Friday in the Octave of Easter
During the Easter Season, we do not read the first scripture lesson from the Old Testament as is customary the rest of the year, but we read from the Acts of the Apostles. This is partly to emphasize that Jesus’ resurrection has brought about something new. God is doing a new thing in the midst of the old and we emphasize this by reading only from the New Testament. But there is another, perhaps more significant reason to bring in readings from the Acts of the Apostles: we cannot fully realize the meaning and importance of the resurrection without understanding its aftermath.
Today’s first reading (Acts 4:1-12) provides a sense of the aftermath: in this passage, we see the turbulent times that happened following Jesus’ resurrection. From the point of view of the Sadducees and others with some authority in the Jewish community, Peter and the other disciples seem to be stirring up exactly the kind of unrest they had hoped would be put away for good with Jesus’ death, but this unrest has possibly become worse, for now the disciples are preaching that Jesus has come to life again! The situation has become like the mythical many-headed beast; chop off one head, hoping to destroy it, and scores more appear in its place. Jesus Christ is being proclaimed, though Jesus is (in their view) definitely dead and gone. How can this situation keep emerging, and even exploding, before their eyes?
The witness to Christ is important. If Peter were only speaking on his own behalf and trying to heal people on his own accord, the authorities might be worried, but not quite to the extent that we see them worried in this passage. If you study the history of this period at all, you will quickly realize that there were many, many people who were doing acts of healing (or who said they were), and who were proclaiming a resurrection from the dead.
The difference between them and Jesus is that with Jesus, it is real. The Sadducees and others keep pushing against the news that Jesus has risen, hoping to find holes in the theory, as they were able to do in so many of false teachers who preached resurrection. Many people said they would rise again, and said they and their disciples could heal. But because this time it is real, the focus is always squarely on Jesus. The disciples are not claiming that they, by themselves, can raise people – only that Jesus can and does. Thus, Peter quotes from Psalm 118 (the same psalm we recite today), saying, “He is the stone rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.” Recall that elsewhere (Matthew 16:18) Jesus has named Peter as Rock, on whom the church will be built. But though Peter is the Rock, he is careful never to mistake himself for Jesus, the cornerstone. Instead, anything he does that is good is done because of, and through, Jesus’ power.
Today’s Gospel (John 21:1-14) emphasizes again the importance of Jesus’ power over any sense that we can do great deeds on our own. In this resurrection story, the disciples search for fish and are unable to find any till Jesus comes. Then, Jesus breaks bread and shares fish with them in a Eucharist-like meal, and the disciples realize it is Jesus.
Sometimes the claims Christians make seem unreal precisely because we are focused on ourselves and whether we can or would be able to heal like Peter or rise from the dead. But in the gospel and in Acts, the message is clear: You cannot do anything for yourself. You do not need to believe that you, personally, can do great deeds or raise yourself from the dead. You only need to cling to Jesus to experience the power of the resurrection.
—Jana M. Bennett