Scripture Reflections

“Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” John 14:9b
 
No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known. John 1:18
 
He is the image of the invisible God… Col. 1:15a
 
He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature… Hebrews 1:3a
 
A few people in the Old Testament were given partial glimpses of God. Moses, hidden in a cleft of the rock with his face covered, saw only his back—the train of God’s glory. Isaiah saw the throne with God upon it and the temple full of the glorious train of his robe—yet he wasn’t even allowed to see the face of the angels, let alone God’s face. Even the angels covered their eyes in God’s presence! Ezekiel saw a figure on a throne, but it was shrouded in fire, like trying to gaze into the sun itself. Behind all of these theophanies is the simple truth: No one can see the face of God and live (Ex. 33:20).
 
How startling it is, then, to hear from Jesus himself that everyone who has seen Jesus has seen the Father! The hidden face of God, the face shrouded by the very glory of his holiness, has been revealed. All that is true of God is visible in Jesus himself.
 
And what is the face of God like, this face that is revealed in Jesus? According to Luke 17:11-19, Jesus revealed that the Father’s face is compassionate to the weak, the sick, and the outcast. Even lepers crying for mercy are worth his time.
 
This was already known. Hagar, a slave used and rejected by Abraham and Sarah, met God in the desert and said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.” Psalm 113, which we prayed on Sunday, testifies, “He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap…He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children.” Over and over the Scriptures say this, and so when the compassionate gaze of God is revealed in the actions of Jesus, it should not surprise us.
 
And yet it still might, because many of us continue to harbor the fear that perhaps God does not like to look at us. The sense that he does not really love us or that we need to earn his compassion runs deep in our hearts. We assume that our unworthiness, weakness, and sinfulness are all God sees when he looks at us.
 
Remember that Jesus has made God visible! In his actions, he has shown that God does not despise those who are lost, filthy, and weak. His face is full of compassion towards those who cry out for mercy.
 
Steven+