Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament

⁴ Again, what eyes did He look for when He spoke to those who saw indeed, but who saw only with the eyes of the flesh? For when Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it suffices us;” he understood indeed that if the Father were shown him, it might well suffice him; but how would the Father suffice him whom He that was equal to the Father sufficed not? And why did He not suffice? Because He was not seen. And why was He not seen? Because the eye whereby He might be seen was not yet whole.

For this, namely, that the Lord was seen in the flesh with the outward eyes, not only the disciples who honoured Him saw, but also the Jews who crucified Him. He then who wished to be seen in another way, sought for other eyes. And therefore it was that to him who said, “Show us the Father, and it suffices us;” He answered, “Have I been so long time with you; and yet have you not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me, has seen the Father also.” And that He might in the mean while heal the eyes of faith, he has first of all instructions given him regarding faith, that so he might attain to sight.

And lest Philip should think that he was to conceive of God under the same form in which he then saw the Lord Jesus Christ in the body, he immediately subjoined; “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?” He had already said, “He who has seen Me, has seen the Father also.” But Philip's eye was not yet sound enough to see the Father, nor consequently to see the Son who is Himself Coequal with the Father. And so Jesus Christ took in hand to cure, and with the medicines and salve of faith to strengthen the eyes of his mind, which as yet were weak and unable to behold so great a light, and He said, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?”

Let not him then who cannot yet see what the Lord will one day show him, seek first to see what he is to believe; but let him first believe that the eye by which he is to see may be healed. For it was only the form of the servant which was exhibited to the eyes of servants; because if “He who thought it not robbery to be equal with God,” could have been now seen as equal with God by those whom He wished to be healed, He would not have needed to “empty Himself, and to take the form of a servant.”

But because there was no way whereby God could be seen, but whereby man could be seen, there was; therefore He who was God was made man, that that which was seen might heal that whereby He was not seen. For He says Himself in another place, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Philip might of course have answered and said, “Lord, lo, I see You; is the Father such as I see You to be? Forasmuch as You have said, 'He who has seen Me, has seen the Father also'?”

But before Philip answered thus, or perhaps before he so much as thought it, when the Lord had said, “He who has seen Me, has seen the Father also;” He immediately added, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?” For with that eye he could, not yet see either the Father, or the Son who is equal with the Father; but that his eye might be healed for seeing, he was to be anointed unto believing. So then before you see what you can not now see, believe what as yet you see not.

“Walk by faith,” that you may attain to sight. Sight will not gladden him in his home whom faith consoles not by the way. For so says the Apostle, “As long as we are in the body, we are in pilgrimage from the Lord.” And he subjoins immediately why we are still “in pilgrimage,” though we have now believed; “For we walk by faith,” He says, “not by sight.”