Philip says to him, Lord, shew us the Father and it suffices us.
Philip's words come near the end of a long evening of teaching, after Jesus has spoken of His Father's house. It sounds like the highest thing anyone could ask for. Yet the Lord's answer carries real pain.
Philip has caught something true: that a place is only as good as the Person who fills it. One writer links his words to the Father's house the Lord had just spoken of.
J. A. TrenchPhilip wanted to know more about the place. He seemed to grasp that the Person makes the place — that the Father is all the joy and blessedness of the Father's house. So he prays, "Show us the Father, and it is enough for us." What a blessing it is, by grace, to know that we need nothing else to fill and satisfy the whole being.
The problem lay in what kind of showing Philip had in mind. He wanted something his eyes could take in. The Lord was speaking about a different kind of seeing. One writer sets him beside Thomas, another disciple who also could not see past physical things.
Hamilton SmithPhilip, like Thomas, cannot rise above physical things. Thomas thought of a physical place. Philip thinks of physical sight, and so says, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." The Lord's reply shows that He is speaking of the seeing that belongs to faith.
Read on its own, the request sounds admirable — and this from a man who had once brought others to Jesus. But it was not a step forward.
William KellyPhilip says, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." To many readers this might seem an excellent wish. It comes from a man who had seen Jesus himself and had helped others who wanted to see Him. But it was sad unbelief. The Lord had just spoken patient, gracious words to lead them on.
But Philip did not doubt everything. It is worth naming what he did not believe.
J. G. BellettThe Lord's rebuke of Philip was aimed less at his unbelief about the Person of the Son, and more at his unbelief about the revelation of the Father which the Son had made. The first is bound up in the second.
Philip was asking for a separate display of the Father. He wanted Him to appear in some form other than the Son. One writer answers by pointing to the ordinary substance of Christ's life — what He said and what He did.
W. H. WestcottThe Lord patiently explains to Philip that He Himself, as a Man here, gave a full and blessed display of everything the Father is. His words were the Father's words; His works were the Father's works... When they looked at Jesus the Son as Man here, they were looking at what the Father is. There is no difference between the Father and the Son.
That also settles where anyone should look who shares Philip's longing today.
H J VineIt is pointless, then, to look anywhere else, or to look for something beyond what He has already made known. The Son alone gives us the knowledge of the Father, and He reveals the Father fully.
Philip spoke as though he still had ground to cover. In fact, whoever comes to Christ has already arrived — and Philip was right that the Father would be enough.
F. W. GrantHis very presence here was to declare the Father. That His own disciples still did not know the Father, after all this, wounds Him in the deepest way... If we have truly come to Christ, we have no further journey to make to reach the Father. We already have the very depth of the Father's heart laid open. And oh, what a wonderful joy it is to take this in by simple faith! Philip was at least right in saying, "It is enough for us"; and nothing less than this can satisfy us.
- Right longing. Philip was right that the Father would be enough. Nothing less than knowing the Father can satisfy anyone.
- Wrong request. He asked for physical sight, while the Lord was speaking of the seeing that belongs to faith.
- Real grief. His words were unbelief. He had missed the Father whom the Son had already revealed.
- One place to look. The Son's words and works show the Father. There is no other display of Him, and nothing beyond Him to find.
- Already enough. Whoever has come to Christ has no further journey to make. In Him the Father's heart lies open — and that is enough.
Jesus says to him, Am I so long a time with you, and thou hast not known me, Philip? He that has seen me has seen the Father; and how sayest thou, Shew us the Father?
Philip has just asked Jesus to show the disciples the Father, saying that would be enough for them. The Lord's answer points them nowhere new. It points them back to Himself, and to the years they had already spent watching Him.
Philip's question was not idle. He had grasped what makes the Father's house worth going to.
J. A. TrenchPhilip wanted to know more about the place. He seemed to grasp that the Person makes the place. The Father is all the joy and blessedness of the Father's house. So he prayed, "Show us the Father, and it is enough for us." How wonderful, by grace, to have the sense that nothing else is needed to fill and satisfy the whole being.
The Lord's reply carries pain. Philip had lived beside the One sent to reveal the Father, and still asked to see Him.
Numerical Bible NotesThe Lord's reply to Philip is an expression of pain at his lack of understanding… His very presence here was to declare the Father. That His disciples should still not know the Father, after all this, wounds Him in the deepest way… It is a tender but sad rebuke. Had Philip really not known that He was on the Father's mission? that He was Himself the love-gift of God? But we are even less excusable if we do not know it now… If we have truly come to Christ, we do not have a further journey to make to reach the Father. We have had the very depth of the Father's heart told out to us.
Philip wanted something his eyes could take in. But crowds had watched Jesus for years and saw only a workman.
Hamilton SmithThe unbelieving world did not see the Son; all they saw was the supposed son of Joseph — the carpenter. Only faith could see, in that lowly Man, the only begotten Son who came to declare the Father… Abraham could tell us that God is Almighty. Moses could tell us that God is the I AM, eternal and unchanging. But neither Abraham nor Moses was great enough to declare the heart of the Father to us. None but a divine Person is great enough to reveal a divine Person.
The Lord's question — how long He had been with them — is itself the evidence.
James BoydPhilip says to Him, "Show us the Father," and the Lord answers, in effect: Whom have you been looking at all the time I have been with you? Whose words have you been listening to? Whose works have you seen? Whose moral nature has been displayed before your eyes? "Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father."
That revelation happened on earth, in a life we can still watch.
George DavisonThe nature, character and disposition of God came to light in the Son of God in this world, and not after He ascended back to where He was before. "Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father" was what came out down here, and we do need to contemplate Jesus as He walked if we want to see this in all its fullness.
This is not only a claim about the Father. It is a claim about who Jesus Himself is.
H H SnellHere the Lord expressly teaches His essential Godhead as one with the Father. No doubt distinct as to personality, as He elsewhere shows, when He says, "the Father is greater than I." But the point insisted on is that He is one in essence…
If that is so, the search for God has an end.
J. N. DarbyIf we want to know God the Father, where are we to learn Him? "Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father." Have our hearts ever looked at Christ as an object and said, while looking, "I have nothing more to seek"? Just think what it is to look at the Lord in the power of the Spirit of God. In that poor despised Man you see One who was God walking on the earth. So when someone sat down beside Him and told Him his sin, he was telling it to God!
- Request — Philip asked for the Father because he sensed that the Person, not the place, is the joy of that home. His instinct was right. He was already looking at the answer.
- Rebuke — The reply is grief, not anger. To live beside the Son and still ask for the Father wounds Him. We have even less excuse.
- Revelation — His words, His works, His whole moral nature showed the Father on earth. That is why we still watch how He walked.
- Recognition — The world saw only a carpenter. Faith sees the Son who came to make the Father known. Only a divine Person can reveal a divine Person.
- Rest — Coming to Christ is not a stage on the way to the Father; there is no further journey and nothing more to seek.