May 15

FIRST READING: Acts 2: 42 - 47 (RCL)

Acts 2:42 (NRSV) They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
43 Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. 44 All who believed were together and had all things in common; 45 they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

notes

The apostles and the Jerusalem crowd have witnessed the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Peter, on behalf of the apostles, has interpreted the event. Based on Joel, he has shown that the final age is here, and that salvation for all whom God calls and who call on him is happening now. He tells the crowd that Jesus, the Messiah, is our access point to salvation. To be saved from adverse judgement, repent and be baptised in Jesus’ name! Tell the good news to all who will hear, so that they too may have new life in Christ. Many do turn to Christ and are baptised.

The first part of Acts is made up of example stories and summaries. Our reading is the first summary; it gives us a glimpse of the very early church, of the response of the newly baptised. In accepting the good news, they whole-heartedly embrace learning about the faith, responsibility and love for fellow Christians, “breaking of bread” (an extension of Jewish festive meals to re-presentation of the Lord’s Supper) and “prayers”. God predicted through Joel that “many wonders and signs” (v. 43) would be seen in the end times; an example is Peter healing a lame man (3:1-11). In these early days, they have “all things in common” (v. 44), but a little later such sharing was not the universal rule: see 5:4. As faithful Jews, they visit the Temple daily (a forum Jesus had used) and share in the Eucharist “at home” (v. 46). As God has already increased their numbers (v. 41), so he continues to do. Later animosity developed with adherents to Judaism.


Acts 2:14 (NRSV) [On the day of Pentecost] Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them,
36 [L]et the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified."
37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, "Brothers, what should we do?" 38 Peter said to them, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him." 40 And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." 41 So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added.

Verse 42: “fellowship”: The Greek word is koinonia. See also 2 Corinthians 8:4; 9:13; Galatians 2:9-10. [NJBC]

Verse 42: “the breaking of bread”: Apparently a common meal including the Eucharist. See 1 Corinthians 11:17-34. The risen Jesus broke bread with Cleopas and another disciple at Emmaus (see Luke 24:35). This practice recalls Jesus’ practice during his lifetime with respect to breaking bread: see Luke 9:11-27 (the Feeding of the Five Thousand) and 22:14-38 (the Last Supper). In Acts, see also v. 46; 20:7, 11; 27:35. [NOAB] [NJBC]

Verses 43-47: We know that the Essenes and the Qumran community also shared everything in common. Later members of the Jerusalem church were so impoverished that Paul made a collection for them.

Verse 43: “many wonders and signs were being done”: This shows that the messianic kingdom is breaking through from the age to come into the present age. Peter quotes from Joel in v. 19. [NJBC]

Comments: a little later such sharing was not the universal rule: 5:1-5 tells of Ananias who, with his wife’s consent, sold a piece of property. Rather than contributing all the proceeds to the common purse, he withheld part.

Verse 46: “they spent much time together in the temple”: For Jesus in the Temple, see Luke 2:27, 49; 19:45; 22:53; 24:53. [NJBC]

Verse 47: “having the goodwill of all the people”: By the time of the stoning of Stephen, the people of Jerusalem had turned against the Christian community: see 7:51-52. [NJBC]

Verse 47: “the Lord added to their number ...”: In Acts, each literary unit ends with such a growth notice: see also 2:41; 4:4; 6:7; 9:31; 12:24; 19:20. [NJBC]


SECOND READING: 1 Peter 2: 19 - 25 (RCL)
1 Peter 2: 20b - 25 (Roman Catholic)

1Pet 2:19 (NRSV) For it is a credit to you if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly. 20 If you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, what credit is that? But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God's approval. 21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps.
22 "He committed no sin,
and no deceit was found in his mouth."
23 When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. 25 For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

notes


It seems that the first readers were seen as inferior socially by their pagan neighbours. The author has exhorted them to “conduct yourselves honourably” (v. 12), even when maligned (as they are), for God wills that they live blameless, ethical lives – thus inviting their neighbours to examine the Christian way. Being “servants of God” (v. 16), they are “free” from the burden of sin; they should use this freedom for good. The Greek word translated as “servants” also means slaves, so what the author says now applies equally to Christian slaves and other Christians. (The early church saw no inherent evil in slavery. All Christians were free spiritually and members of “the family of believers”, v. 17.)

“Slaves” (v. 18) are to obey their masters, whether they are considerate or “harsh”. Being beaten for wrong-doing is to be expected, but God notices when slaves endure wrongfully inflicted “pain” (v. 19). Of this, Christ is the great “example” (v. 21): accept it as he did, as predicted in Isaiah. Christians see the Servant Songs of Isaiah as predicting the events of Jesus’ life. Isaiah 53:5-9, part of the fourth Servant Song (quoted in part in vv. 22-25), foretells his suffering and death: when “abused” (v. 23) he entrusted himself to God’s care, “the one who judges justly”. Jesus carried our sins on the cross, thereby enabling us to live “free from sins” (v. 24) and to attain union with God (“righteousness”). Through Jesus’ suffering they have access to eternal life.

The addressees have turned their lives around by accepting Christ (v. 25a). The “shepherd”-flock image of God and his people is found in today’s psalm and elsewhere in the Old Testament; in the gospels, Jesus is the shepherd. In this book, the image is applied to Christian leaders and those in their care. Later the Greek word episkopos (“guardian”) came to mean bishop.

2:11-12: How Christians are seen outside the Church. See also 3:16; Titus 2:7-8; 3:1-2. [CAB] Stoic wisdom of the time exalted persons who were not driven by passions, but here such conduct is to the glory of God. [IntPet]

2:11: “aliens and exiles”: One scholar offers visiting strangers and resident aliens. By becoming Christians, they were demoted to a lower social class: see Hebrews 10:32-34. In 1 Peter, the true home of the Christian is not so much the world to come (as in Hebrews) as the Christian community: see, for example, v. 17: “Love the family of believers”. [NJBC]

2:11: “wage war”: In Romans 7:23, Paul says of himself: “I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members”. [NOAB]

2:12: “Conduct”: A favourite word in 1 Peter: see also 1:15, 17; 2:12; 3:1, 2:16. [NJBC]

2:12: “they malign you”: Christians were accused of immoralities during their secret meetings. [NOAB]

2:12: “when he comes to judge”: When God makes the innocence of the suffering faithful known. [NOAB]

2:13-17: Respect for civil authority. See also Romans 13:1-7; 1 Timothy 2:1-3; Titus 3:1-8. All civil institutions, whether good or bad, are ordained by God. [CAB] [NOAB]

2:14: “governors”: i.e. of Roman provinces. [NOAB]

2:15: In 3:15-16, the author writes: “Always be ready to make your defence to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence”. [NJBC]

2:16: NOAB suggests that the following insertions are helpful to understanding: “[Live] as servants of God, [so you can] live as free people ...” Christians should even honour those who malign them.

2:16: “live as free people”: In John 8:32, Jesus says: “the truth will make you free”. See also Matthew 17:26; Luke 4:18-31; Romans 8:2; 1 Corinthians 7:22; 2 Corinthians 3:17; Galatians 5:1. [NJBC]

2:17: “Fear God. ...”: An adaptation of Proverbs 24:21. In Matthew 22:21, Jesus tells some Pharisees: “‘Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s’”. In Romans 13:6-7, Paul writes: “For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants, busy with this very thing. Pay to all what is due them - taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honour to whom honour is due”. [NOAB] [NJBC]

2:18-3:7: A section on the obligations of Christians. Guidelines are given for the behaviour of three groups: slaves (2:18-25), wives (3:1-6) and husbands (3:7). For other similar household codes, see Ephesians 5:22-6:9; Colossians 3:18-4:1; 1 Timothy 6:1-2; Titus 2:9-10. While the passages in Ephesians and Colossians contain instructions to both the inferior and superior members of the household, here masters are not addressed at all and husbands are addressed with the short form typical of household codes (in 3:7). [NOAB] [NJBC] [CAB] IntPet notes that only those who are dependent on superiors (slaves and women) are addressed; he suggests that the masters and husbands here were pagans.

2:18: “accept the authority ... with all deference”: IntPet suggests that in all fear is a better translation, that this describes the slaves’ individual relationships to God rather than to their masters.

2:19: “a credit”: The Greek word, charis, elsewhere in 1 Peter means “grace” (in 1:2) and “salvation” (in 1:10, 13). Charis is connected with God’s gift of salvation. [IntPet]

2:19: “aware of”: i.e. conscious of. [NJBC]

2:20: “approval”: Again the Greek word is charis. [IntPet]

2:21-25: This seems to be part of an early Christian hymn. [NJBC]

2:21: The quotation is from the Septuagint translation of Isaiah 53:9b. “Sin” has been substituted for lawlessness, thus tying this quotation with the allusion to Isaiah 53:4, 12b in v. 24, “he ... bore our sins”. [IntPet]

2:23: See Mark 15:29-32 (Jesus on the Cross); 14:65; Luke 23:11, 36-37; John 19:1-5. [CAB] This verse reformulates Isaiah 53:9 so that the example can be applied directly to the experiences of persecuted Christians. [IntPet]

2:24: “bore our sins”: In Isaiah 53:4, a verse in the fourth Servant Song, we read “Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted”. See also Hebrews 9:28. [CAB] [NJBC]

2:24: “cross”: Literally tree. Tree or wood is a very early Christian term for the cross: see Acts 5:30 (“Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree”); 10:39; 13:29; Galatians 3:13. [NJBC]

2:24: “free from sins ...”: The REB offers “we might cease to live for sin and begin to live for righteousness”

2:25: The suffering servant, vindicated by God in the Resurrection, becomes the Good Shepherd. Ezekiel 34:5-16, a passage that promises that God will shepherd the neglected sheep underlies the transition from straying sheep to the injunction to return to the shepherd. [IntPet]

2:25: “guardian”: The Greek word, episkopos, also occurs in 5:2-4 and Acts 20:28, where it is translated as “oversight” and “overseers” respectively. [NJBC]




GOSPEL: John 10: 1 - 10

John 10:1 (NRSV) "Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers." 6 Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.
7 So again Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.


notes


In Chapter 9, Jesus has raised the ire of some religious leaders by giving sight to a blind man on the Sabbath. Some of them have heard Jesus say “‘I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind’” (9:39). Some have asked him, “‘Surely we are not blind, are we?’” (9:40), to which he has replied. “‘If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.’” (9:41) Thinking themselves worthy makes them unworthy in God’s eyes.

Now Jesus uses a metaphor to expand on his point (but no metaphor works perfectly). In Palestine, sheep belonging to villagers roamed freely during the day but were confined to a common enclosure at night, to protect them from predators. Each morning, each shepherd called his sheep who followed him to pasture.

While “this figure of speech” (v. 6) is hard for us to understand in detail (as it was for those who heard Jesus), we can get the drift. So irate does the metaphor make the leaders that they try to stone him (in v. 31) and, in v. 40, Jesus flees across the Jordan. As he explains (v. 7), he is the “gate” of v. 2, so presumably the thieves and bandits are the Jewish religious leaders. Jesus, both the “gatekeeper” (v. 3) and the “shepherd” (v. 2) is the true leader. He calls the faithful to follow him (v. 4); they don’t follow a “stranger” (v. 5). The people listen to him and not to the “Pharisees” (9:40), “all who came before me” (v. 8). He is the only “gate” (v. 9) to eternal “life” (v. 10), to freedom (“come in and go out”, v. 9, a Jewish idiom), and to nourishment beyond measure (“find pasture ... abundantly”).


The division between Chapter 9 and Chapter 10 is unfortunate. (Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, who died in 1208, is credited with dividing the Bible into chapters.)

This chapter is difficult to understand partly because Jesus switches metaphor several times, a practice which was common in his time and for centuries after, but which is frowned on (to say the least!) today.

Verses 1-10: There is a selection of shepherds (leaders) here and also one of sheep (followers).

Verse 1: “climbs in”: No metaphor is perfect!

Verse 2: “shepherd”: Jesus may mean either the leader of the community or himself. If the latter, he shifts metaphor between v. 2 and v. 3. Both the shepherd and the gatekeeper/gate protect. The metaphor definitely shifts in v. 11ff to Jesus as the shepherd.

Verse 6: “figure of speech”: The Greek word is paroimia, meaning metaphor, parable, proverb, or enigmatic or fictitious illustration. The REB translates the word as parable. In spite of Jesus’ explanation (vv. 7-8), it is hard to understand, and has been interpreted in various ways.

Verses 7-10: A quotation from BlkJn (adapted to the NRSV translation) is an attempt to help in understanding this passage:

If the “gate of the sheep” here represents accurately what Jesus said, then ... [vv. 7-10] are in an almost intolerable state of confusion. But if the suggestion is adopted that in an Aramaic original the accidental repetition of one letter (a tau) has caused the shepherd to be read as “the gate”, then verses 7 and 8 give an interpretation consistent with the original parable, and the allegory does not begin until verse 9.

This suggestion does depend on a lot of conjecture. It assumes first that there was an Aramaic original, second that it got corrupted, third that it was translated into Greek from one who was working from text and not oral tradition, fourth that the translator did not pick up on the error and fifth that there is still an allegory about an entrance further down. Note that, as we have the text, “I am the gate” occurs twice: in v. 7 and v. 9. We have no fragments of the gospels in Aramaic other than translations from the Greek.

Verse 7: “I am the gate”: i.e. I determine who is admitted to the community.

Verse 8: “All who came before me”: Some scholars understand this to mean messianic pretenders; however, for this to be the case, Chapter 10 would need to be a separate unit from Chapter 9.

BlkJn sees the “thieves and bandits” as pseudo-Messiahs. He says “this is indicated by the absolute use of came, i.e. claiming to be the coming one”. Grouping thieves and bandits with pseudo-Messiahs fits with the first-century Jewish historian Josephus’ view that there are four philosophies of which this group, which includes revolutionaries, is the fourth. (The other three are the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Essenes.) Recall that Jesus was crucified with thieves and bandits.

But I think that this does not take the context into account. How can we account both for the previous discussion with the Pharisees, and their subsequent reaction? They are not thieves and bandits, nor are they false Messiahs. Rather they are good, upstanding, moral, respectable religious leaders. Why would they be so upset at Jesus for this Good Shepherd metaphor/allegory? Or are the Pharisees the hired hands of v. 12?

Verse 9: “will be saved”: i.e. will escape from the perils of having gone against God’s ways.

Jesus fulfils Old Testament promises that God will himself come to shepherd his people: see Isaiah 40:11 (“He will feed his flock like a shepherd”); Jeremiah 23:1-6; Ezekiel 34 (especially v. 11: “thus says the Lord GOD: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out”).



© 1996-2003 Chris Haslam