(With apologies to my favorite apostle)
Of the twelve apostles, I think my favorite is Philip. Perhaps it is because I most identify with Philip. Peter is bold, brash even, and strong. John is deep. He sees through mysteries and love wells up deep within him. Andrew is a people person: he makes friends easily and it is natural for him to talk to them about Jesus. These were extraordinary men and they formed the apostle’s inner ring.
Philip never made it into the inner ring. He was not bold like Peter, deep like John, or gregarious like Andrew. Philip was – or seemed to be – the dull point of the apostolic band. In John chapter 6, Jesus and his disciples have gone on a mini-vacation. They needed a getaway after the shocking death of John the Baptist. They crossed the lake and made camp in a back country spot where they could catch their breath, grieve, and recuperate. But the vacation ended suddenly when a crowd of thousands (probably headed to Jerusalem for Passover) descended on them, looking for Jesus.
When evening came, Jesus surprised the apostles by asking Philip where they could get enough bread to feed the crowd. In amazement, Philip blurted out, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.” Poor, confused Philip was completely in the dark about what Jesus intended.
In John chapter 12, Philip appears again. He is (apparently) standing around when some Greeks who had come to Jerusalem for the Passover approached him (possibly because of his Greek name) with a request: “We want an interview with Jesus.” Poor, confused Philip did not know what to do. Should he take them to Jesus? Or should he ask Jesus if he would agree to see them? (But Jesus had once told Philip and the other apostles to “go only to the lost sheep of Israel.”) Uncertain about how to proceed, Philip went and asked Andrew.
In John 14, we find a muddled Philip in the upper room on the eve of the crucifixion. Jesus has just told him and his friends that he is “the way, and the truth, and the life.” He then assures the apostles that they know and have seen the Father. This is when poor, confused Philip says what might be the silliest thing anyone says throughout the Gospels: “Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.”
What was Philip thinking? “Just bring Almighty God, the Creator of heaven and earth, the maker of all things, visible and invisible, the Ruler of all, the rider of cherubim, the one whose glory the heaven of heavens cannot contain—just bring him into this room so we can see him. It need only be for a moment. That will be enough for us.”
Jesus – did he roll his eyes? – responded: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”
Philip was always slow to catch on. He was probably the apostle who said, “I don’t get it,” after a joke’s punchline had been delivered and St. Peter was laughing his head off. What could a guy like that bring to the apostolic band? What was he even doing there?
He was there, among the apostles, because Jesus wanted him there. In John’s Gospel, the story that introduces Philip immediately follows the story of Jesus’s meeting with the brothers Andrew and Peter. An observant reader might notice that the word “to find” is used five times in these two stories within the space of five verses. Andrew finds Peter and tells him that “we have found the Messiah.” Philip finds Nathaniel and gives him the same message.
But what interests me most – what I love about this passage – is that when it comes to Philip, Jesus does the finding. He goes looking for Philip and then calls him to follow him (John 1:43). Philip is the only disciple that Jesus is explicitly said to seek out. Jesus didn’t go looking for Philip because he was a genius, or a natural born leader, or because the apostolic band couldn’t get along without him. He went looking for Philip because he wanted him.
And he wants us too, though we are as poor and confused as Philip—and more so in my case. His incarnation – life, death, and resurrection – is Jesus looking for us. He did not come to find talent that was too good to pass up, but “to seek and to save what was lost” (Luke 19:10). And why go through all that trouble? Because he wanted us.
The Way Home 
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