Episode 97 - "I am in the Father and the Father is in me." John 14:8-11

John 14:8   Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.

If I were to give this section a title, I might be tempted to call it “Weird stuff Jesus said.” What is this “I am in the Father and the Father is in me” stuff? Even for us seminarians, processing statements like this can be frustrating. We ask, “How can this be?” We want to be able to compartmentalize the details as if it were a mathematical formula. My suspicion why we can’t is that it’s not supposed to be completely understood in the limited capacities of us humans. We are speaking about God. God is the Creator and we are the creature and we’re broken through our sin. So, what do we do with this?

Let us focus first on the request by Philip which appears to be on behalf of the others with him. He said, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” (v. 8) This is simple enough to understand I think. Philip is saying, “Lord, show us God and then we’ll trust you.” I think a lot of people say this exact thing today. “If I could have just seen Jesus work some miracles, I would believe.” 

The first problem with this line of thinking is it is not true. People will not necessarily believe if they could see Jesus work miracles. Why? Because John has already demonstrated this truth in this very book hasn’t he. When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, many believed in him. That’s great! BUT . . .John also records that instead of believing in Jesus, some returned to the Pharisees (the religious leaders who consistently rejected Jesus). (John 11:45-46) The man born blind reminded the Pharisees that never before had anyone born blind received their sight and that Jesus must be from God in order to make that happen. The religious leaders cast him out in rejection. (John 9:32-34) 

The second problem with this line of thinking is it is not true. Are you smiling? Wasn’t that the first problem? Yes. But, I want to emphasize the point by leading us to Jesus’ response to Philip’s request. Jesus said, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”(v.9)  Ouch! Jesus is saying, I have shown you the Father. All the miracles I’ve done and everything I have taught you is from the Father and it reveals that I’m not just another prophet bringing a message. I am the unique Son who has the same essence or nature of God and I have come to be present with you so that you can see God. (My paraphrase) This is why Jesus repeats and emphasizes, “I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” (vv. 10,11) This is foundational for the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. Some people think that this doctrine teaches there are three gods. That is not accurate. Christianity strongly holds to a belief in one God. However, it also believes that this God is “three in person; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” The three persons of the trinity are said to be in one essence. They have different roles. But, there is no difference in their nature. 

Notice that Jesus does NOT say, “I am the Father and the Father is me.” God does NOT change from one person to the next. There are three distinct persons within the Godhead but remain one God. 

Bringing this back to Jesus’ response to the Philip and the disciples and what we can learn from this is that when we listen to Jesus’ teaching and consider the things he did, we should ask ourselves, “What does this reveal about Jesus?” The answer we should arrive at is, “It reveals that Jesus truly is God and we can trust him.” 

A few other Scripture verses that may help us better, if not fully, understand Jesus divinity are:

John 12:45 And whoever sees me sees him who sent me.

Colossians 1:15  He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.  (Note: “The firstborn of all creation” means that he has the authority from the Father God over all creation.)

Hebrews 1:3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.