What does the world see in Christians?

When meeting young children and their parents, kind words are often spoken: All after Daddy! All Mommy’s! Children grow up. When a son or daughter is doing well, it is adorable when sons say; You’re all, Daddy! And the son is proud. Likewise with the daughter because they all get the credit for it. They try. They are working on themselves.

Jesus says to Philip: “Whoever sees me sees the Father” (Jn 14:9).

Jesus not only gives a beautiful lesson to Philip but to us today. Whoever knows Jesus knows the heavenly Father. These words are not about a kind of sensory tactile knowledge. All the apostles knew that God is pure spirit, that Jesus only took the form of a man out of love for us. Instead, this is about a knowledge of faith that wants to reveal itself even more to those who see with their eyes. The religion of the apostles had to grow too. Philip, too, would later mature in the idea that in Jesus, we also see the Father. But first had to come Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection, and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. Only then is the mystery of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, revealed.

If Jesus had not taken the form of a man, we would not know about this beautiful relationship between the Father and the Son, this incredible bond of love of the third divine person, the Holy Spirit. Jesus points to His Father in all His actions. He forms a unity with him that is not divided, even though he took upon himself the form of a man for 33 years out of love for us. In this, we see the unique relationship of the Father and the Son when the Son not only lives but is truly unbroken and united to the Father. We also see this in the address He teaches His apostles when He calls the Father a Father to us. Thus, we are taught that we are all sons and daughters of the heavenly Father. Therefore, an excellent relationship of trust and love is established between the Father and us…

This interpretation of the relationship of Jesus to the Father, not only his own but also ours, should touch us, fill us, and enrich us.
Therefore, it is also our duty as Christians to enrich the world with the great values of love. The teachings of Christ have value precisely because they speak of love. Not an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but thou shalt love God and thy neighbor as thyself. If only we understood this from the teachings of Christ, it would already be an outstanding contribution to the world even today. We would resemble our Creator. In the Old Testament in Genesis, which we call Genesis, we read that we are made in the image of God. That means we are created in the most beautiful way God has recognized to make in His wisdom. Man is a perfect creature, a work of God’s love. If it were not so, would Jesus have taken on the form of man?

Yet we believers often devalue that likeness. By what? Sin! The Christian who bears the name after Christ should strive in his life to model the image of Christ in us to those who have not believed or have not received such knowledge of Christ. John the Apostle wrote: God is love. Thus the Christian, the confessor of God, should not only preach love but also live it. It isn’t easy. Today, we should ask for strength from the Lord Jesus to learn love from him so that the world can learn it from us.

Do we resemble Jesus? Do they see Jesus in us? Are we not making a caricature of Jesus with our lives? When a son or daughter reaches his or her father or mother in a good way, it comforts the parents. We can equate it that way in the spiritual realm as well. Let us do all we can to be like our brother, Jesus Christ, like God, in whose image we were created. Amen.