Fourth Sunday of Easter - Hearts Burning Within

The Lectionary and Scripture Interpretation for the Easter Season

Acts 4:8-12

Last week we heard from Peter’s sermon in the temple after the healing of a lame man, and this week we hear another of Peter’s sermons. This is going to begin a series of persecutions which, in chapter 8, will lead to the dispersal of the Christians out of Jerusalem.

The scene is set in the first verses of the chapter. Peter is speaking to the people. The verb form indicates continuous action – he has spoken and he continues to do so. The Sadducees don’t come up much in the gospels but they are named in verse 1. This was a group, a sect within Judaism, and one of their strongest beliefs was that there was no resurrection. This would have been a very traditionalist and conservative view; it was only in the century or two leading up to Jesus’ time that Jews began to really develop a belief in the afterlife. The Sadducees held on to the traditional view that once you died, that was it. Peter and the apostles are preaching about a man who’s been resurrected, so of course this is going to catch the attention of a group like the Sadducees.

Peter and John are arrested and thrown in jail until they can be processed the next day. Peter’s preaching, however, was powerful enough that, even though he’s arrested for it, several thousand more come to believe.

In vv5-7 we see the assembly of the hierarchy: all the important people came together to judge. In a hierarchical society like this, you can’t have people going off doing things without legitimate authority. Jesus himself ran up against this and now his disciples are experiencing it as well. The authorities want to know who gave Peter and John the authority to heal the lame man from chapter 3.

This gives Peter the opportunity to launch into another sermon, and it’s going to have many similarities to the one he preached to the crowd in the temple.

Verse 11 is a key verse in this sermon. Peter quotes Psalm 118:22 which is a “hallel” or praise psalm, typically sung at Passover. Luke uses this same reference in Luke 20 for the parable of the vineyard. In that chapter, this same scenario was going on: the Jewish authorities confronted Jesus after he had cleansed the temple and they wanted to know who gave him the authority to do that. Jesus won’t answer outright but he does tell them a parable about a vineyard owner who sends messengers to collect the rent and then finally sends the son whom they kill. Jesus uses this same quote about the cornerstone, and Luke says there that the leaders recognize Jesus is talking about them. We don’t know if this is the same group but there’s a good chance at least some of them had heard Jesus use this reference and now Jesus’ disciple is using it.

Where does Peter get his authority? From Jesus. So Peter points the finger right back at them. A cornerstone is something essential to holding a building together, the most important stone in the building. They had rejected Jesus, but Jesus became the cornerstone anyway.

In the verses following today’s passage, the authorities threaten Peter not to preach in Jesus’ name again. Peter tells them that obeying God tops obeying man. I think verse 20 is another important verse:

“It is impossible for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard.”

In what ways has the gospel penetrated so deeply into your life that it has become impossible not to speak about it?

1 John 3:1-2

Background of the book

Chapters 1 and 2 of this book are practical in nature: we are to walk as children of the Light. Chapter 3 is just as practical: love is the mark of those who walk in the Light. Interestingly, this same passage is used on All Saints Day.

Verse 1 begins by telling us to SEE! This is the imperative: look, pay attention! This is important stuff!

What are we paying attention to? The fact that we are God’s children. And the love that God bestows on us as her children. How is it that the world does not recognize us for who and what we are? Because it did not recognize Jesus for who and what he is! We are in good company in that respect.

We are God’s children but what exactly means has not yet been fully revealed. You might notice in verse 2, the NAB translates it as “when it is revealed.” I could not find a single other version that translates it this way. Everything else renders the subject of the verb as Christ: “when Christ is revealed” or “when he is revealed.” The word “revealed” means to manifest or make visible.

What we see here is a tension: we are children of God. Already! Right now! But we’re not yet all that we will be. We don’t even begin to comprehend what it is that we’ll be. But we know that it is Christ who makes us what we are. Christ has already been revealed to the world – we know that too. Christ will be revealed at the end of time and it’s that revealing that will allow us to see him in all his glory and so to become fully like him. BUT… we are already like Christ. Christ revealed in us is a lifetime, day by day, breath by breath process.

How have you recently become more like Christ?

“What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it – we’re called children of God! That’s who we really are.” (1 John 3:1 The Message). What does it mean for you to be called “child of God”?

John 10:11-18

Background of the book

I spent a fair amount of time this week scratching my head and trying to puzzle out why this passage during Easter. Today is often called “Good Shepherd Sunday” because we read from the 10th chapter of John every year on this Sunday. For the last three Sundays, the gospel has been focused on resurrection appearances. So why this passage now??

The imagery in this passage is about sheep and shepherds. It’s not something we readily connect with today but was definitely very familiar to Jesus’ audience. So he’s using familiar images to make his point. Not only familiar in terms of something that was all around them, but also familiar in the Old Testament scriptures. The image of God as shepherd runs throughout, especially the prophetic literature.

Ezekiel 34 talks about the bad shepherds of Israel and God’s promise to shepherd his people himself as a good shepherd. That whole chapter has eschatological overtones – looking to the end of time.

Jeremiah 31 talks about the time of God’s new covenant as being a time when the people would know God intimately. Verse 10 of that chapter references God as the one who will shepherd the people.

One thing we stress over and over again is that most people wanted Jesus to fit in their picture of a Messiah as someone who would conquer Rome. The imagery Jesus gives today is sheep and shepherding – not exactly coming with a conquering army! But he’s a Messiah who loves and tenderly cares for those in the flock. He is a Messiah who loves so much and so deeply that he would and did pay the ultimate price of that love. And Jesus is no less a shepherd now just because he’s no longer physically present.

Another thing to note about this chapter is that Jesus is offering up some metaphors about who he is, who God is, and how God acts in the world. First he uses the metaphor of being a shepherd, but verse 6 says they didn’t understand Jesus. So he switches to say okay… I’m the gate for the sheep. How about that one? He’s using different metaphors for himself to help us understand who he is.

In verse 11 Jesus begins by saying “I am…” The Greek is “ego eimi” and in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, this is what is used to render YHWH. Jesus says he is the “good” shepherd which means a model, an ideal, something noble. “I am the model shepherd” – I’m the one you should model yourself after.

The rest of v11 through v15 talk about the extent to which a model shepherd will protect those in his care. Unlike others, Jesus is fully committed to the well-being of those in his care. At the end of v15 Jesus says “I will lay down my life for the sheep.” Being in the Easter season, we can’t deny this.

Verse 16 feels like, at best, an interesting interruption. “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd.”

There are several ways this can be interpreted. One way to interpret is to read this as extending the gospel beyond Israel – the Gentile mission. The Jews would have seen the Gentiles as not of the fold, but Jesus says here that the Gentiles will come in and they’ll be of a single flock.

Another angle is future generations: the church is going to grow and expand. The church of 2024 is the same flock as the church of AD33!

A 3rd interpretation involves looking at the timeline of writing. John’s gospel was written late – in the 90s or even maybe 100s. By this time, there was evidence of Peter being referred to as the shepherd. It’s evident from John’s gospel that the followers of John didn’t always get along with the followers of Peter. There was some early division and quarrels about who was better – John or Peter. So this may be a veiled reference to the need for Christian unity within the Christian community itself.

Of course, this also speaks to us today – wherever you want to look to find the seeds of discord – Jesus says we’re all one flock listening to the one voice of the model shepherd.

John’s gospel portrays a divine Jesus who knows everything that is going to happen and actively cooperates and allows it to happen. In the first gospel written – Mark – you could argue that Jesus is sort of swept away by the events leading up to his death. Luke and Matthew straddle that, sort of a middle ground while John’s gospel is completely opposite of that. Vv 17-18 show us a Jesus completely in control, with power to do whatever he chooses to do.

Back to the question of why this gospel. While there’s no one right answer, I’ll give my thoughts. We’re right smack dab in the middle of the Easter season. We’ve had some time to take in the fact of the resurrection and begin to grapple with what it might mean. We’ve soaked good and long in God’s love for us made incarnate and that now includes the whole of the Paschal mystery. Pentecost is coming and, along with it, a call for action. What are we going to do about everything we’ve experienced? I think this reading reminds us that, whatever we do, whatever our unique call is, it is done in the context of Christian community. We’re not meant to be lone ranger sheep. We need the safety and support of our community, whatever that community looks like. For many, it is a parish or local church home. For others, it looks different. But it is community, nevertheless, under the care of the Good Shepherd.

How have you experienced Jesus as the Good Shepherd?

In what ways do you model yourself after the Good Shepherd?

Connections

The 1 John reading talks about love and how much God loves us. Jesus makes that explicit in the gospel by showing the concrete ways in which he has loved us.

Questions to ponder