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In today’s readings, Jesus continues to reveal who He is to his disciples. Last weekend we heard Jesus the Good Shepherd say, “I am the gate for the sheep,” this week he says, “I am the way and the truth and the life.”
But this weekend, there is more concern about the Father and the Father’s identity, with Philip saying, “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” Jesus responds, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”
I have been thinking about this, and it seems to be true to me from a popular expression, “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” or maybe better, “like father, like son.”
I was thinking recently of my brother-in-law and his father. My brother-in-law is a great guy, caring, compassionate, one of those guys that has a way of putting you at ease and making you feel like you belong. He’s just a good guy, a guy you want to be around. And he is a good football coach on top of that.
Then I met his dad, and his dad is the same way, great guy, caring, compassionate, made you feel better about yourself so you wanted to be around him, and he was a very successful football coach in his day. Clearly, “the apple didn’t fall far from the tree,” and, “like father, like son.”
Another example, since moving over to Nativity I’ve gotten to know a guy who is also a great man, very kind and respectful and he has a really great sense of humor. Then I got to know his son, and his son is the same way, very kind and respectful with a great sense of humor. “Like father, like son.”
So here we have Jesus saying, if you know me you know the Father, and from my experience it seems very true. And the point is that we know a lot of what Jesus said and did, we have a lot of depictions of Him and they almost always look the same, but what about God the Father?
And at a certain level, it doesn’t matter, we can’t let those concerns hold us back from believing in God like they seemed to hold Philip back… we need to focus on Jesus, who He is and from that we will know the Father too.
Jesus is the way, and the truth, and the life. He is the path we must follow, but also the goal of that path. Our challenge is to get to know Him as we go through life. How are we doing that? Do we spend dedicated time in prayer? Do we spend dedicated time reading the bible?
As we come to know someone, if they are good people, we learn to trust them. One issue with so many people is they have wrong beliefs about who God is and what God is about.
I heard a story recently of a Protestant Pastor who was talking to an atheist who said he didn’t believe in God, and the Pastor said, “how about you tell me about this god you don’t believe in, and maybe I won’t believe in him either.”
Sure enough, the God that this atheist knew was not at all like the God the Pastor knew. We have our misconceptions about who God is and what He is about from what we have heard from others, but I believe it is crucially, crucially important to sit down and get to know really who God is, straight from the source.
Jesus loves us so very much, and that is so apparent in the words of the New Testament. He loves us so much that He suffered and died for our sins, rising from the dead to show He has even overcome death itself and has prepared a place for us in His Father’s house in Heaven.
Do we trust that? Do we believe in His love and His promises? Do we know Him enough to understand that we are truly loved and blessed by our merciful God?
Get to know Jesus. Immerse yourself in His word. Spend time in prayer. And when you do, you will get to know who God truly is and you will be blessed in ways you never imagined.
If you feel like you don’t know what you’re doing, reach out. Ask a trusted friend, call me at the office, email Amanda here at Nativity. It’s okay to be daunted by prayer, but your Heavenly Father wants to embrace you there.
-Fr. Andy, Pastor