Forward Movement is an official, non-profit agency of the Episcopal Church whose mission is to create compelling content for Christian living. Since 1935 we have published the quarterly devotional Forward Day by Day, as well as pamphlets, booklets, and books that encourage and nourish people in their lives of prayer and faith.
TUESDAY, May 3 Saint Philip and Saint James (tr.)
John 14:6-14. Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me?
Philip and his friends often found themselves in this predicament. As close as they were to Jesus, hand-picked as his friends and followers, they never seemed fully to understand with whom they were walking or who Jesus is. “Lord, we do not know where you are going,” said Thomas. “How can we know the way?” “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied,” said Philip.
One can’t blame them for their confusion. Or perhaps it’s less confusion they feel than fear—fear that the way Jesus was leading them was the way of suffering (which turned out to be true), fear that in this life their thirst for God could never be satisfied. Who among us has not feared the same? And yet, as Jesus would soon demonstrate in the resurrection dawn, to follow Jesus, even to Calvary and the tomb, is to discover that God the Father cares more for us than we could ever ask or imagine.
It is possible to find here and there human beings who make this supremely super-human claim. It is possible to find them in lunatic asylums; in padded cells; possibly in strait waistcoats.…But this is exactly where the argument becomes intensely interesting; because the argument proves too much. For nobody supposes that Jesus of Nazareth was that sort of person.
—G. K. Chesterton
PRAY for the Diocese of New Jersey (Province II, USA)
Ps 119:33-40; Isaiah 30:18-21; 2 Corinthians 4:1-6
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We, the children of Easter, have seen the other side of the cross. We know what happened in the future. The disciples were not so aware at that particular time but they also came to believe and understand.