Episcopal Church of the
Incarnation
The Second Sunday of Easter Day (Year B)
Acts
4.32-35 Psalm
133 1 John
1.1-2.2 John 20.19-31
Acts 4.32-35
1) Chs.
4 and 5 in Acts focus on the life an trials of the apostolic Church in
a) In this selection Luke generalizes from specific cases to make the point that the needs of all persons were met in community.
b) Offerings are made by believers to the common good, with these offerings being made by free will.
2) The apostles testify “with great power” to the resurrection of Jesus. The speak with the conviction of actual witnesses (cf. 1 Cor. 15.1-11).
a) The power manifested in testimony is also a manifestation of Jesus’ presence with the apostles, and the fact that the Spirit has descended upon them.
3) Luke does not describe a “communistic” early Church. Luke has earlier (Luke 14.33) quoted Jesus as calling for complete divestiture, but he here makes it clear that divestiture is an act of free will, and is made on the basis of need in others (“... and distribution was to each as any had need,” Acts 4.35).
Psalm 133
1) This psalm is a pilgrimage psalm, recalling the blessings upon Zion. (See Ps. 132.)
a) What is good an pleasant is not so much the comradeship of worshippers as the place (or festival) where they are gathered.
i) Oil and dew are symbolic of refreshment in the hot climate of Palestine.
1 John 1.1-2.2
1) The letters of John are probably much later than the gospel, and reflect the fact that the Johannine community has fractured, with the letters being written to keep belief consonant in community and with the message of the gospel.
2) The gospel began “In the beginning ..., “describing the pre-existent Word. In the letter, John now makes the “beginning” the beginning of the human experience of the Word, as that which “we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands ..”
a) John is making the point that God is not just “spirit,” but has come to us in a very real way, allowing us to experience Him directly.
b) John is also refuting the Docetic heresy that Jesus only appeared to be human, but was in spirit only.
i) As testified here, and in the post-resurrection appearances in the gospels, Jesus had a very real body.
3) The Johannine theme of light and darkness is developed and made personal.
a) God is light, and if, therefore, we say that we have fellowship with God but walk in darkness, then we speak falsely, of false experience.
b) Those who live according to God’s commandments walk in the light; those who disobey His commandments walk in the darkness.
i) Compare Jesus speaking in John’s gospel (14.15, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments ...,” and 14.21, “He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me ...”)
c) Believers must free their lives from sin in order to have fellowship with God. God will grant believers the power to free themselves.
John 20.19-31
1) All four Gospel accounts of the resurrection report of the women finding the tomb empty.
a) John corroborates many of the details contained in the other Gospel accounts:
i) The tomb is found empty.
ii) The emptiness of the tomb is confirmed by Peter.
iii) Jesus appears, risen, to His disciples.
2) The appearance of Jesus to the disciples here follows His appearance to Mary Magdalene in the garden.
a) The promises of Jesus’ return are fulfilled in the “hour” of His exaltation/glorification (cf. Luke 24.36-43, 47-48).
b) The disciples’ joy fulfills the promises of renewed joy.
c) He shows the disciples His hands and side to confirm that He is the risen One.
i) The resurrection is of the body; Jesus was not, as a man, a mere appearance, and as the risen One, He is not a mere appearance.
(1) This passage specifically refutes the heresy of “Docetism” (the word is derived from the Greek verb dokein, “to appear, or seem”), which argued that Jesus was spirit only and not flesh.
3) “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20.22): Earlier in John, the Spirit is characterized as divine indwelling (14.17), which flows from the exalted Jesus as a source of eternal life (7.39).
a) The word for spirit, pneuma, is the same as that for breath or wind.
b) In Luke, the Spirit is received at Pentecost (Acts 2), commissioning the disciples as witnesses.
c) The power of forgiveness here described is not limited to the named disciples, since John refers to the disciples in general.
i) The power is granted to the believing community as a whole. This power is the bestowing of forgiveness on those who believe as a result of the witness of the believing community.
4) Thomas’ confession of the Lord reflect the “highest” Christology found in the Gospels. Elsewhere, Jesus is referred to by titles which include “Lord,” “Son of Man,” “Judge,” “Teacher or Master,” even “Son [of the Father],” and is equated with the Father as “one,” but Thomas here makes a very explicit statement: “My Lord and my God!”
a) Again, Jesus’ physical reality, the reality of His risen body, is emphasized.
b) Jesus concludes this encounter with a blessing (v. 31): Those Christians who believe without having seen have the same faith as those disciples who saw.
i) Their faith is grounded in the Lord through the presence of the Holy Spirit.