The Lectionary and Scripture Interpretation for the Easter Season
The first three Sundays of Easter are focused on resurrection appearances – a reminder that Christ is alive and still with us! The next three Sundays remind us of our ongoing mission in the world.
The Acts reading shows Paul and Barnabas returning to be nourished by their community. Revelation gives a picture of a new heaven and a new earth, where God dwells intimately in the community of God’s people. And then in John, Jesus gives a new commandment for a new way of living together as community: love. Each of these snapshots of community has both a “here and now” and “not yet” quality.
At the Easter Vigil, catechumens are baptized. The Sundays of Easter then provide instruction in the Christian life. Something to ask of each reading, then, is what does it tell us about how to live the Christian life with eyes of newness and wonder?
Acts 13:14, 43-52
Chps 13-14 recount the first missionary journey. In today’s reading, Paul and Barnabas will finish that journey and return back to Antioch, the church that sent them out.
At the beginning of chp 14, Paul and Barnabus spent “considerable time” in Iconium and were ultimately driven out by the religious leaders. In Lystra, Paul healed a man and was presumed by the locals to be the incarnation of Zeus, the primary god of the Greeks. He eventually had to flee Lystra when the Iconians arrived in hot pursuit and convinced the Lystrians to follow suit. Their next attempt was in Derbe, where they finally experienced success.
In v20, we see the pair returning to Iconium and Lystra. Why did Paul and Barnabus return to these towns that had so violently expelled them? We might consider this a pastoral visit to those who had embraced the faith there. There might not have been many, but Paul did not leave the few adrift. He went back to make sure they were flourishing in their faith.
V22 talks about the necessity of suffering, a theme most modern people do not care to accept. The Message translates the last part of this verse as, “Anyone singing up for the kingdom of God has to go through hard times.”
In addition to teaching, Paul and Barnabus would set up practical structures of leadership that would encourage and empower the new communities of faith. The Gospels frequently reference “the elders” as respected Jewish men. Up to this point in the book of Acts, all references to “the elders” are this group of mature men recognized for their wisdom. Paul’s authentic letters never mention elders (Greek presbuteros) and it is only in the second century that this term began to be one of formal, appointed leadership in the church. Luke’s use of it in v23 is very likely referring not to an ordained position of formal leadership, but rather the community selecting wise and mature people who are capable of teaching and ministering to their faith community.
Vv24-26 see Paul and Barnabas arriving back in the community which had sent them and now commends them for the work they had done. In v27, they particularly mention how the “door of faith” had been opened to the Gentiles. “Door of faith” is a distinctly Pauline expression. See 1 Corinthians 16:9, 2 Corinthians 2:12, and Colossians 4:3. What are some modern-day equivalents of “opening the door of faith to Gentiles”? Consider the issue of people who have divorced and remarried outside Catholic canon law. Might there be a way to open the door to their full communion with the church? Or members of the LGBTQ+ communities who desire full use of their gifts in the church without denying their authentic selves?
V28 is a beautiful picture of rest. Paul and Barnabus have had a challenging stretch of ministry, and so they return to the community which nourishes and they spend “no little time” there. How often do you set aside time to be nourished, not just by silence and solitude, but by renewal within a community that supports you? Remember that this might not be the same as the liturgical community where you worship.
Revelation 21:1-5a
Today is a beautiful reading about the newness that God promises with the kingdom.
The genre of Revelation is apocalypticism, and this ancient genre often relied on Greek rhetoric to make its points. Today’s reading has a chiastic structure, a common rhetorical form that was used to emphasize a focal point:
A new heaven and new earth
B former heaven and earth are gone
C the sea is no more
D the city descends as a bride
D’ God dwells with the people
C’ death is no more
B’ former things are gone
A’ God makes everything new
In a chiasm, it is the center elements that are the most important. Yes, the former things are gone (including death) and all is new. But the meeting of “the city” and God is central. God dwells with God’s people in a new way. God has always dwelt in some way with God’s people, but at The End, God will dwell even more directly with us.
This echoes last week’s Revelation reading of the multitude before the throne praising God. Revelation 7:15 “The one who sits on the throne will shelter them.” This is the same word for dwelling in this verse. It is a rich word meaning “to dwell, to tabernacle, to pitch a tent.” The Hebrew equivalent, shekhinah, often refers to God’s presence in the Holy of Holies. This word is far deeper than a mere roof over our heads. God’s very self will dwell with us and we with God.
The word used throughout this passage for new is kainos, a Greek word meaning “new in its very nature,” a concept often associated with innovation and improvement. It also carries the meaning of something novel, never seen before. The new heaven and new earth will be unlike anything we’ve known before.
It’s significant that “the sea” is specifically called out, and that, in the rhetorical structure, it balances death. In the ancient world, water was the most frequent symbol of chaos and death. In the creation story, God begins to tame this power and relegate it to specific places in the earth and sky (Genesis 1:6-10). At the final battle, chaos and death are finally eliminated.
Does this vision mean there will be a point in time when the universe as we know it will be catastrophically destroyed and replaced with something else? Always, we have to take this book on the level of metaphor and symbol. It might be saying that this earth as we know it will cease to exist. Or it might be saying that this earth as we know it will be remade into something we can’t even begin to imagine. I like to think that every time create something – be it a poem or a piece of art or a safe space for expression or even a kind word – I am creating the new heavens and the new earth that will someday be fully revealed. (I owe this insight to the book Art and Faith: A Theology of Making by Makoto Fujimura.)
The earthly Jerusalem was made as a dwelling place for the holy presence. The center of the city is the Temple and the center of the Temple is the Holy of Holies where the glory of God dwelt. But Jerusalem also represented the people of God, wherever they happened to live. The new Jerusalem represents God dwelling with God’s people in a whole new way which is not confined to a particular geographic locale.
I grew up in a faith tradition that emphasized “the next world,” and liked to look at passages like this as something entirely separate from “this world.” The Catholic tradition has a better balance of seeing God in present circumstances I think. The challenge is to realize that this passage speaks of an “already but not fully here” reality. We are living in something wholly new but we don’t fully see it. We await the fulfillment of it. But, I think, we also help create it day by day. In what ways are you building the new heaven and the new earth?
John 13:31-33a, 34-35
Chps 13-17 are one long “last supper discourse.” Two key phrases that run throughout these chapters are glory and new commandment. In 13:31-14:31 Jesus will speak at length about returning to the Father. Throughout this passage, notice the themes of coming and going. It begins with Judas leaving and then Jesus will also speak of leaving. But Jesus will speak of his return as well as the coming of the Holy Spirit.
The key word glory is the Greek word doxa, from which we get our word doxology. In v30, Judas receives the morsel of bread that marks him as the betrayer. After he leaves the upper room, Jesus says, now is the son of man glorified. Glory is an act of worship but it is also the object of worship – as in the glory of God’s presence. Glory is the overwhelming holiness and power of the presence of God. As one commentary put it, “Giving God glory adds nothing to God but rather acknowledges God’s magnificence and power.”
In Isaiah 35:1-2, the redeemed see the glory of God. In Isaiah 66:18, God promises that all nations “will come and see my glory.” The Old Testament speaks extensively about the glory of God, but there is always a sense of separation. The Hebrew word for glory is kabad and refers to a person’s honor. In a culture driven by honor/shame, a person’s honor would have been their most prized possession. The Greek word doxa was associated with fame, honor, and reputation. It was often linked to achievements in battle, public service, or other notable accomplishments. In the New Testament, more and more, there is an emphasis on participation with and in God’s glory (see John 1:14, Colossian 3:4, 1 Thessalonians 2:12, 2 Thessalonians 2:14, Romans 8:17). When the Bible was translated into Latin in the 4th century, the word gloria was chosen to translate the word doxa. This word emphasized, even more, the military overtones of honor. You can see in moving from Hebrew to Greek to Latin that a sense of the original meaning was lost, being replaced by different cultural values.
Glory is “a way of speaking about how God dynamically communicates God’s very self to the world.” This was done perfectly in Jesus Christ.
In this passage, Jesus gives us the highest command, which is to love. What is love? You might spend some time with the following verses: Leviticus 19:18, Matthew 19:19, Matthew 5:44, Mark 12:31, Luke 6:27, Luke 10:27, and 1 Corinthians 13. Just these few scriptures show us that love is more than getting along, more than tolerating someone. This love is active in seeking out its object and embracing the other.
You might read the short Johannine epistles (1,2,&3 John). These were written even later than this last gospel. They were likely written by a disciple who had been preaching an internalized message for a lifetime, and he or she reduced it to a single message: LOVE each other. That’s what Jesus is saying in today’s reading.
In v33, Jesus says he is preparing to leave them in the form in which they’ve come to know him. Things will be different and they will, in a very real sense, be left behind. But Jesus will assure them that there is one thing that will keep his presence alive among them: to love as he has loved.
In the Old Testament, we think of the 10 commandments. Observant Jews identified 613 laws in the Torah. All of these now are replaced, in v34, by a single new commandment: simply love one another as Jesus loves us. We can and should evaluate our own actions against the question: is it the kind of love Jesus has for me? The idea that the Old Testament covenant laws would be replaced was foretold in Jeremiah 31:31.
Also in v34, Jesus uses the word new – this is the same word as in the Revelation reading – kainos.
In v35, Jesus gives us a criterion for evaluating adherence to this new commandment. A fair question: do others recognize us as disciples of Jesus by our love? What image of Christianity do our actions present? It is not a matter of how right we are, but how loving we are. The word disciples here comes from the verb “to learn.” Jesus is saying: you are my student and you are learning from me if you love each other.
Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
© 2023 Kelly Sollinger