6/7/2025
Pentecost Eve
Zion Lutheran Church, Naperville
When You See Jesus
Text: John 14:8-21
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Philip has a big request. “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Of course, much like Jesus’ other disciples, Philip did not quite know what he was asking for. This was a monumental request, maybe even grander than James’ and John’s request to sit at Jesus right and left. For the Lord had told His people from ancient times that no one could see Him and live. A fallen mortal cannot behold the infinitely holy God and expect to walk away from it. Anything—and anyone—with any sin at all would be consumed in the pure righteousness of the Lord. Moses, to whom the Lord spoke face to face as a man speaks to his friend, was refused this request to see Him. He was only permitted to see the Lord’s back after He had passed by. And yet, here Philip asks Jesus to show him and the other Apostles the Father.
This is a large, and perhaps even foolish request. But notice that Jesus does not scold Philip for the size, or even the nature, of his petition. He doesn’t tell Philip that he’s asking too much or that his request was stupid. Jesus doesn’t even say that what Philip asks is sinful or wrong. Our Lord does have a critique of Philip’s request, but in a shocking turn, He doesn’t say that Philip is asking for the wrong thing. He simply says that Philip is looking In the wrong place for what he asks. Jesus is willing to grant His disciples that which was held back even from Moses, the greatest prophet. Jesus’ only correction is that Philip should know by now that he doesn’t even need to ask for this because he already has it. He’s had it all along for three years. “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?”
It’s a staggering thing, something that our minds must surely stumble upon, to think that when you get Jesus, you get everything. When you look upon this Nazarene carpenter, the son of Mary, who has no place to lay His head; who, at the time He says these words, is about to be disfigured beyond recognition; that when you receive Him, you receive it all—the Father in heaven, God’s favor and goodwill, the works of grace and love done by God Himself. You receive every promise uttered by every prophet. You receive every scrap of holiness that the Lord Himself possesses. You receive eternal life. When you get Jesus, you get everything. How can you ask to be shown more when you’ve had eternity and heaven revealed to you in the flesh and blood of Jesus?
But that is our nature, isn’t it? To judge what’s received by its mere outward appearance? So every Pharisee has been assured of their own goodness by their external works. So every hypocrite has allowed lust and anger and greed to seethe, so long as they remain upstanding and respectable to their chosen circles. So every hope in every false messiah has chased all that glitters. So every gathering of sinful children of man has sought assurance of their rightness, their survival and life, because of those things that appear strong from the outside: wealth, glamour, fame, numbers.
But Jesus here says that when you receive Him—gentle and lowly in heart, poor, humble; possessing no beauty that we should desire Him, but broken and bloodied on the cross—when you receive Him, you get it all. But how is it that we receive Jesus? For we’ve confessed in the Creed and in our church year celebrations that He’s ascended and sits at the right hand of the Father. We won’t be able to book any tickets or make a reservation anywhere to behold Him or the Father. So if we want to see Jesus—and in seeing Him, see the Father—how will we?
By the Holy Spirit, the Helper. “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.” Even when Jesus is not visible our eyes, the Spirit of Truth continually points us to Him. His works—His holy life, His healings, feeding the hungry, compassion and mercy, His innocent death, His precious shed blood, His glorious resurrection—all of those things are sung and proclaimed by the Spirit. And we believe. The Holy Spirit gives faith, even though these things are not impressive to our eyes, even though they might seem futile or wasteful or misdirected to a fallen world. But we receive them as Truth. We receive them as the things done by the Truth made flesh. The Holy Spirit, the Helper, gives us faith so that we receive Jesus. And when we receive Jesus—no matter what our fallen senses perceive—we receive everything.
Often we look for excuses not to believe, or at least not to believe certain aspects of what Jesus says. We look for reasons to not have to love our neighbor…or at least not that neighbor. We look for reasons why this or that commandment doesn’t apply to us. We try to justify why coveting isn’t that bad in our society, or why lust isn’t a wildfire when it’s contained in our hearts, or why greed is perfectly acceptable in the system we live in. We search for every millimeter of wiggle room when Jesus says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
But the Helper, the Spirit of Truth, reminds you of Jesus’ words and how He was proven faithful and true in His own life, death, and resurrection. He stays and preserves your faith by bringing you Jesus in His body and blood. He calls you back to the truth again in the Confession, when you stop making excuses, and then He covers you in the very true Absolution flowing from our Lord’s cross. The Spirit brings you to Jesus, and when you’re brought to Jesus, you’re brought to everything.
Philip had a big request. We do too. We ask for a lot—daily bread every day of our lives, deliverance from evil, the coming of the kingdom of God into this world’s domain, the forgiveness of our many sins. But that’s OK. Jesus doesn’t balk at the size of our requests. Jesus loves to give big gifts. He just wants us to look for them in the right places: where the Spirit reveals all that we’ve been given, but only revealed to the eyes of faith. Look where the Holy Spirit points you: the Gospel, the Scriptures, the Absolution, the altar, the font. That’s where you’ll see Jesus. And when you see Him, you see everything. In the name of Jesus, who sends the Spirit of Truth. Amen.