Texts of the Readings
May 3, 2009
Fourth
Sunday of Easter (B)
Dr. Terrance Callan
Acts 4:8-12
1 John 3:1-2
John 10:11-18
During the Easter Season we
focus our attention on the death and resurrection of Jesus as the means of
our salvation. We do the same thing every time we celebrate the Eucharist
any time during the year. Although the idea that we have been saved by
Jesus' death and resurrection is very familiar to us, we can always grow in
our understanding of it.
The reading from the gospel according to John explains how
Jesus death and resurrection saves by using a metaphor. Jesus says that he
is the good shepherd. His death and resurrection is the act of a good
shepherd who gives his life defending the sheep from a wolf. This allows
the sheep to escape being killed by the wolf. In the case of an ordinary
good shepherd, the sacrifice of his life leaves the sheep without a
shepherd. However, Jesus lays his life down and takes it up again, i.e., he
rises from the dead. So his death does not leave the sheep without a
shepherd.
It is clear how the death of the shepherd saves the sheep. It
is not clear how this metaphor applies to Jesus death. From what wolf
did his death save us? The reading gives no answer, but the gospel of John
as a whole sees Jesus death and resurrection as his return to the Father.
When we see that Jesus has gone back to the Father, we can believe that he
came from the Father, and that we can know the Father in him. Thus Jesus
death and resurrection is the foundation for faith in Jesus; this faith
means union with the Father through Jesus, which is what gives us life. In
this way Jesus death saves us from death, the death of being isolated from
God.
The reading from the Acts of the Apostles explains in a
different way how Jesus death and resurrection saves. In the early days of
the church, shortly after the death and resurrection of Jesus, Peter cured a
man who had been lame from birth (Acts 3:1-10). In todays reading Peter
explains how the cure was effected: it was in the name of Jesus Christ the
Nazarene whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead; in his name this
man stands before you healed.
It is easy to see how the death and resurrection of Jesus has
saved this man; it has given him health. However, all people do not suffer
from this sort of ailment, and not all who do suffer are cured. This cure
must be understood as a sign of salvation, not salvation itself. Once again
the reading does not tell us what salvation itself is. But we can at least
see from the sign that it means wholeness, becoming what we were created to
be.
The reading from the first letter of John tells us that the
salvation effected by the death and resurrection of Jesus occurs in two
steps. Already Jesus death and resurrection has made us children of
God. Our faith in Jesus, based on his death and resurrection, has brought
us into the relationship of children with the Father. This is not obvious
to all, just as it was never obvious to all that Jesus was the son of the
Father. But this is only the beginning; what we shall be has not yet been
revealed. Our faith in Jesus makes us like Jesus. We are already like him
in being children of God. But he is now in glory with the Father, and when
he comes again, we will be like him in his glory.
|