Which is why Jesus came: to reveal the Father to us. To show us in embodied form what God is really like.
a. Over against the sadistic police officer god, Jesus chases away all her accusers and says, “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.”
b. Over against the frustrated parent god, Jesus speaks of a Father who runs to his rebellious son, throwing a lavish party for him.
c. Over against the apathetic bureaucrat god, Jesus weeps at the tomb of his friend and raises him to life.
Over against all of these false gods, Jesus speaks to us, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father. I and the Father are one. Whatever I do is what the Father is doing.”
This is why Jesus says we come to the Father “through” him. When we do so, we know we really are worshiping the Living God and not a figment of our imagination or a cultural artifact. Jesus represents God perfectly to us. He is our center.
Try making this affirmation (taken from Brian Zahnd):
God is like Jesus.
God has always been like Jesus.
There has never been a time that God was not like Jesus.
We haven’t always known what God was like,
but now we do.
Can you relate to the difficulty of keeping your “definition” of God focused on Jesus? In what ways are you tempted to define God apart from Jesus?