Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
Philip’s question reveals how little he knows about Jesus, and that he should have known more than he did. The first day Philip came to Jesus he declared Him to be the Messiah (John 1:45) and yet over three years later he still doesn’t recognize the Father in Him! Matthew Henry observes that “Many that have good knowledge in the scripture and divine things fall short of the attainments justly expected from them, for want of compounding the ideas they have, and going on to perfection. Many know Christ, who yet do not know what they might know of him, nor see what they should see in him.”
John 1:45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
What made Philip’s lack of knowledge even worse was that he had such a long time to improve upon the knowledge of Jesus that he possessed. Jesus rebuked him with “even after I have been among you such a long time”. The same principle is true with us. The longer we enjoy the grace and knowledge of the gospel and of Christ Himself, the more inexcusable if we are found to be lacking in true knowledge of Him. Henry challenges his reader to think to himself, “Have I been so long a hearer of sermons, a student in the scripture, a scholar in the school of Christ, and yet so weak in the knowledge of Christ, and so unskilful in the word of righteousness?” (Matthew Henry)
The reply of Jesus is a rebuke, but it is a gentle one. He understands our nature and our handicaps and helps us to grow in our knowledge of Him in spite of our weaknesses, as He did Philip. Fortunately, Jesus is very patient and understanding with us. His answer to Philip is that to see Him is to see the Father, not a new idea (12:45, 13:20). This is true because Jesus is the revelation of the Father (1:18). No mere man could ever say these words! In Jesus was found the true Shechinah, of which that in the tabernacle was but a type (John 2:21, Col 2:9).
John 12:45 When he looks at me, he sees the one who sent me.
John 13:20 I tell you the truth, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me.”
John 1:18 No-one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.
John 2:21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body.
Colossians 2:9 For in Christ all the fulness of the Deity lives in bodily form,