John 14:25-26 NRSV “I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.”

Have you ever read the Gospels and wondered what it would have been like to walk with Jesus? I think most of us have, at some point. We want to be closer to Jesus, to share in the disciples’ privileged position of truly walking with the Messiah.

It is logical to think that, if only we could have walked alongside Jesus as the disciples did, surely we would be more faithful, fruitful servants of God. But, we should remember that even the disciples, though they walked at arm’s length from the Messiah, still misunderstood his message, indulged their egos, failed, feared, and fled Jesus’s side at the crucial hour, and even after the resurrection had trouble recognizing Christ.

Yet, Jesus loved them, and commissioned them to be his hands and feet, to take God’s word into the world. So, too, does God love us, despite our many flaws. And, we need not wish to have walked with Jesus as the disciples did, for Christ in the Holy Spirit walks with us every step of every day.

Jesus tells us this plainly in this passage: that the Holy Spirit will teach and remind us of God’s love every day, in every bit as real and personal a relationship as had any disciple. In this way we see Christ’s Gospel teaching is not a dead document, consigned only to canonical pages. The Gospel is a living, breathing experience, taught, refreshed, and reminded to us each day in our walk with Christ.

We need have no envy, then, for the disciples. Christ is with us, waiting to teach and love us in every everyday experience. In each relationship, in each task, in the mundane and profound happenings of our days, Christ waits to unveil the countless parables written on our lives. We must simply open our hearts, silence our egos, and surrender fully to the path on which Christ then sets our feet.

Lord, help us today to abandon envy, fear, and egoic concern for ourselves, that we may fully feel your presence, and selflessly set our feet on your path. Amen.