4-15-25 - Philip of Bethsaida

You can listen to this reflection here. Today's gospel reading is here. 

Each day this Holy Week we will use the gospel appointed for the day, and hear from one of the main characters in the story, as I imagine they might speak. I hope this will help engage our imaginations as we walk this story with Jesus. Today we reflect on a remark Jesus made about grains of wheat and dying in order to live. Today we’ll hear from:

Philip of Bethsaida: People always wanted to see Jesus; what was so different about these Greeks, that their seeking him out should cause him such sadness?

I wasn’t sure I should bother him when they approached me. I mean, a LOT of people wanted to see Jesus – not all of them friendly – and he seemed tense and tired. So I checked in with Andrew, who's closer to the inner circle than I. We went together to Jesus. His response surprised me. “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified,” he said. I wasn’t sure what that meant but he just looked resigned, and added, “I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”

I couldn't pretend not to know what he was talking about – the rumors of plots against him have been flying for weeks now. It got a lot worse after Lazarus. The religious leaders are not happy with Jesus’ popularity, or his miracles. And now even Greeks in Jerusalem for Passover want to see him? This will not be good.

Or is it “good” in a much bigger picture? Jesus keeps hinting at a mission broader than we can imagine, that God is up to something huge. Is that what he means by “fruit?” Could something good come from the death of one so amazing as Jesus? Whom I, we, believe to be the Anointed One, the Messiah himself? What kind of fruit might he bear if he dies?

Is he talking about us too? Are we all called to be grains of wheat, broken open so the life of God can break out?

“Whoever serves me must follow me,” he said. “And where I am, there will my servant be also.” Well, I am his servant. I can think of no greater purpose for my life than to serve Jesus. I will stay as close to him this week as I can, and hope against hope he’s just speaking in metaphors…

How about us? Are we willing to stay close to Jesus this week? What do you find most unsettling about the whole story of Holy Week? Is there a part you routinely want to avoid? Why do you suppose that is?

I pray that we might walk closely with Jesus this week, allowing him to be real in our lives - not only the suffering crucified one, but the risen Lord of heaven and earth, bearing abundant fruit through us.

You are welcome to join me tonight at 7:30 pm EDT for an online service for Tuesday in Holy Week - link is here. Our Holy Week schedule of services, most of which can be accessed online, is here.

© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.

4-10-25 - Mobs and Multitudes

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

Given current trends of adoration and hate-speak at political gatherings, it’s hard not to bring that lens to the Palm Sunday story. Certainly there are multitudes on display: As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!”

We will soon see how quickly these multitudes praising God and lauding Jesus as “the king who comes in the name of the Lord” morph into mobs braying for blood. As is true today, there was some manipulation on the part of leaders in fomenting that transition, an appeal to fear and incitement to violence. But in the mix we also see unrealistic expectation and disappointment, and those are incendiary ingredients.

Why does this crowd of disciples praise God? Because of the deeds of power they have seen in Jesus. He exercised spiritual power that had immediate effect in the temporal realm – palsied limbs visibly restored to strength; leprous skin made clear; water become wine; notorious extortioners become models of generosity. The fact that this power resided in a man of such holiness, above reproach in every way, excited their expectations that at last God had sent the king who would deliver them from the Roman occupiers. They refused to believe that his kingship was of a nature other than what they wanted.

So when Jesus is overcome by the authorities, and handed over, mocked and spit upon and brutally flogged, and raises not a finger to help himself, it’s not hard to see how dashed hopes like that could curdle into venom, yielding to cries of “Crucify him.”

How about us? We might not have joined in the bloodlust, but have we too experienced disappointment in our faith? Dashed expectations of what we thought God could or would do for us in Christ? We don’t tend to get mad so much as withdraw, distance ourselves, afraid to trust in this One who is more powerful than any force in the universe – indeed, who made the universe – yet can’t seem to keep our loved ones from harm and our world from becoming a mass of unmitigated terror and pain.

How do we hold our hosannas in the face of failure and loss? By singing not to Jesus, but with him. By staying close to him, telling him when we’re mad or disappointed, by saying “I don’t understand. But I believe. Show me.” We don’t have to give way to rage. He didn’t. And as we demonstrate his peace in the face of rage and outrage, we just might help to sow peace ourselves, to keep multitudes from becoming mobs.

© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.