Lectionary Readings: Year A, Fifth Sunday of Easter

As I was preparing for today, one of the first things that jumped out at me was the words in the Collect of the Day: “Grant us so perfectly to know your Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his steps in the way that leads to eternal life.”

That word “follow” sticks out. When we think of the word “follow” we can see it as no more important than “I follow the news.” “I keep up with, pay attention to, the news.” Maybe we even think that having the news on 24/7 on the television – even if in the background – means that we are “followers” of the news. That’s one interpretation. But the word in our Collect of the Day means more than just paying attention to something. It’s not just a mental acknowledgment of the belief that Jesus is God, but an active and daily attempt to live like Jesus did. Which means that we offer sacrificial love to others, that we die to ourselves and seek God’s will in all things. It means realizing that as we try to do all of these things that we will fail, that we will have setbacks, and that we will, at times, struggle with doubt. And yet, we keep on going, despite the setbacks or the moments of fumbling in the fog of uncertainty. That’s what it means to “follow” Jesus.

The second thing I noticed is the sentence from 1 Peter 2:9, which states ”You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” Now, you might wonder how – or even why – I connected these two things. Peter is telling all the believers that they are to proclaim the mighty works of God. They are to be God’s ministers. They are the ones whom God has called into all sorts of service, with the simple goal of manifesting God’s kingdom on earth.

What Peter is describing in his letter is exactly what the Collect of the Day was saying. Peter was describing the goal of what it means to follow Jesus. He’s saying that by diving into the relationship with Jesus, that each of us would find a way to live like Jesus did, and find our place in helping to bring about God’s kingdom on earth. What he’s describing is a journey of discovery for each believer, as each person grows into their own ministry and calling in their life with Jesus. For some, especially for those who may need to stay at home, their ministry might be one of a prayer warrior. For others, it may be welcoming new people, for others, music, visiting the sick, for still others, it could be preaching, or being an acolyte, or leading Bible Studies. At one of the churches I attended, we had a woman, almost ninety years old, who came in faithfully, every Tuesday morning, and restocked the prayer cards, the giving envelopes, and other things in the pews. She sharpened the pencils, and made sure we had enough coloring books and scratch paper for the kids. Then she went home. Only a few people in the church knew what she did, and how much her work helped out the parish. She didn’t care if people knew. She did it because, in her words, “It’s what I can do to help the church.” She had found her ministry, and she was fulfilled by it.

The third thing that stuck out to me as I was reading the scriptures was the comment that Jesus makes to his disciples in the Gospel reading for the day. Jesus tells his disciples, “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.” Greater works than Jesus!? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone else in this world walking on water, feeding thousands of people with only a child’s lunch, or going around raising the dead. Have you run into someone who has done all three of these things – let alone even one of them?

Why is this important? Because if everyone is a minister, and everyone has work to do for the Kingdom of God, then it means that everyone can do greater works than these. Pastor Joe Blow from the Church of the Rocking Chair can do greater works. You can do greater works. And I can do greater works. That’s what Jesus is saying, so we should try to understand what he meant when he said we could do greater works.

The problem lies with how we define or determine what “greater” means. I’ve heard people talking about how the reason that we can do greater works than Jesus is because he had a very short, three year ministry. The rest of us have a lifetime to do things, and so for many of us, the argument goes, we will do greater things than Jesus did simply by virtue of having more time to do them. If Jesus fed five thousand people, those of us who run a food bank ministry may find that we feed millions. Or, if Jesus had twelve disciples whom he trained, those of us with massive churches may find that we train hundreds over our lifetime. Some like to talk about how really big churches, the mega-churches, can be greater works than Jesus’ own, because while Jesus may have had a handful of people around him, some of the biggest churches in the world are the size of a small city, numbering over a hundred thousand members. Jesus healed many people through miracles, and if you’ve been around some of the more charismatic churches, you may know that some ministers have the gift of healing, and people are getting healed all the time. Do you think that they have maybe healed more people than Jesus did in the three years of Jesus’ ministry? Would that make the works “greater?”

Whatever you think of these examples, whether you agree or disagree about the word greater, this is mostly how people have tried to explain this passage. It’s always about the question of how we might do greater works than Jesus did. It’s all about interpreting what the word greater means. And, because the focus is on the word “greater” it puts the emphasis squarely on us, and what we do.

But the important part of what Jesus said comes after this comment about doing greater works. Jesus says that “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.” We like to focus on the “greater works,” because how cool would it be to do something greater than Jesus? We like that idea, but what we need to focus on instead are the words, “…in my name.”

In most cultures, the words “in my name” refer to a person’s character. That is, when you do something in another person’s name, it means that you are doing it the way that that person would have done it. And so, asking for things in Jesus’ name doesn’t mean adding “in the name of Jesus” or “in Jesus’ name” to a prayer. For instance, I’m pretty sure that if I prayed, “In Jesus’ name, let me be able to fly and shoot laser beams from my eyes,” that this prayer would go unanswered. Asking things in Jesus’ name is all about doing things in the character of Jesus, doing what we do because we understand and know who Jesus is, and what he stood for. And Jesus did not stand for self-interest, for power, or for violence and control.

When we pray in the name of Jesus, it means that we are praying according to Jesus’ character, and what he stood for. And when we pray with that attitude, then we come to understand the heart of Jesus, and our prayers will begin to reflect the character of Jesus, and we will pray in Jesus’ name, even if we do not say the words.

Years ago, I met a missionary who had spent time in South America. He was training local pastors to plant churches. But one of the things that he and others realized was the enormous need to feed the hungry in that area. Most of the people could not provide enough food for themselves or their families, and so he and the pastors got together and prepared a soup supper for people in the area. They thought that they might get about two hundred guests, and so they had five huge pots of soup and bread ready to go. As people started coming, the pots started to empty, and the missionary looked around and saw that there were still lines and lines of people – and they were working on the last pot of soup. He was devastated – both at how many people were hungry – and how little soup they had prepared. So he went behind the building they were in, and prayed, “Lord, we’re almost out of food. There are so many hungry people. How can we feed them all?” And the only response he got was, “Feed my people.”  He started to object with the facts, he said, but got cut off by another “Feed my people.” So he went back out to the line, and started dishing out soup, and handing out bread. By the time they were done with the line, he thinks they must have fed close to nine hundred people. And the soup never ran out, and neither did the bread. 

Just under a thousand people. Was that a greater work than what Jesus did when he fed the five thousand?

Does it really matter?

He never once, in his prayer said the words, “in Jesus’ name.” But I can guarantee you that the entire prayer of his, his anguish over the poor who didn’t have enough to eat, and the desire to make sure that the people weren’t hungry – all of that was praying in the character – in the Name – of Jesus. And Jesus answered that prayer. The missionary told me that since that day, not a single person who has come to these free meals has ever gone hungry, because Christ has been present each and every time. Jesus said, “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” Again, we like to focus on the phrase greater works, but what we need to focus on is the phrase, “In my Name.”

When we follow Jesus, that is when we start on a journey of faith that leads us to a relationship with Christ. And that relationship ends up with us discovering how we are to be involved in making God’s kingdom manifest in this world through the ministry that God has in store for each of us. And when we begin that work that God has in store for us, that is when we realize that the more we understand the character, the name, of Jesus, the more that God will work not just in us, but also through us. 

And maybe, just maybe, when we have come to understand the character of Jesus, and asked for help in his name, we may, in fact, find that some of what God does in our midst are greater works than what Jesus did.

But I can guarantee that at that point, we won’t care. We won’t care about anything other than what God has done in the name of Jesus. Because we will have discovered that it’s not about the numbers or the wonders. It’s about the intimacy with the heart of Jesus. And about the Father being glorified in the Son. And the Son being glorified in all that we do.

[This sermon was delivered at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Wickenburg, AZ on May 3, 2026.]