FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER, YEAR A

May 3, 2026

Saints Matthew & Mark, Barrington, R. I.

 

Acts 7:55-60                        

John 14:1-14

 

Our Lord makes a bold claim in today’s Gospel: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” This verse requires some unpacking to appreciate its full meaning and significance.

 

The first point to note is that this is one of seven places in John’s Gospel where Jesus begins a statement about himself using the phrase, “I am.” The other six are:

 

         I am the bread of life.

         I am the light of the world.

         I am the gate of the sheep.

         I am the good shepherd.

         I am the resurrection and the life.

         I am the true vine.

 

New Testament scholars generally think that these “I am” statements refer intentionally to God’s Name, as revealed to Moses at the burning bush: “I am who I am.” There, God instructs Moses that when the Israelites ask who has sent him to them, he’s to answer: “I AM has sent me to you.”

 

Elsewhere in John’s Gospel, Jesus uses the divine name even more boldly. In chapter 8, for example: “Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.” So, when Jesus declares in today’s Gospel, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life,” he’s first of all identifying himself with the One whose very name is “I AM.”

 

What, then, does he mean by the three predicates, “the way, the truth, and the life”? Let’s look at them in turn.

 

First, the way. Here, John uses a Greek word meaning road, path, or journey. In the background is a Hebrew word meaning "manner of life" or "way of walking." The equivalent Aramaic word that Jesus may have used here also suggests a reliable means of reaching a destination and sometimes describes a religion or spiritual system for reaching God. Indeed, the earliest name for Christianity, as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, was simply “the Way.”

 

Second, the truth. Here, John uses a Greek word that literally means “unconcealed or unhidden,” the opposite of a lie or a misleading appearance. More generally, it signifies truth in the sense of not just what is factually accurate but of what is real and unchanging. The associated Hebrew word conveys stability: a firm and reliable foundation. And the Aramaic word that Jesus may have used carries the additional sense of faithfulness and commitment. As two married people are ideally true to each other, so God is faithful and true to us. As Jesus says elsewhere in John’s Gospel, “You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

 

Third, the life. Here, John uses the Greek word zoe, which refers specifically to spiritual or eternal life (as distinct from bios, which means physical or animal life). The underlying Hebrew word is chayim, which signifies true and full life lived in union with God and with others. Attending Jewish weddings and dinners, or even just watching Fiddler on the Roof, we’ve probably all heard the classic Hebrew toast, l’chaim, “to life!” However, the equivalent Aramaic word often carried a definite article, so it’s likely that what Jesus said was not just “I am life,” but “I am the life”—exactly as John translated it into Greek. This life is not an abstract principle but a powerful personal force: not one life among many, but the source, sustainer, and ground of all life.

 

Now, notice that Jesus does not say just that he shows the way, or that he teaches the truth, or that he points to eternal life. Instead, he says that he is himself the way, the truth, and the life. 

 

To drive that point home, he adds: “No one comes to the Father except through me.” Some readers become understandably distressed at what they see as this text’s exclusionary implications. If Jesus is the only way to God, does that mean that those who don’t know Jesus are thereby condemned to hell? I don’t think that necessarily follows at all. 

 

Some Christian theologians argue that other religions offer their members partial snippets of the way, the truth, and the life that Jesus has fully revealed in his Church. Adherents of other religions are thus able to catch glimpses of Jesus and possibly even to be saved by him, even if they don’t know his name—or indeed even if they think they’ve rejected him. It’s not up to us to judge whether or how God will bring them to heaven in the end. Our calling is to share the good news of Christ with those who can receive it. What happens to the rest is God’s concern, not ours. 

 

No, this Gospel reading neither asks nor answers the question of what ultimately happens to those who don’t know Christ. Instead, Jesus is comforting his disciples as they grieve his impending departure. And he reassures them that because they know him, they know the Father.  

 

So, for us who believe, Jesus is the way to the Father. And when we’re united with him as members of his Body, hearing his Word and partaking of his Sacraments in faith and repentance, we discover that we’ve already begun to follow his way, to know his truth, and to share his life.

 

Here at Saints Matthew and Mark, we’ve started a Friday noon Eucharist, which, among other things, allows us to commemorate the saints in a way that’s not possible on Sundays alone. One reason to pay attention to the lives of the saints is that, in their many and varied ways, they show us what life in Christ looks like.

 

Today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles recounts the death of St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr. Stephen clearly walks in the way of Christ. Filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazes into heaven and sees the risen and ascended Jesus at God’s right hand in glory. He speaks the truth that he sees: “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”

 

When his persecutors drag him outside the city and begin stoning him, Stephen repeats almost verbatim the Lord’s words from the cross: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,” and “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” So, when Stephen dies, we can be sure that he enters into the fullness of eternal life. For Stephen, then, Christ is indeed the way, the truth, and the life.

 

So, we have grounds for rejoicing and celebration. Jesus reassures us, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.” Having committed ourselves to Christ, we have no need to find the way because we’re already on the way. We have no need to search high and low for the truth because we already know him who is the fullness of truth. And we have no need to struggle to attain eternal life, because we’ve already begun to share in that life—through him who is the way, the truth, and the life.

SAINT PHILIP AND SAINT JAMES

Friday, May 1, 2026

 

Saints Philip and James are two of the twelve apostles, commemorated in the Episcopal Calendar on May 1st (in the Roman calendar on May 3rd—I’m not sure why the discrepancy).

 

Philip the Apostle is not to be confused with Philip the Deacon, one of the seven original deacons described in the Acts of the Apostles. Instead, he’s numbered among the twelve apostles in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, as well as in the Acts of the Apostles. And John’s Gospel mentions Philip in four places. 

 

First, Philip is one of two disciples of John the Baptist who spend the day listening to Jesus after John calls him “the Lamb of God.” The next day Philip tells his friend Nathanael, “We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, son of Joseph.” When Nathanael asks: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip responds: “Come and see.” Then, along with Simon and Andrew, they both follow Jesus back to Galilee. 

 

Second, just before the Feeding of the Five Thousand, Jesus asks Philip, “Where are we to buy bread to feed these people?” Philip answers, “It would take more than a year’s wages to buy each of them a mouthful,” thus setting the stage for the Lord’s miraculous sign of the multiplication of five loaves and two fish.

 

Third, after Jesus has entered Jerusalem, some Greeks approach Philip desiring to see Jesus. Philip and Andrew together report this to the Lord, who responds, “The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified.”

 

And fourth, at the last supper, Philip says to Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father, and we shall be satisfied,” and Jesus responds, “He who has seen me has seen the Father.”

 

Clearly, Philip figures prominently in John’s Gospel as the catalyst for some of the Lord’s memorable sayings. And in the Episcopal Church calendar, he’s commemorated together with James the Son of Alphaeus on May 1st.

 

The Episcopal Church calendar designates feast days for three separate figures named James. First is James, the son of Zebedee, also known as James the Greater, commemorated on July 25th. The second is James the Just, the kinsman of the Lord, the first bishop of the Jerusalem Church, whose feast day is October 24th. And the third is James, the Son of Alpheus, also known as James the Less, whom we commemorate together with Philip today. We really know nothing about James the Less other than that he appears in the various lists of the Twelve.

 

In English, the name James is a variant of Jacob. In Hebrew the name is Ya’akov, and in Greek Iakōbos. So, the three James’s in the New Testament share the name of the Old Testament patriarch Jacob, ancestor of the Twelve Tribes of Israel.

 

Now, why are Philip and James commemorated on the same day? The answer is that it’s the anniversary of the arrival of their earthly remains in Rome in the sixth century. At that time, the relics of both apostles were interred together under the high altar of the newly constructed Church of the Holy Apostles. To this day, you can see the sarcophagus in which they’re interred. 

 

So, the commemoration of these two apostles on the same day reminds us that the saints often remain present in the Church’s life not only in Scripture and Tradition, but also in their shrines and relics, and in the church communities gathered around them. 

 

So, Philip and James rest together, awaiting the Resurrection on the last day. And just as they share an earthly resting place and a day in the Church’s calendar, so we trust that they also share a place in heaven, where they pray for us who honor them today.