Pax Christi USA Teacher of Peace
I think to begin to get the full impact of what Jesus is teaching us today, it’s helpful to go back a little way in this Gospel. During this same Last Supper conversation a few minutes earlier, Jesus had told his disciples, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to God but through me, and if you know me, you know God also. Indeed, you know him and have seen him.” Then Phillip, at this point in the conversation, says, “Lord, show us God and that will be enough.”
Jesus said to Phillip, “What? Have I been with you so long and you do not know me, Phillip? Whoever sees me, sees God. How can you say, ‘Show us God.’? Do you not believe that I am in God and God is in me?” Jesus shows surprise and disappointment. I think we have to reflect on this, remembering that Jesus was fully human like we are. He had been trying to teach his disciples over those two or two and a half years that he had been traveling with them in such close companionship, and he thought he had gotten across the point that God was in him, that he indeed is God.
All of a sudden, he finds Phillip saying, “Show us God and then we’ll be able to believe.” Jesus says with disappointment and shock even, “Phillip, don’t you know? Can’t you see in me that I am God?” I think in his humanness, Jesus knows that he’s at the very end of his life. He’ll be executed the next day, so he is determined that before he goes, he needs to be sure these disciples know who he really is and what he has come to do, and that is to share his life as Son of God with all of us…