3rd Sunday in Easter 2018 (Cycle B)
April 15, 2018
Acts of the Apostles 3:13-15, 17-19
1 John 2:1-5a
Luke 24:35-48
Again, this week our first reading is from the new testament, in Acts of the Apostles. We will continue to read from ACTS for the next 6 weeks, up to Pentecost Sunday.
Today we hear part of Peter’s speech after he and John have prayed over a crippled man and healed him. The man stands and gives praises to God. The people are astonished as to what has happened, that the crippled man has been healed and is walking around. What Peter attempts to explain to them is that it is not through any power that he or John has to heal the cripple, but it is through the faith of those who are doing the praying that such healings can take place. He reminds them that they were the ones who put to death the author of life. He points to the fact that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has glorified His Servant Jesus. Thus, the focus is on the God who heals through His Son Jesus and not through Peter or John.
Too often people tend to focus on the healer and the “power” he has to heal, but that is not the right attitude. God shows His vindication of Jesus who was raised from the dead and honors His name by healing the cripple.
Peter goes on to say that he knows that they and their leaders acted out of ignorance, but he says it in such a way as to not condemn them, but to show them the wrong they had done. What Peter wants is for the people to have a change in heart, to turn away from their sins and to repent. When they can do that, then their focus will be on the Life, Death and Resurrection of Jesus.
In the epistle of 1 John, the author is giving us an opportunity for us to understand that the difference between walking in light verses walking in darkness, is what we do in our lives in regards to sin. He is well aware that we sin as human beings, but that through Jesus, we have an advocate, who will forgive us of our sins, as well as forgiving the sines of the rest of the world. This is a different take than what is in the fourth gospel, where the love of God goes beyond the Lamb of God. This forgiveness is not our alone.
One of the things that can be confusing is when we read different translations of the bible and see different wording, we begin to wonder what one is correct and what is not. The opening statement of “Little ones” is now translated as “children.” The author is simply describing their place in the world, or that they are a lessor class of people, but it is more of people understanding where they are in their life long struggle to be true and faithful servants of the Lord. Most everywhere we read children now, used to be translated as little ones.
The gospel of Luke today is a transitional piece from the walk to Emmaus where the two disciples have their eyes opened when they understand that it is Jesus who is standing there with them to their return to Jerusalem to tell the other disciples that they have seen Jesus. It is at his point Jesus reappears to all of them in today’s gospel.
Jesus has to convince them that He is really there with them, and He shows them His wounds and asks for something to eat.
One of the things that occurred very early on in the formation of the new church, was a lot of hearsay and non-belief that Jesus was the son of God and that his death and resurrection was not real. The authors of scripture combatted those early misconceptions by writing into their letters and gospels the scenes where Jesus continues to have both the human and divine characteristics. By appearing to them after the resurrection would show his divinity and by showing His wounds and eating food would show His humanness.
As we hear so often in scripture, Jesus opens their minds to fully understand the scriptures and all that is written about Him through the prophets. They are then charged to go out into the world and preach this good news about the Life, Death and Resurrection of Jesus and to tell people of the forgiveness that Jesus offers to us all.