May 23: Pentecost
Acts 2:1-21 or Genesis 11:1-9
Psalm 104:25-35, 37
Romans 8:14-17 or Acts 2:1-21
John 14:8-17, (25-27)
It is telling that in our gospel passage for today, John chose to write about the disciple Philip as the one who asked Jesus to show him and the other disciples the Father. It is Philip, after all, who Jesus tested in John 6: 5-7 by asking Jesus where they should buy bread for crowd when the people needed something to eat, when Jesus already knew he would provide enough food for everyone. One wonders if Philip was a disciple who Jesus felt needed some extra proof that Jesus really was God’s anointed one.
And it is to Philip that some Greeks came in John 12: 20-21, asking to see Jesus. If Philip was a disciple who struggled with his belief, why would John depict him as the one to whom nonbelievers came asking to see Jesus? Maybe John’s choice to describe Philip as the one to whom the Greeks came asking to see Jesus was a deliberate one, because Philip could relate to the nonbelivers’ need to actually see Jesus to believe in him.
On Sunday, May 23, we celebrated the feast of Pentecost, a day when Jesus gave not only the disciples, but all Christians, the gift of his Spirit. It is the gift of Jesus’ Spirit that enables us to hang on to our faith, to celebrate life’s goodness even when the going gets tough.
And isn’t it ironic that John would choose Philip, the sceptic, as the disciple who sets the stage for Jesus’ telling his disciples about his gift of the Spirit? We can relate to a person like Philip, a person who perhaps struggled with his faith, because we struggle too, even though Jesus assures us that his Spirit, the Advocate, is with us forever.
Like Philip, we are frail and sometimes weak in our faith, asking for proof, asking Jesus for signs when he’s already give us plenty of them. Jesus loved Philip, and he loves us too and is patient with us, willing to prove to us over and over again that he really will be with us always.
If a disciple who spent a lot of time with Jesus had doubts and yet Jesus reassured him, then surely Jesus will be willing to show us again and again that his resurrected Spirit, the Spirit of truth, will be with us and remind us of all that Jesus has said to us. We can take heart in the fact that if Jesus was patient and loving with Philip, a man who got to see Jesus when he was alive and yet struggled with his need for proof, then Jesus will be patient and loving with us 2000 years later.