Blessed are...

The One and Only

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” Matthew 5:8

At the beginning of John’s Gospel we read that no one has ever seen God.[1] There’s nothing new there. Apart from a few, fleeting glimpses of His glory, no-one had really seen God. “But,” continues John, “God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made Him known.” John struggles to describe how, in the coming of Jesus Christ, the “One and Only,” God has been made known. His struggle is two-fold. First, he must wrestle with the language – how does Jesus reveal God? Second, he must struggle with theology – how is Jesus God?

The answer comes later in the same Gospel. In a reflective moment, Philip the disciple asks Jesus, “Show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”[2] Jesus’ reply forces us to look at Him differently. He is more than a powerful preacher, more even than a messiah. “Don’t you know me, Philip?” says Jesus, “even after I have been among you for such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”

One of the greatest blessings of belonging to the company of those who seek to be pure in heart, is that the scales fall from our eyes and we recognize, in Jesus, the fulfillment of the longing of the ages. If our hearts are purified by the gift of faith, we are able to see Christ for who He is. Did Philip think of Moses as he heard Jesus’ answer to his question? Did John, as he chronicled the exchange? We don’t know. All we know, by faith, is that to know Jesus is to know God. If we would know the Father, we must look to the Son.

Lord Christ,
Only begotten Son, Word made flesh,
Emmanuel, God with us, I praise You.
By coming and living among us,
You have revealed Your Father’s glory.
By Your death and glorious resurrection,
I now know Your words to be true.
All praise and glory be to You.
Amen.





[1] John 1:18
[2] John 14:8