Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to John · About this commentary
He Who Has Seen Me
John 14:8-14
8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” · WEB
Philip asks for one look at the Father, and the answer is the saddest question in the Gospel.
Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us" John 14:8.
The request is the deepest longing in Scripture, honestly stated. Moses asked it — show me your glory Exodus 33:18 — and was given a name proclaimed and a back turned. Philip is asking for what every serious religious person has wanted, and he adds that it would settle everything.
"Have I been with you such a long time, and do you not know me, Philip?" John 14:9.
The reply is a question, and the name at the end of it makes it personal. Philip was there in the first chapter, one of the earliest called John 1:43; he had produced the boy with the loaves; he had just been approached by the Greeks. Three years of it, and he is still asking for a sight of God as though it were somewhere else.
There is real sadness in the sentence and no anger. It is the tone of a friend who has been standing in front of somebody for a long time.
"He who has seen me has seen the Father. How do you say, 'Show us the Father'?"
The claim is the prologue's, in a single line: no one has seen God at any time. The only born Son... has declared him John 1:18. What Philip is asking for is not withheld — it has been in the room for three years, eating and walking and talking.
It is also as strong a statement of identity as the book contains, and worth holding beside the sentence three verses later that the Father is greater. Both are said in the same conversation, and this Gospel does not treat them as a difficulty.
"Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I tell you, I speak not from myself; but the Father who lives in me does his works" John 14:10.
The mutual indwelling is stated and then evidenced in two ordinary things: what he says, and what he does. Neither is claimed as his own production.
"Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me; or else believe me for the very works' sake" John 14:11.
A lower rung is offered without embarrassment. If the claim itself is too much, start with the evidence. It is the same concession made to hostile questioners in the temple John 10:38, and it is made here to a friend.
"He who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also; and he will do greater works than these, because I am going to my Father" John 14:12.
The promise is startling and the reason attached to it controls how it is read. Greater is explained by because I am going — the works become greater not in power but in extent, once the ministry is no longer confined to one body in one province. A man in Galilee healed those he could reach; the second volume of this writer's work has the message running from Jerusalem to Rome.
"Whatever you will ask in my name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son" John 14:13.
The promise about prayer is wide and it is not blank. In my name is not a formula appended to a request; it means asking as his representative, on his business — and the purpose clause states the limit plainly. What is guaranteed is what glorifies the Father in the Son.
settled What this mark means