My Notes
What Does John 14:8 Mean?
Philip makes a simple, human request during Jesus' farewell discourse: show us the Father and that's enough. It sufficeth us — we'll be satisfied. Just let us see God.
The request is understandable. The disciples have been listening to Jesus talk about the Father, about going to the Father, about doing the Father's work. Philip wants the direct experience. Show us. Make it visible.
Jesus' response (v.9) is one of the most important christological statements in the Gospels: "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father." The answer to Philip's request is: you've already been looking at him.
The theological weight is enormous. Philip wanted a theophany — a dramatic appearance of God. Jesus says: I am the theophany. The visible, touchable, human Jesus is what God looks like. If you want to know the Father, look at the Son.
Reflection Questions
- 1.What does your picture of God look like — and how much of it comes from Jesus versus other sources?
- 2.Philip had been with Jesus for years and still asked to see the Father. What does that say about how slowly understanding develops?
- 3.If 'he that hath seen me hath seen the Father,' what does Jesus' character reveal about God's character?
- 4.What would change if you let the life of Jesus — specifically — be your primary lens for understanding God?
Devotional
Show us the Father and it sufficeth us. Philip is asking for the one thing he thinks will complete his faith: a direct vision of God. Just let me see him. That'll be enough.
And Jesus' answer is quietly devastating: Philip, you've been with me this whole time. You've watched me heal, teach, weep, love. And you still don't see?
He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.
If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus. Not at your worst fears about God. Not at the caricatures. Not at the versions of God that have been projected onto you by broken people and broken systems. Look at Jesus.
What did Jesus look like? He touched lepers. He wept at graves. He ate with outcasts. He spoke hard truth to powerful men and gentle truth to broken women. He never turned away someone who came to him honestly.
That's the Father. That's what Philip was looking at the whole time and couldn't quite see.
What if the God you've been looking for has been visible all along — not in the sky, but in the face of Jesus?
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
Philip saith to him, Lord,.... Another of his disciples addresses him in a reverend and becoming manner, as Thomas…
Lord, show us the Father - Philip here referred to some outward and visible manifestation of God. God had manifested…
Show us the Father - As if he had said, We have seen and adored thee, and our happiness will be complete if thou show us…
Christ, having set the happiness of heaven before them as the end, here shows them himself as the way to it, and tells…
Philip For the fourth and last time S. Philip appears in this. Gospel (see notes on Joh 1:44-49; Joh 6:5-7; Joh 12:22).…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture