THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER, YEAR B

April 18, 2021

Saint Uriel's, Sea Girt, N.J.

Acts 3:12-19

Luke 24:36b-48

During this season of Eastertide, the Sunday Mass readings revisit Christ’s resurrection from different angles so that over the course of these six weeks we build up a cumulative picture of the Paschal mystery in its many dimensions. Today’s readings in particular focus our attention on the relationships among the Resurrection, the Holy Scriptures, and the living out of our faith in the world today.

In the Gospel reading that we’ve just heard, the Risen Jesus appears in the Upper Room on the evening of the first Easter Day. Initially the disciples have no idea what to make of what they’re experiencing. As Luke puts it, “they were startled and frightened, and supposed they saw a spirit.” So, first of all, Jesus needs to correct that misapprehension by showing them his hands and feet, and reassuring them that it’s really him: “handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have.”

In the ancient world, the appearance of spirits of the dead, especially the recently dead, were not at all uncommon. (Some say that it’s not that uncommon today either, but that’s a discussion for another time.) The point being made here is that Christ’s Resurrection belongs to a totally different category. The Risen Jesus is neither a ghost nor (for that matter) a resuscitated corpse, or an undead zombie. No, the new life into which he’s entered is not the stuff of horror movies but the precise opposite: in his wonderful new existence he’s more gloriously and fully alive than ever before. Nonetheless, between the former life and the Resurrection life there’s continuity as well as discontinuity. His flesh and bones are still tangible; his hands and feet still bear the marks of his wounds; he’s even able to eat a piece of broiled fish! Biological human life in all its materiality and physicality is caught up into the eternal realm of the spirit.

Then, having cleared up the disciples’ misconceptions about what they’re seeing, Jesus goes a step further. He opens their minds to understand the scriptures, showing how the Law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms all foretold that the Christ should suffer, die, and on the third day rise again.

Let’s dwell for a moment on that remarkable statement: “He opened their mind to understand the scriptures.” The Resurrection is not self-explanatory. The disciples can only fully understand the events they’re experiencing in the wider narrative context of the scriptures, but at the same time their understanding of that scriptural narrative is utterly transformed by their experience of those events. So, in a mutual and reciprocal process, the scriptures interpret the Resurrection, and the Resurrection interprets the scriptures. And then Jesus sends his disciples into the world, having opened their minds to a new understanding of the scriptures as fulfilled in the wondrous events to which they’ve been made witnesses.

Our reading from the Acts of the Apostles takes up the story of the apostles’ preaching the good news to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. It follows a curiously similar pattern to the Gospel reading. Peter and John have just healed a cripple in the precincts of the Jerusalem Temple. Amazed and filled with awe, the crowds witnessing this miracle have run to gather around these wonderworkers.

So, just as in the Gospel reading, a misconception first needs to be cleared up. Just as Jesus had to explain that, no, he wasn’t a spirit or a ghost, so Peter has to explain that, no, he and John haven’t performed this healing by themselves: “Men of Israel,” he declares, “why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk?” Outward appearances to the contrary, Peter and John are not the stars of this show.

Peter proceeds to explain the miracle’s meaning by proclaiming the Lord’s resurrection, concluding that “the faith which is through Jesus has given this man perfect health in the presence of you all.” Then, to borrow Luke’s phrase from the Gospel, Peter opens their minds to understand the scriptures. He shows that God foretold by the prophets that the Christ should suffer and be raised, and he calls on the people gathered round to repent of their sins and receive the blessing promised to Abraham’s posterity. So here, again, we see the same pattern of mutual interpretation as in the Gospel. The miracle is not self-explanatory and its meaning can only be fully understood in light of the Lord’s death and resurrection in fulfillment of the scriptures—and those same scriptures can in turn only be fully understood in and through their fulfillment in the Lord’s resurrection, as well as in such wondrous deeds as this miraculous healing of a cripple.

Now, I would propose that this process works in a similar way for us today. God continues to be present and active in our midst, although we don’t always recognize his presence and activity for what it is. In today’s Collect, we pray God to “open the eyes of our faith, that we may behold [Christ] in all his redeeming work.” That’s a wonderful prayer! And a key component of this beholding of Christ’s redeeming work, both in our own lives and in the world about us, is the opening of our minds to understand the scriptures, which sensitizes us to the many ways in which God is present and active in our world. Conversely, our direct experience of God’s presence and activity in our lives helps us to understand what the scriptures were talking about in the first place.

Such recognition presupposes systematic, disciplined, and prayerful reading of God’s Word. Before the disciples could have their minds opened to understand the scriptures, they needed to know the scriptures; and we may be sure that as devout Jews they’d been raised in the synagogue to know them inside out. For this reason, the Church encourages us to make use of such practices as the Daily Office and similar liturgical and devotional schemes that immerse us in the scriptures and psalms day by day, week by week, year by year.

In my time here at St. Uriel’s so far, it’s become clear to me that this is a parish community in which the scriptures are indeed taken seriously, along with worship and prayer. You have a hunger for and a delight in God’s Word. This attentiveness will stand you in good stead during the present interim period. In the coming weeks and months you’ll likely be asked to reflect on your history as a parish and identify the ways God has been active in your midst, leading and guiding you along the way. The parish story fits in turn into the much larger story of God’s gracious dealings with his people throughout history. And I’m confident that God’s gift to you will be not only the opening of your minds to understand the scriptures, where that story is definitively set forth, but also the opening of the eyes of your faith to perceive Christ’s redeeming work in your midst. For those are but two sides of the same coin.