We see in today's reading that Christianity is beginning to break away from Judaism but it hasn't yet. The healing in chapter three was done in the temple where Peter and John were going to pray. They are not proselytizing as much as they are sharing with other Jews how they now interpret their faith.
They do so clearly through the lens of Jesus who was also Jewish.
The Sadducees would be opposed to this lens because it is defined prominently by the resurrection. They did not believe in the resurrection of the dead.
The temple police arrest Peter and John. This would be different from Roman soldiers arresting them and we see that it never gets that far. It stays a Jewish affair.
Before Christianity broke away to do its own thing, it worked to create space within Judaism. There is going to be resistance to this because it begins to diverge from Judaism at this point.
We see Peter remind them that they crucified Jesus. It was actually the Romans that did the killing but they likely wouldn't have known about him if the temple authorities hadn't felt threatened.
Peter quotes from Psalm 118:22 about the rejected stone becoming the cornerstone. Verses 17-21 which lead up to this verse read:
I shall not die, but I shall live,
and recount the deeds of the Lord.
The Lord has punished me severely,
but he did not give me over to death.
Open to me the gates of righteousness,
that I may enter through them
and give thanks to the Lord.
This is the gate of the Lord;
the righteous shall enter through it.
I thank you that you have answered me
and have become my salvation. (NRSV)
 |
| We build our community with the cornerstone of resurrection. This is foundational to how we interact! |
We haven't seen a declaration of the divinity of Jesus at this point by the apostles (that would have earned them the death penalty no doubt) but we see that salvation is being put forth in his name. Luke shows us that this is difficult for the temple authorities to argue against due to the man who received healing present and walking around.
Peter and John are threatened to keep silent.
They are too popular for the authorities to do more than threaten though.
They are going to keep telling the story.
How do we relate the power of resurrection in our lives today? I think too often, we mute the message. Resurrection is spoke of in terms of life after death or going to heaven. Salvation is meant for the afterlife. Peter and John were giving salvation in the present to a man who was lame. What would it have been like for him to rejoin polite society at this age? What would it be for people to see that he was in essence forgiven of his sins because he was no longer ill (as was popular belief in that time)?
For him, resurrection is real and it is a present reality.
What if we began to really believe in the resurrection from the dead? In a way that our faith brings life and light to those living in death and darkness? What if we applied this belief to our own places that need it?
Prayer for the day:
Almighty God, through your only Son you overcame death
and opened to us the gate of everlasting life.
Grant that we who celebrate our Lord's resurrection,
by the renewing of your Spirit,
arise from the death of sin to the life of righteousness;
through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Prayer adapted from a Gelasian Sacramentary, 5th Century
Photo by Bob Cotter via Flickr.com. Used under the Creative Commons license.
No comments:
Post a Comment