Before we get to the main course for today, let’s take a quick side trip.
Last week we heard how Philip really didn’t do very well at understanding what Jesus was telling him, and Jesus, in the nicest way possible, took him to task for not seeing what was in front of him. Today in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 8:5-8, 14-17) we hear how this same Philip was, apparently, off by himself in Samaria preaching the good news. And this was at the time when Saul (Paul) was busy trying to kill Christians, and had just succeeded with Steven. Quite a turn around for a guy who didn’t seem to know which way was up just a short while before!!
Over the last few weeks of our Easter season we’ve heard how many people, including those closest to him, were challenged by Jesus and his death, and its significance – Mary Magdalene, Thomas, Philip, through to Pharisees and even Roman soldiers. The challenges that we face so many years after these events are not the same, but they remind us that this relationship is challenging. Jesus didn’t shy away from that fact, and if we are feeling too comfortable in the aftermath of his Resurrection then we may not have been paying sufficient attention.
Today however we experience a difference of tone (Jn 14:15-21). The challenge is still there in the background, but the words Jesus speaks to his disciples are deeply intimate and convey strongly his concern and love for them. Perhaps most importantly they tie these feelings to the depth of his relationship with the Father – even to the extent that this intimacy is one and the same. The link between Jesus and the Father is the same as the link he has with us: “I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you.” This link exists beyond time and our current physical reality: “the Father will give you another Advocate [beyond Jesus] to be with you always, whom the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows him.”
Truly accepting this reality is hard. It doesn’t jive with what we understand from the world around us. It was hard for the people that Jesus spoke to in person to get their heads around. It’s hard for us. But the power of this belief is extraordinary. It changed Philip beyond all recognition, and Saul/Paul, and Peter, and many, many others. It can change us also.