The following material was written by the Rev. John Shearman (jlss@sympatico.ca) of the United Church of Canada. John has structured his offerings so that the first portion can be used as a bulletin insert, while the second portion provides a more in depth 'introduction to the scripture'.
INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE
Third Sunday of Easter (B)
ACTS 3:12-19. All the sermons recorded in Acts are recollections of what all
the apostles preached rather than verbatim reports of what Peter may have
said. They all contain essentially the same elements. Some, like this one,
may reflect a somewhat earlier and more basic tradition than others. Like all
the New Testament, this passage interprets Jesus as fulfilling a prophecy of
a suffering Messiah. Such a person was unknown in the Hebrew tradition.
Though his own people rejected him, this sermon declares, the resurrection of
Jesus is the proof that he is the promised Messiah. Through repentance and
faith in him all sins are forgiven.
PSALM 4. An attitude of confident trust in God permeates this psalm.
Accordingly it does not become a bitter lament, but a song of faith from
someone suffering great distress.
1 JOHN 3:1-7. The real benefits of faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
are clearly stated in this passage. Believers are regarded as the children
of God who at Christ's second coming will be like him. Those who do not
believe do not share kinship with Christ and fellowship with God. A life of
sin and the life with Christ are totally incompatible.
LUKE 24:36-48. The post-resurrection appearances of Jesus recorded in the
four gospels have a common purpose: to prepare the faithful for life in the
world as witnesses to the resurrection.
Luke's closing narrative tells how Jesus revealed himself to his disciples to
prove to them that he really was alive. He urged them to touch the wounds in
his hands and feet, and then asked for something to eat.
Luke also wished to show that Jesus himself had initiated the early Christian
belief that the Old Testament prophesies of the Messiah had now been
fulfilled. The church could now proclaim that repentance and forgiveness of
sins, i.e. a whole new life, were now available through faith in the risen
Christ.
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ACTS 3:12-19. All the sermons recorded in Acts are recollections of what all
the apostles preached rather than verbatim reports of what Peter or other
apostles may have said. As the apostle most regarded as the leader of the
Apostolic Church, the author of Acts usually has Peter proclaim what all of
them almost certainly would have said. This formula, discovered by the
British scholar, C. H. Dodd circa 1930, is known as the *kerygma,* from the
Greek word for *preaching.*
Thus all the sermons in Acts contain essentially the same elements. Some,
like this one, may reflect a somewhat earlier and more basic tradition than
others. As elsewhere throughout the New Testament, this passage interprets
Jesus as fulfilling a prophecy of a suffering Messiah. Such a Messiah was
unknown in the Hebrew tradition. The Apostolic Church reinterpreted OT
passages, particularly Isaiah 52:13-53:12, in that way after the crucifixion
and resurrection. Many biblical scholars, particularly in the British
schools, believe that this reinterpretation may have come from Jesus himself.
There are other passages like Luke 24:13-27 which appear to confirm this.
This particular sermon emphasizes a favourite New Testament theme. Although
his own people rejected him, the resurrection of Jesus proves that he is the
promised Messiah. Through repentance and faith in him all sins are forgiven.
As in most sermons in Acts, there are frequent references to the Hebrew
scriptures. That should not be surprising since the first Christians were all
Jews and the only scriptures they had were those of their own Hebrew
tradition. They were also preaching primarily to other Jews during the
earliest days of the post-resurrection period. So they probably spent a great
deal of time working through a new interpretation of what those scriptures
meant now that Jesus had been crucified and raised from the dead. As many
people do today, they latched onto texts and passages which originally had no
reference whatsoever to Jesus. In doing so, they really tried to show that
there was a direct relationship between God's covenant with Israel and the
"new covenant' instituted by God in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
Indeed, they held firmly to the conviction that Jesus fulfilled all that God
had promised to Israel as recorded in the Hebrew scriptures.
The locale where Peter preached this sermon had special meaning in that
Solomon's Portico was a gathering place for all who came to the temple. It was
not the vestibule of the temple, but the eastern range of a columned and
roofed part of the temple precincts extending around the outer court. While
named in honor of Solomon, it was almost certainly built when Herod the Great
renovated the temple during the two decades just prior to the birth of Jesus.
Everyone who came to the temple, Jews and Gentiles, Jerusalemites and pilgrims
alike, would have assembled there. The Beautiful Gate through the east side of
the portico gave access to the temple courts from the Kidron Valley and the
Mount of Olives. The poor and disabled would come there begging for alms from
the multitude. This was the occasion for Peter's sermon to the amazed crowd
after healing the man lame from birth (vss. 2-8).
PSALM 4. An attitude of confident trust in God permeates this psalm.
Accordingly it does not become a bitter lament, as one might expect from
someone suffering great distress, but a song of enduring faith. The psalmist's
anguish has been subdued by his confidence in God's blessing because of his
continued dependence on God.
No one can say just what may have caused of the psalmist's distress, nor who
he may have been. Vs. 5 indicates a close association with temple sacrifices,
a common practice in distressing times; but that is all the identification the
text offers. He appears to have lived at a time when many others were in
distress too, but there are no clues as to why this had occurred. Some
scholars have suggested that the reference in vs. 7 points to plentiful
harvest of grain and wine after a devastating famine.
The closing lines in vs. 8 could indicate that this as a psalm for the end of
the day. Whatever the difficulties each day brings, the psalmist's faith gives
him the confidence to rest in the security that all is well under God's
control. One is reminded of repeated assurance of Julian of Norwich, the 14th
century mystic, that "all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner
of things shall be well."
The text includes two other notable features: the superscription reference to
"the leader: with stringed instruments" and the strange word *Selah.* Best
scholarly guesses believe that the former caption refers to musical
accompaniment when used in temple worship. "Selah" appears seventy times in
the Psalter and three times in another psalm in the Book of Habbakuk 3:3, 9,
13. It would appear to be some kind of direction to the musicians, the exact
significance of which remains hidden. Some scholars hypothesize that it
indicated the point at which a special musical chord would be struck.
This would indicate that the psalm may not have been composed as a personal
prayer, but for special use at the time of the evening sacrifices in the
temple.
1 JOHN 3:1-7. This passage clearly states the real benefits of faith in Jesus
Christ, the Son of God. It also deals with the issue of the return of Christ,
something which appears to have been a source of serious trouble in John's
community. The author also clarifies the implications of faith and the
rejection of faith. All of this rests on the love of God the Father.
Believers know that they are, the children of God because they know God. They
have this assurance now and they also know that at Christ's return they will
be like him (vs. 2). Because of this knowledge, they "purify themselves" so as
to be like Christ. In an unique way, John relates to both the Greek "gnosis"
so dear to Gentile members of the community attracted to the special
"knowledge" of Gnostic sects and the ritual purification common to devout
Jews.
Vs. 4 reiterates the Jewish element of this thinking in regarding sin as
"lawlessness." Throughout the letter there is a dualism in John's conception
of good and evil, a kind of ethical dialectic expressed in such antitheses as
light and darkness, truth and lie, the world and God. This may well have been
characteristic of 1st century Christian belief, for it appears in many other
parts of the NT, including the gospel record of Jesus' teaching. Lawlessness
was seen as evidence of the enormity and blasphemy of sin and apostasy during
the eschatological time of the Antichrist (2 Thess. 2:7-8; Matt. 24:12). While
this letter draws extensively on Jewish eschatology, we must also understand
that the NT was written in the latter part of the 1st century when the Greek
thought had permeated the culture of the whole Mediterranean region and
especially the Greek cities where most of the NT authors lived.
The unique Christian interpretation of the work of Christ comes to the fore in
vs. 5. As the sinless one, he takes away the sin of the world. This may refer
to the scapegoat sacrifice as a sin offering on the Day of Atonement described
in Leviticus 16. One of two goats was slaughtered and its blood sprinkled on
the mercy seat, the slab of gold on the top of the ark supporting the two
cherubim representing the Presence of Yahweh. The other goat was sent away
into the wilderness after the sins of the people had been confessed over its
head.
In vs. 6 we find once again the phrase "abiding in him" which picks up the
main theme of this segment of the letter (2:28-3:24) and also recalls the vine
metaphor of John 15:1-11. Assimilation into and acquiring through grace the
nature of Christ the sinless one is the essence of this phrase. Those whose
behaviour does not meet that standard really has not "seen him or know him."
Obviously, this was a direct attack on those who believed that because they
had been baptized and so were now "in Christ," they did not need to give any
attention to how they lived as they waited for Christ's return. This
particular failing marked many of the Gnostic sectarians. Vs. 7 suggests that
this was indeed a problem in John's community where some were being deceived
by this false teaching.
In effect, John is reaffirming that those who do not believe do not share
kinship with Christ and fellowship with God. Their behaviour shows exactly
what they believe. "Every sound tree bears good fruit" (Matt. 7:17). A life of
sin and the life with Christ are totally incompatible. In contrast, those who
live a righteous life do so because they believe in Jesus Christ and have been
formed in his image, the only truly righteous person.
LUKE 24:36-48. The post-resurrection appearances of Jesus recorded in the
four gospels have a common purpose: to prepare the faithful for life in the
world as witnesses to the resurrection.
Luke's closing narrative tells how Jesus revealed himself to his disciples to
prove to them that he really was alive and not just a ghostly apparition.
Skepticism came naturally to people in those days as it does to us. Appealing
to their ordinary human senses, Luke tells how Jesus urged the disciples to
touch the wounds in his hands and feet, and then asked for something to eat
(vss. 39-43). Luke included this detail to make sure that his audience, five
decades removed from the actual event, really understood the true nature of
the resurrection. It was no mere fantasy or hallucination; it was a physical
return from the dead, as scary and as incredible as it may have seemed, then
and now.
Luke also wished to show that Jesus himself had initiated the early Christian
belief that the Old Testament prophesies of the Messiah had now been
fulfilled. The church could now proclaim that repentance and forgiveness of
sins, i.e. a whole new life, were now available through faith in Jesus.
Reinterpretation the messianic tradition of Judaism and a divinely endowed
capability of forgiving sin characterized the mission of the Apostolic Church.
Luke made this claim even more distinctively in the sequel to his gospel, The
Acts of Apostles. The words attributed to Jesus vss. 44-49 provide a natural
transition from one book to the other. The same theme is picked up in Acts
1:1-5.
Note that Luke ends his narrative with the disciples still in Jerusalem.
Before leaving them, Jesus led them out to Bethany, a village less than two
miles from the city, just over the ridge on the eastern slope of the Mount of
Olives. One might wonder why this minute detail, except that it relates to an
earlier comment that Jesus appears to have made his headquarters there,
possibly at the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus, during the final days
between his triumphal entry and crucifixion (21:37).
Luke also includes a brief statement of the ascension (24:51) which he
repeated in a more elaborate form in Acts 1:6-11. This assumes, of course,
that Luke is the author of both books, which is a subject of dispute among
scholars. The repetition of such details may do no more than serve as a
literary device that intentionally links the two.
Joyful worship of the apostolic community ends the Gospel; but continually
gathering in the temple also emphasizes the fundamentally Jewish character of
the community. We can never minimize the historical fact that the Christian
Church has its origins as a new cult of Judaism and adopted for itself, albeit
with a new interpretation, all the scriptures of the Jewish tradition.
copyright - Comments by Rev. John Shearman and page by Richard J. Fairchild, 2006
please acknowledge the appropriate author if citing these resources.
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