Thursday of Week 2 of Easter – Gospel

Commentary on John 3:31-36

In rather abstract language, the Gospel today contrasts Jesus with those who see the world with purely worldly eyes. Jesus is the One who comes “from above”, although he lives in the world. The “one who is of the earth” can mean any of us, but here seems to refer to John the Baptist, who spoke of “earthly things” in the sense that he spoke simply as a human being, as opposed to Jesus as the Word.

But the “one who comes from heaven” is above all and:

He testifies to what he has seen and heard, yet no one accepts his testimony.

What Jesus has seen and heard comes through direct communication with his Father.

But “no one accepts his testimony”. This does not mean literally every single person (obviously not true), but all those who are entirely immersed in this material world. Yet there are some who do listen and who do accept what Jesus is saying, and they know that what God says is trustworthy. When anyone fully accepts Christ’s witness, he accepts that Jesus is truly from God and that God acted (and continues to act) through him for the establishment of the Kingdom and the salvation of the world. For:

He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure.

He is the Word of God. But the sentence can be understood to apply to everyone who has consciously become a disciple and Apostle for Jesus and his message. Jesus is the Light of the world, but his followers are also called to be the light of the world (Matt 5:14).

The Son, Jesus, is the perfect image of the Father, and shares generously with us what he has received from his Father. Life without end awaits all those who believe in the Son, who believe his words and accept them as their way of life.

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life but must endure God’s wrath.

Notice that one who believes “has” eternal life. Eternal life begins now with the response of faith.

We must not think that God takes vengeance on those who disobey Jesus. God can never be angry in our normal sense of the word. But rather, those who choose to go another way, the way of darkness and evil, can only expect to meet death. They are the victims, not of God’s anger, but of their own determination to live in darkness. Let us remember that with God’s help, the choice is ours to make.

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Thursday of Week 2 of Easter – First Reading

Commentary on Acts 5:27-33

After having been miraculously released from jail and returned to the Temple to continue their preaching in the name of Jesus, the Apostles were re-arrested and brought again before the 71-member Sanhedrin, the ruling council of the Jews.

They were accused of two things:

• They had continued to preach in “this name” (their accusers could not bring themselves even to mention the name of Jesus) all over Jerusalem, even though they had been strictly forbidden to do so;
• They were blaming the Jewish leadership for Jesus’ death (although we do need to remember that the Apostles were themselves all devoutly religious Jews whose Lord and Saviour was also a Jew).

The Apostles were not in the least fazed by these accusations.  The men who were so fearful at the time of Jesus’ death, and immediately after, now spoke out boldly. They told their judges:

We must obey God rather than any human authority. The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree.

Their accusers were undoubtedly accomplices in the death of Jesus; their motives a mixture of religious narrow-mindedness and political self-interest.  But the Apostles believed that Jesus was now in glory as Ruler and Saviour:

God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior that he might give repentance to Israel [i.e. all their fellow-Jews] and forgiveness of sins.

The title they give to Jesus corresponds to ‘Prince and Redeemer’. It was applied to Moses (as a prefiguring of Christ) by Stephen in his address to the Sanhedrin, where he said that Moses too was rejected by his people (Acts 7:35).  There is an implicit comparison here of Jesus with Moses, something that the Apostles’ judges would certainly not have liked.

But the Apostles were witnesses to all that they were saying.  They could not say or do otherwise, no matter what others might tell them.  And the Holy Spirit was with them.  Their testimony was directed and confirmed by the:

…Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.

It reminds one of Thomas More in England who refused to recognise King Henry VIII as head of the Church in England. More said, “The king’s good servant, but God’s first.”  For refusing to compromise his faith and integrity, he lost his life.  For Thomas More, too, there was no other choice. And there have been many others like him down the ages.  Many Christians today languish in jails and camps for no other reason.

Not surprisingly, the stance of the Apostles infuriated their judges who wanted them put to death for what seemed blasphemous language. Tomorrow we will see the completion of this story.

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