John 14:1-14
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
9 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’? 10 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. 11 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. 12 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. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. [1]
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Philip says, “Show us the Father,” and Jesus points to Himself. The world says to us (whether it knows it or not) “Show us the Father” or “Show us Jesus.” Where do we point? We point to the Word, of course, But can we point to ourselves as well?
Jesus is making the point with His disciples that He is the way to the Father, and that if you have seen Him you have seen the Father. If we want to know what the Father is like, what His character is like, the things that He does, we need only point to Jesus. He is the way, truth and life, because His life perfectly depicts the Father.
Jesus is getting at something here that’s beyond the mystery of the Trinity. In verse 11, He calls on the disciples to believe on the evidence of the works He has been doing. In other words His life. The way He lives His life shows that the Father is in Him, and in fact the works show the Father.
But look at the next verse. He promises that the one who believes in Him will do even greater works. What does He mean by greater works? In his context the works of Jesus are all about revealing the Father. What about my works? What do they reveal about the Father? What do they reveal about Jesus?
Jesus perfectly depicted the presence and character of His Father, and did the works His Father does. As disciples of Jesus, called to imitate him and grow in His character and competence, our works are to have the same effect. The goal is that in our lives people would come to know what Jesus is like, wha t the Father is like, by the way we live our lives.
My witness is much more than the words I speak about Jesus. It’s my whole life. So my prayer today is for my witness this day, the works I do reveal that Jesus is in me.
What is the Word leading you to pray today?
[1] The New International Version. 2011 (Jn 14:1–14). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
