Both our readings this morning make the same point: that the death and resurrection of Jesus is in accordance with the scriptures.
In the reading from The Acts of the Apostles Peter has just healed a crippled man who was begging at the temple gate in Jerusalem. The people think that Peter has done this by his own power but he corrects them. He stresses that the power at work is the name of Jesus. This Jesus had been put to death but had been raised to life. In this way, says Peter, ‘God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets.’
In the reading from St Luke’s Gospel, the risen Jesus appears to the disciples and then ‘he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day.’
The raising of Jesus from the dead is not an arbitrary act of God but is the fulfilment of God’s age old plan for the world. The scriptures begin with the creation of all things by God and then, from the call of Abraham, chart the history of God’s people Israel and God’s covenant with them. All this, our readings tell us, is leading up God’s decisive act of salvation, the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Peter, himself of course a Jew, speaking to his fellow countrymen, spells this out by saying, ‘You Israelites, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk? The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our ancestors has glorified his servant … whom [he] raised from the dead.’ This is not a new god who raises Jesus, but the God of Abraham, the God of the great prophet Moses. The same God who did the great deed of saving his people from Egypt through the Exodus, now raises his Son, Jesus. It is a new exodus. A new act of salvation.
Jesus in Luke’s Gospel says, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.’ The Psalms especially had pointed to the suffering of God’s Son. ”They gave him vinegar to drink.’ ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.’ These are words from the Psalms. The path God’s Son must take is marked by humiliation and forsakenness. It is the divinely ordained route that God himself, in Jesus, must travel.
Then comes the great surprise. All the Gospel accounts of the meeting of the risen Jesus are shot through with surprise, astonishment and disbelief. The appearance of Jesus, risen from the dead, takes everyone by surprise. It is a new thing, a transformatory event that starts a new world order.
That’s a big claim but it is the claim of the New Testament. Jesus’ resurrection is, says St Paul, the first fruits. Resurrection now is open for all. It follows on from Jesus’ resurrection like a great harvest. Remember those words from the funeral service from St John, ‘I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live.’
The resurrection of Jesus affects each and all. It is a new way of living. This is why being a Christian is not a hobby or an add-on to another life style. It’s a new way of living all together. It is resurrection living, living in the light of eternity, living the true, full life. It is living in communion with Jesus, holy communion.
It has personal, social and political consequences. The resurrection of Jesus on that first Easter Day unfolds with two more great acts: the ascension of Jesus to his royal throne and the sending of the Holy Spirit. All these are connected: Resurrection, Ascension, Spirit. One great, saving, transforming act of God.
By saying that Jesus is ascended we say that Jesus is Lord. Jesus is the source of all true authority and power. ‘He lives and reigns’ we say at the end of many of our prayers. His authority relativises all earthly powers. Earthly rulers have no power unless it is given them from above.
The Spirit binds us together as a new people, a new community, a new society, a people of God, which we all the body of Christ. This transforms the way the Church community operates and behaves. We signal it in many ways not least by the receiving and sharing of the peace of the risen Christ among us during the liturgy. This, and the whole Church, is a sign of God’s Kingdom.
The coming of the Spirit is the transforming power of the resurrection in each of our hearts and, lives now. The Spirit roots our lives in the love of Jesus. The Spirit’s fruit is pluriform and personally transformatory: the fruit of the Spirit, says St Paul, is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
The risen Jesus is among us now. ‘The Lord be with you’ is no empty greeting. The risen Jesus opens the scriptures to us, and sets before us God’s wonderful purpose in creation and redemption. We may, like those disciples in the upper room, be startled at his risen and ascended presence and all it means for our society, our communities, and our lives. But he opens to us a new and living way, a way to travel, a way to live, a way to life itself.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Service: Canon Bill Croft. 14th April 2024. (St John The Baptist Church Peterborough UK)
Readings: Acts 3.12-19; Luke 24.36b-48