Thursday, 6th Week of Ordinary Time

Acts 2:22-36

Here we have before us the first Christian sermon, preached by Peter on the day of Pentecost. In the first part, Peter stresses to the Jews hearing him that the message of Christ is in continuity with the story of their relationship with the God of Israel.

First he quotes Psalm 16:8-11, then the first verse of Psalm 110. At that time, all the Psalms were attributed to King David. In Psalm 16, David speaks of his hope – our hope – that our life here on earth is not a futile struggle ending in darkness. Yet, as Peter points out, David himself died and now “slept with his fathers” (1 Kings 2:10). So, obviously this hope of a “Holy One” who would not “see corruption” could not have been for himself, but for someone more powerful than physical death.

But Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth? How could it be that this son of a carpenter from the backwater of the Promised Land did what no else, before or since, had done – conquer death? “Now Jesus has been raised by God, and of this we are all witnesses,” Peter announces. According to Paul, the risen Jesus showed himself to over 500 people (1 Corinthians 15:3-7). Here were people who had cowered in fear of the Jewish leaders and Roman soldiers. Now here they were shouting that Jesus was more powerful that they could ever hope to be. Many, if not most, chose death over denial of what they had witnessed.

And then those first witnesses handed on their testimony to new generation, and so and so on. Whatever I have to say to you today is not my wisdom, my insight, or anything of my intelligence. It is simply testimony. And so, today, we are all witnesses that God has raised Jesus from the dead, and that we have nothing to fear.