CT - Catholic Telegraph

The challenge to give witness to Jesus

Third Sunday of Easter (B), Acts of the Apostles 3:13-15, 17-19.

The first readings on the third and fourth Sundays after Easter give us some samplings of apostolic preaching. This Sunday, we have part of Peter's first public discourse after Pentecost.

Peter and John have just encountered a lame beggar in the temple. He has asked them for money, and Peter has responded that they have no money but that he would give the man what he had. Peter orders the lame beggar to stand up. He helps him rise, and the man finds that he is cured.

In a heart-warming description of the scene, Luke shows us the man "walking and jumping and praising God." A crowd gathers in the portico of Solomon, and Peter begins to explain who is responsible for what had happened. "What has happened here," Peter says, "is not a result of the power or the holiness of John and me. It is due to the power of the risen Jesus."

Now our reading begins. Peter tells the crowd that the source of the miracle they have seen is no one less than the God with whom they are already familiar, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, of our ancestors. This God has exalted Jesus by raising Him from the dead, the Jesus whose ministry the people of Israel had refused to accept. This people had allowed the holy one of God to be executed, unwillingly to be sure, by the Romans. But now God has revered the judgment of condemnation that was levied against Jesus and raised Him from the dead. Peter testifies to the resurrection of Jesus: "Of this we are witnesses."

Now Peter shifts from blaming to excusing the people. What they did, they did through ignorance. But now it is time to "repent and be converted," that is, to turn to God by acknowledging Jesus as Lord. What had happened to Jesus was not accidental or arbitrary but was in accord with the Father's divine plan for salvation. The suffering of the Messiah was long ago foreseen by the prophets. (Peter seems to be alluding here to the Servant Song in Isaiah 52 and 53.) Ignorance may have been enough to excuse the people's first rejection of Jesus, but now, given the missionary proclamation of the apostles, the miracles occurring in Jesus name, and the apostles' testimony to the resurrection of Jesus, there was no further excuse under the rubric of ignorance. Their sins could be forgiven only by accepting Jesus as the Messiah sent by God.

This reading is more than just an account of the early preaching of the apostles. It is also a challenge to us and calls for a response from us.

Just as there are two aspects of the narrative of Peter's preaching recorded here - the apostolic testimony and the people being addressed - so also there are two aspects to what is called for from us.

First of all, like the members of the crowd that gathered in Solomon's portico after the cure of the lame beggar, we, too, are called to acknowledge Jesus as our Lord and Savior. The life and mission and suffering and death of the Messiah were foretold for us through the Old Testament prophets. In addition, we have had the preaching and the testimony of the apostles and their successors for more than 2,000 years now. We cannot claim ignorance. We cannot plead that we didn't know about God's plans for our salvation, about the ministry of Jesus, about His death and resurrection. We have had plenty of opportunity to know about Jesus and to respond to His overtures to us. Consequently, we are called to ongoing repentance and conversion so that our deficiencies in recognizing and responding to the salvation offered by the Lord Jesus can be healed and forgiven.

But we are not called just to repent and receive and respond. We are also called to proclaim the truth and the reality and the presence of the Lord Jesus. We are called, all of us, to proclaim the Lord even as the apostles did. Not all of us are deacons or priests or bishops or professional church ministers. But, thanks to the vocation we have received in baptism and confirmation, we are all called to proclaim the salvation that the Lord has won for the world.

This means giving witness to the presence and action of Jesus in our lives. It means standing up for the teachings of Jesus in a world that seems to find such teachings increasingly irrelevant. It means extending ourselves to be recognized as a follower of the Lord in a society in which the public profession of religious belief is looked upon as bad form.

We are all limited and sinful persons who need to hear the proclamation of the apostles. We are all followers of the apostles who need to carry forward their proclamation of the salvation offered by the risen Lord.

For reflection and discussion

Have I ever refused to recognize or accept Jesus, even out of ignorance?

How do I give testimony to the risen Jesus?