Word to the Wise
Sunday, May 8, 2011 - 3rd Sunday of Easter - A
[Acts 2:14, 22-33; 1 Pet 1:17-21; Luke 24:13-35,39]"Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the scriptures...." [Luke]
Chronologically, it would make more sense to read the gospel scripture for today ahead of the first scripture from Acts! Both are by the same author anyhow - St. Luke! The reason I say this is that the preaching by Peter follows the example set by the Risen Jesus with the Disciples on the Road to Emmaus! The emphasis is on the fulfillment of prophetic promises from the Old Testament. This, of course, presumed an audience familiar with those scriptures! Later on, the preaching would begin to reach those who were from pagan backgrounds. There, the emphasis would have to change, as the Acts of the Apostles shows when St. Paul preached in Athens, Greece!
A closer reading of the passage from the Acts of the Apostles today might find us somewhere between vague familiarity with the prophetic promises and none at all! How many of us, listening to Peter, would say, "Oh yes! He's right! Jesus IS the fulfillment of those promises that we've known for centuries?" Does our perspective and understanding of Jesus have anything at all to do with what Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah and other prophets hoped and believed? It seems clear that early Christian preachers had to work at educating even those who might recognize those scriptures!
A much fuller, richer and deeper understanding of Jesus Christ awaits us if we are willing to make the effort to become familiar with all that the Old Testament makes available to us and how that shaped the preaching of the New Testament! Peter connects the promises made to King David with the resurrection of Jesus! There is much more than that in other examples in the Acts of the Apostles. The Gospel of Matthew, in the "infancy narratives about the birth of Jesus," has a regular refrain about everything happening to fulfill prophecies from the Old Testament!
If our Lenten resolutions did not include obtaining a better knowledge of the scriptures, perhaps we can make an Easter resolution in that regard so that the profound truth of Christ's mission, death and resurrection may find a home in us! AMEN
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