly believe irrational things that don’t have evidence to support them. It does however realize that it can’t know everything and at some level must have faith/trust to fill in ones limitations (human limitations and mystery).
Yes it is enough for me. Our faith is reasonable – there is ample evidence, but I also realize my limitations and choose to believe without seeing everything.
All this being said; I long to see Jesus face to face. Guess that makes me more than Philip than I’d like to admit.