Thursday of the Second Week of Easter
Acts 5: 27-33; Jn 3:31-36
Deacon Larry Brockman
What an amazing transformation! The Apostles, who had been “huddled in the upper room for fear of the Jews”, were transformed by Jesus’ resurrection appearance and his gift of the Holy Spirit to them. They would stand in the portico of the temple in full sight of the authorities who they had previously feared, and preach Christ crucified and resurrected. That’s what we have been hearing day by day in this Easter season.
This morning, our reading tells us that the court officers made them stand before the Sanhedrin, where they were reminded that they were given strict orders not to preach “in that name”. And Peter boldly tells the Sanhedrin that: “We must obey God rather than men.”
First, Jesus appears to the Apostles and tells them to be at peace; and he means internal peace, not peace in a secular or worldly sense. Certainly Peter and the Apostles do not appear to be at peace in a worldly sense in this morning’s reading. Here they are, hauled in front of the authorities they feared previously, and we are told that the authorities wanted to kill them. That’s not the kind of peace the world gives. But they were at peace in their hearts because they had found their calling; they had found their hearts; they were at peace with God. They were responding to the call to go out and preach the Gospel to all nations.
What do you suppose the message is for us? Does this story just give us a glimpse of the authenticity of the Christian story? Is that all we take away from it, and then go on with our daily lives? Or is there a much more profound personal message?
And then there is the Gospel today. It is taken from the very beginning of St. John’s Gospel, Chapter 3. Jesus is explaining his role. He has come from heaven, from above, “to testify to what He has seen and heard” from God the Father. He boldly claims that He has been sent from the Father and “speaks the words of God”. And he tells everyone that “Whoever believes in the son has eternal life”.
His next sentence is very interesting because he says “whoever disobeys the son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains in him.” That means that our belief is proven by our obedience. We are required to be obedient to God’s call to us.
Jesus post-Resurrection message to the Apostles was meant to be a message to all of us, not just the Apostles. We are called to believe and to go forth and testify to the truth. That’s what the Easter season is all about. We are not just called to hear the story. We are called to believe the story, embrace the peace of God that protects us from fear of the secular world; and boldly spread the message of the Gospel to all nations.
We can do that within the context of our daily lives from where we are planted by God. Each of us was given life in the here and now- in this age, some 2000 years after the events of the Gospel. But our mission is the same as that of the first Christians. We are called to be fearless witnesses of everything we have heard about our Christian Faith.
We don’t have to drop everything and dedicate every waking hour to preaching Christ. Rather, we just have to preach Christ by our daily lives in the way we treat others we come in contact with; in the way we raise our families; in the example we show our children and coworkers; in the way we stand up to the evils of the secular world.
Yes, it is Jesus hope that each year in the Easter season each of us will experience an amazing transition just like the Apostles did.
