Stress Test Devotional May 18
May 18, 2024
John 14:8-11 | 8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves.
Sometimes it is hard to gage the tone of a passage or the tenor of an encounter in the Bible. Philip asks Jesus for a view of the Father and Jesus says, “How can you say show us the Father?’ Do you not believe I am in the Father and Father is in me?” Is Jesus frustrated? Is Philip an idiot for asking this? I don’t believe so. Rather than see Philip, and the other disciples on other occasions, as dunces, we should recall they are Jewish. Monotheism was the basis for the Ten Commandments and of Jewish theology. Messiah expectation varied somewhat but none of it included the “Word made flesh.”
Much of Jesus’ ministry was to obscure people in out of the way places. Even as a Messiah, let alone a divine Savior he seemed to fall short. Where was the deliverance of Israel? The judgement of the nations? The world-wide inpact? It took the resurrection from the dead for the disciples to truly recognize their Lord.
Every community of believers has its doubters. Agreed?
Every believer has his doubts. True?
