C218 Easter Sunday

[00:00:05] Speaker A: You're listening to by the well, a lectionary based podcast preaches recorded on the land of the Wurundjeri people. Happy Easter. Christ is Risen. I'm Robyn Whittaker and you're listening to the Easter Sunday episode. And I'm here with our special guest host who will be with us for much of the Easter season, Dorothy Lee. Welcome, Dorothy. [00:00:32] Speaker B: Thank you, Robyn. Lovely to be here. [00:00:34] Speaker A: For those of you who don't know Dorothy, she's an Anglican priest, professor emeritus of New Testament Theology in the University of Divinity and still teaching particularly John's Gospel, amongst other things, at the Trinity Theological School here in Melbourne. So wonderful to have you here. Dorothy and I are going to be talking about lots of the John and Revelation passages in the weeks ahead, but today we're going to talk about just three of the many reading options you have for Easter Sunday. We're going to talk about Luke 24, 1:12, and then we'll go to the other Gospel choice, which is John, chapter 20, verses 1 to 18. And lastly Acts 10:34, 43, with brief mentions of the others as they crop up. But those are our foci this morning. So, Dorothy, let's start with Luke 24. And it's worth saying at the outset, both Luke 24 and John 20 give us some of our most extended resurrection appearances, although they're very different and are possibly doing different things. [00:01:40] Speaker C: Yes. [00:01:41] Speaker A: So what do we need to know about Luke 24 as we get into that? [00:01:44] Speaker B: Well, we need, I think we probably need to know that Luke is basing his story on Mark 16:8, but he's going in a very different direction, as Matthew does as well, of course, from the way that Mark goes. And so it's a more extensive story in some ways, but it also has some other very interesting elements in it. One of those would be the theme of remembering. [00:02:13] Speaker A: Yes. [00:02:14] Speaker B: And the theme of faithful witnesses. And this group of women whom Luke Describes in verse 10, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary, the mother of James, and the other women. These are the Galilean women disciples who Luke tells us in chapter eight followed Jesus and ministered to him and to and to others, and bankrolled the whole Jesus movement. So these are really important women for Luke. And this is a large group of women that we have here who have faithfully believed the message of the resurrection. [00:02:54] Speaker A: Often when we think of art of the resurrection, we're used to seeing perhaps three women. [00:02:58] Speaker C: Yes. [00:02:58] Speaker A: And we have three named here, although we get slightly different names in the different Synoptic gospels. [00:03:03] Speaker B: Yes. [00:03:04] Speaker A: But the fact that Luke includes and the other women suggests we've, we've got at least five or six or seven, maybe 10. Yes, absolutely. So imagine here as you're, you know, I think one of the roles of preachers on Easter morning is to try and capture some of the emotion, the anxiety, the excitement, the drama of these resurrection stories. So as you're doing that, imagine potentially a whole group of women. [00:03:30] Speaker C: Yes. [00:03:31] Speaker A: And what posture they might be coming to this tomb in. Early dawn. So early dawn, it's still kind of dark. [00:03:39] Speaker C: Yes. [00:03:40] Speaker A: So they're coming in the dark. They've brought their spices, they're prepared. And why would women go to a tomb? What do we think they're doing? [00:03:50] Speaker B: Well, I think mourning in particular was, was the responsibility of women. It was kind of women's work. And, and to bring the spices as a way of honoring the dead. Interestingly, at the end of Luke 23, he says that they rested according to the commandment, the holy women. So they're, they're pious women, they're law abiding women. They, they love the Torah, they follow it, they're faithful to it, and, and they're carrying out their obligation, their sacred obligation to mourn, to care for the dead and to show reverence and honor for the dead. [00:04:25] Speaker A: Yeah. And Mark's gospel does use the word of anointing the body. Luke doesn't have that detail in there. But, but the, the preparation and the bringing of spices is implying all of that. As you say, women's work. The common theme in all of these stories is the discovery that a stone's rolled away. [00:04:44] Speaker C: Yes. [00:04:46] Speaker A: And the lack of a body. And I think we get our first hint of emotion in, in verse. The women are perplexed, puzzled, troubled maybe, you know, the fact they've come prepared. We need to remember they're not ready for a resurrection. [00:05:06] Speaker B: No, they're not. [00:05:07] Speaker A: That's not to cast any disparaging remarks about their faith, but they're coming expecting a body. So we're going to get that expectation massively disrupted. [00:05:18] Speaker B: Yes, that's right. That's right. So they don't find the body. So that means that already in Luke, as, as in the other gospels, they're witnesses to the death of Jesus, to the burial of Jesus and now to the emptiness of the tomb. So. [00:05:32] Speaker A: Yes. [00:05:33] Speaker B: So they're kind of witnesses to those triple events. [00:05:36] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm just going through the narrative here. We've got men who appear in this dazzling attire and I'm just checking my Greek across the page here. So this sort of. We'll get in. Mark. It's very clearly a young man. [00:05:57] Speaker C: Yes. [00:05:57] Speaker A: Here maybe a bit more ambiguous, but I'm just looking. I don't think the word Angelos is actually used. [00:06:04] Speaker B: No, no. [00:06:05] Speaker A: So I think that's. Yeah. So it's dazzling. Men. And this question, which is particular to Luke, of why do you seek the living among the dead? [00:06:17] Speaker C: Yes. [00:06:19] Speaker A: And then this. Remember. So I want to hand over to you now, Dorothy, tell us about the remembering. Well, what's the significance? In verse 6 of this dialogue that follows the. [00:06:31] Speaker B: Well, the Synoptic gospels have at their center a long journey to Jerusalem. And on that journey, Jesus proclaims his coming. Death and passion and death and resurrection. And. And there's the disciples struggle with it. All the disciples. And there's a large crowd of disciples in Luke struggle with that. [00:06:52] Speaker C: The. [00:06:52] Speaker B: The meaning of that message. And what we have here is. Is a reminder to the disciples of things that Jesus actually said to these three plus disciples. And they remember straight away they go. Yes. And it goes click for them. So it's a moment of, you know, you talked about the emotions of the women. They're perplexed. They're rather overwhelmed with the emptiness of the tomb. And the two. These two shimmering figures who appear to them and ask them that question which suggests that they're looking in the wrong place. [00:07:23] Speaker A: Yes. [00:07:24] Speaker B: And saying, remember. And then it says straight away, Luke says they remembered. They remembered his words. And remembering leads them to action. They immediately run back to tell this to the 11 and all the rest. And Luke then names three of them. And the conclusion is these words seem to them, that is to say, the 11 and the other disciples, an idle tale. They did not believe them. So they're not believed. [00:07:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:07:51] Speaker B: So it's an extraordinary. I mean, you know, you talk about the emotions. You know, it's kind of up, down, up and down, up and down. They come faithful to do this job. They're appalled to find the stone is gone, that the body is gone. They're even more appalled to find these two angels, as we would say. And then they're given this resurrection message, which turns them on their heads. It. It's. They suddenly remember, they're full of joy. They run back to tell. And then they're not believed. [00:08:20] Speaker A: No. [00:08:20] Speaker B: So where are they left at the end of this? [00:08:22] Speaker A: I know. And of course, Mark's Gospel famously just has the women running away and we're left. Luke will go on in the story. But yeah, I just. Luke does like to compare characters and the way he tells stories. And I can't help but think we're supposed to see a, a kind of an upside down, paradoxical response here in the fact that the women, when prompted, do remember immediately. [00:08:47] Speaker C: Yes. [00:08:48] Speaker A: And the men, when told, dismiss it. [00:08:51] Speaker B: Yes. [00:08:53] Speaker A: And, and so there is something here about the faithfulness of the women. Even though they have, you know, they've not come yet expecting a resurrection, but when confronting with it, with this proclamation, why, look you looking for the living among the dead and reminded of Jesus teaching, they do actually respond with enormous faithfulness. [00:09:12] Speaker B: Yeah. And openness to faith. I mean, they come, they don't believe in the resurrection, yet they're forgotten. And there's a lot about forgetting and remembering that's really important. I think in this. They've forgotten, they're reminded, they remember, and that transforms their lives. [00:09:30] Speaker A: And then they preach, they told this, they announced this right. To the rest. So they witness. It's not the witnessing word used here technically, but they tell, you know, which, which we'll see when we get to the Acts reading. This is the basis, basis of early Christian proclamation is people tell and they witness to the death and resurrection of Christ that, that forms the absolute, essential, central teaching of this early Christian proclamation. [00:09:56] Speaker B: Yeah, it's, it's, it's the. One of the key roles of the church. [00:10:00] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:10:00] Speaker B: To bear witness. And that's what they do. [00:10:03] Speaker A: So how, before we move on to John, how. What would you preach out of this? Because I'm struck if we, Depending where we end the reading, we could either end in verse 11 that the men did not believe them, which doesn't seem a particularly positive place to end on Easter morning. And of course, verse 12 then has this aside, but Peter rose and ran to the tomb. [00:10:29] Speaker B: There's, there's also a textual problem with that verse, isn't it? [00:10:32] Speaker A: I know, it might be a later addition, right? Yes. [00:10:34] Speaker B: It could be someone saying, oops, we can't have all the males not believing. Let's put Peter in. [00:10:40] Speaker A: But yes, we need one faithful male and, and given Peter became a prominent leader in the early Christian movement, we better make Peter look faithful here. Yes. So, you know, maybe don't base your entire sermon on verse 12. You're on shaky ground. But what, yeah. What would you, what would you preach? Would you draw out this remembering theme? [00:11:03] Speaker B: I think the remembering theme would be the just how, how easily we forget, how we forget our own faith. We forget the central message when we become despondent at the state of the church. And let's face it, it's easy to become despondent. Whatever church we're in, we forget that, in fact, at the heart of our faith is the resurrection and the promise of the resurrection and hope and new life and God's action. And so, given that we are such a forgetful people, these women are wonderful models of how we need to remember and how we need to keep proclaiming that message. We need to follow their footsteps and be faithful witnesses as they are. And that we actually need to remember. And that, I think, is not just about the central message of our faith. It's also when we analyze what's going on in the world around us and we see so much forgetting, so much forgetfulness, where people actually replaying scenarios from the past that we thought we'd learned from. [00:12:09] Speaker A: Yes. [00:12:10] Speaker B: Inflicting violence when you've been the recipient of violence, and yet then you're inflicting it on others. You know, that's an example of how dangerous. Dangerous forgetting is. Yeah, very dangerous it is. And how important remembering is for all of us, for our lives in every respect. [00:12:27] Speaker A: Yeah, I. I agree that remembering and telling the story and, and of course, to remember, you need to. To talk about it and to know it like, you know, so even as Christians, to know our own story, to. To remember, you know, the essential things, but also our experiences, because we all go through just at a very spiritual level in our own faith. We go through periods of sort of spiritual abundance and sometimes periods of spiritual dryness. [00:12:55] Speaker C: Yes. [00:12:56] Speaker A: And so to remember those experiences that have been profound for us to actually. [00:13:00] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:13:00] Speaker A: You know, so for me, the Luke version of, you know, this Luke 24 passage does have this provocative stuff in it. The remembering is one of them. This question, why do you look for the living among the dead? Sits with me. [00:13:16] Speaker C: Yes. [00:13:17] Speaker A: And Easter Sunday is a funny Sunday to preach because you often do have visitors in church. But I think if I was preaching to a congregation that, you know, was perhaps remote or you don't often have a lot of visitors, that there is something in this question, too. The church, I think, often holds onto the places of death. [00:13:38] Speaker C: Yes. [00:13:39] Speaker A: So why. Why are you looking for the living among the dead? And we're not always very good, particularly now when we do missioning and strategic planning and all of that, of actually looking for where the life is. [00:13:48] Speaker B: Yes, that's right. We look in the wrong places. [00:13:51] Speaker A: Yeah. So part of the remembering for me is also the looking forward to where is the living one? [00:13:57] Speaker C: Yes. [00:13:58] Speaker A: Moving. Where is the life? [00:13:59] Speaker B: Yes, that's right. [00:14:00] Speaker A: And let's not spend all our Energy and time in the places of death. [00:14:04] Speaker B: Yes. [00:14:04] Speaker A: Because we. Because they're familiar or safe or something like, you know, this is pushing us out of the tomb into absolutely new, unknown territory. And how could that be part of the promise of resurrection? [00:14:15] Speaker B: I like the way you've linked the seeking, the living and to the remembering. [00:14:21] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:14:22] Speaker B: You know that those two things actually belong together. [00:14:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:14:25] Speaker B: It's not remembering death, it's remembering life and the promise of life and the hope of life. [00:14:36] Speaker A: Well, should we move to John 20? [00:14:37] Speaker B: Yes. [00:14:38] Speaker A: Which I think is doing something completely different. But you're the proper Johannine scholar here. Dorothy. Dorothy. So you can correct me at any point. I think when preachers get to John 20, we have to not remember, as in we need to bracket out the resurrection story. We think we know. [00:14:58] Speaker C: Yes. [00:14:58] Speaker A: Because we're going to get a whole lot of different things starting right there in verse one, with Mary Magdalene alone coming to the tomb. [00:15:10] Speaker C: Yes. [00:15:11] Speaker A: So we. It's a very different story. And it's centered on the. The figure of Mary Magdalene, not a whole group of women. And even though it's probably meaning the same thing, John actually writes while it was still dark. [00:15:23] Speaker C: Yes. [00:15:24] Speaker B: It's explicit. [00:15:25] Speaker A: So the darkness, he. I mean, John we know is all about the symbolism. The darkness is very clear. We're going to move from kind of this darkness into light as one of the movements here. Um, and again, we have the stone rolled away and. And her reaction to this is to run. She runs and tells, but it's a very different. You know, I was struck with the emotion. Again, I've been trying to be attentive to the emotions in texts at the moment. And, you know, her claim here is to go and tell the disciples, but it's not a resurrection. I mean, she'll. She'll get there eventually. But at this point, it's not a testimony of resurrection. It's. They have taken the Lord out of the tomb. Like, it's a worry that someone's stolen his body and potentially desecrated it. Right. It's almost a double death. We're still in this. You know, what have they done to Jesus now? Like, the worst thing in the world was crucifying him, and now they've taken his body. [00:16:24] Speaker C: Yes. [00:16:25] Speaker B: Yeah. In a culture where burial was so important, was such a sacred obligation. Right. Across the ancient world, the Jewish, the Greco Roman world, burial was. Was a holy obligation. [00:16:40] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right. And to not be buried, I mean, even today, still, there's often additional trauma when you don't have A body to bury after war. We saw that, you know, where you can't recover a body, you don't have a sense of someone's in this resting place. It can add to people's grief. [00:16:58] Speaker B: Yes, absolutely. It's interesting that the ancient world does have a story about someone who desecrated a body. And that is in the Iliad where Achilles desecrates the body of Hector, who's killed his beloved friend, and he drags the body round the walls and the story is not resolved until he's prepared to give back the body so that it can be honoured and buried. And it's shocking what he does. It's all out of his rage that he desecrates the body. Something that's really shocking. So she's probably, as John portrays her, she's probably shocked and horrified and as well as distraught. [00:17:38] Speaker A: Yes. That someone's taken the body of someone she's come to. To visit. So a different dynamic here right at the beginning. We don't have an idol tale, we don't have any of those dynamics we've just talked about in Luke. What do we have? What do you want to highlight in this John 20 passage? [00:17:55] Speaker B: Well, I mean, I want to keep the focus on Mary and I think we very easily move to Peter and the other disciple and, and put the focus on them. And in fact, in the common lectionary, I believe the reading was only the first 10 verses. Whereas what we have here is a kind of sandwich. It's not a mark and sandwich, but it's a Johannine sandwich where we have Mary Magdalene first verses one to two. And then she's picked up again in verse 11, her story to verse 18. And in the middle you have this story of two, the two other disciples coming to the tomb. She's turned to them for help. They are no help at all. They are useless. I mean, and, and yet, and yet there's this hint that the beloved disciple has perhaps seen something and somehow may have believed the other disciple. Verse 8 comes first to the tomb. He saw. He believed. What did he believe? [00:18:52] Speaker A: Yes, what did he believe? That the body had gone or that. [00:18:54] Speaker B: It had been risen, or is there some inkling? But if there is, why does John then go on to say they didn't understand the Scriptures? [00:19:02] Speaker A: I know, it's a very confusing verse that. [00:19:04] Speaker B: Very confusing. And he doesn't say anything either to Peter or to Mary Magdalene. [00:19:10] Speaker A: Yes. He's silent. [00:19:11] Speaker B: She's left for the first time weeping in verse eight. [00:19:15] Speaker A: Yep. [00:19:15] Speaker B: I like to think that that weeping might not Just be grief, but also frustration. [00:19:20] Speaker A: Frustration with the men. Yeah. So, I mean, maybe you are listening to two women here, but maybe let's stick with Mary Magdalene because we can get a bit distracted, too, by the strange competitive running that is Peter and the beloved disciple, you know, the disciple whom Jesus loved, that they run and then one holds back and lets Peter go in first. So again, we've got a tradition here of needing to elevate the status of Peter as the one first going into. [00:19:46] Speaker B: The tomb, and yet at the same time, saying the beloved disciple was just a little. A little bit better than yes. [00:19:51] Speaker A: You know, because he might have believed first. Yes. Yes. And yet Mary was there before all of them. So. Yes. So if we return to mary in verse 11, I mean, again, the emotion here, the word, the reference to her weeping. There's about four of them. You know, she's weeping. She wept. She's asked why she weeps. It's a very strong. You know, and I don't think at first we should think of these as joyful tears. This is a distraught woman. [00:20:17] Speaker B: Yes, absolutely. [00:20:20] Speaker A: And we haven't a more clearly named two angels this time. John does use the word Angelos here for. For the angels. The question here is different. It's actually about her. It's not, you know, why are you looking for the living among the dead? It's why are you weeping? [00:20:37] Speaker B: Yes. And that's their only role, at least, apparently, their only role is to ask that question. They don't give the message of the resurrection. [00:20:43] Speaker A: No. They don't answer or point her in any direction at this point. Yep. [00:20:47] Speaker B: But I think what is significant, though, is perhaps their stance, that they're sitting at either end of the tomb and that might recall the Ark of the Covenant. We have the two cherubim at either side of that empty space in the middle. [00:21:00] Speaker A: Well, that's nice. I haven't thought of that. [00:21:02] Speaker B: Well, I hadn't originally thought of it. I read it first in Rowan Williams, although I think it may be older, an older view than Rowan's. [00:21:10] Speaker A: I'm not sure about that. [00:21:10] Speaker B: But it's a wonderful image. Yes. That the. The holy table, the altar that we have. We put a candle either side. And to think of it as representing. [00:21:20] Speaker A: Those two angels, those two angels guarding the kind of holy place of God. [00:21:24] Speaker B: Which is also an empty space. [00:21:26] Speaker A: Yes. [00:21:27] Speaker B: You know. [00:21:28] Speaker A: Yeah, I like that. What else do we need to say here about Mary? [00:21:35] Speaker B: Well, she. Like a typical Johannine character. She. She. She's. There's misunderstanding on her part. And I mean, she she's obviously a faithful disciple of Jesus. There's no question of that. [00:21:49] Speaker A: As. [00:21:49] Speaker B: As with the. The women in. Women disciples in Luke 24. But. But she has a journey to. To make. And. And first of all, she. I mean, it's very interesting that you've got the angels there at all, because they're not there. Not apparently when Peter and the beloved disciple there. Yes. [00:22:09] Speaker A: No. So there's no record that the men saw angels. The angels have since come. [00:22:14] Speaker B: Yeah. I don't know whether. [00:22:15] Speaker A: And they engage Mary. Yeah. [00:22:17] Speaker B: I think John's putting together more than one story here, but I think what happens is she then sees Jesus. She fails to recognize him. Now, that's a common theme in the resurrection story. [00:22:26] Speaker A: Yes. [00:22:27] Speaker B: Of people. Not. There's something different about Jesus, and it's only one thing that helps her to recognize him, and that's him saying him, naming her Mariam. Mary, he says. And she immediately turns to him, but she's still not come to full faith because she's holding on to him. Do not touch me. Has got an ongoing sense. Do not go on touching me. Perhaps we might translate it because I've not yet ascended. And then I think the NRSV u E does a very bad thing. It says, go to my brothers. Now, the word adelphoi in Greek, depending on the context, can be refer to male persons or it can be a generic brothers and sisters, as we often translated elsewhere. [00:23:13] Speaker A: Yep. [00:23:14] Speaker B: But here the translators have chosen to leave it as brothers, so they're assuming the 12 or the 11. And yet John never mentions the word apostle. And. And apostles are not really major theme of this Gospel at all. So. So it really ought to be, I'm ascending, Go and tell my brothers and sisters and say to them. So she needs to understand that his risen presence is not to be his final presence with her, at least not. Not for now. That his presence with her will be through the Holy Spirit, who's given in the very next scene. [00:23:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:23:48] Speaker B: And. And that. And so Mary Magdalene immediately believes she comes to full Easter faith. She knows what's going on, and she gives the Easter message. I have seen the Lord. [00:23:59] Speaker A: Yes. Which, again, looking ahead to next week, we're going to hear the exact same phrase. And it's grammatically the same, just in the plural. The male disciples will next week say, we have seen the Lord. We've seen the Lord. But here she is the first. She's the first. And it's why Jurgen Maltman talked about women being the first preachers of the Resurrection, because Mary is the first one here to proclaim, I have seen the Lord. [00:24:21] Speaker B: And even the early church gave Mary, or at least it's. Well, I think at least Mary Magdalene the title of apostle of the Apostles. Yeah. I think the early church thought she's the same as Mary Bethany. So. So Martha's given the same title as, well, Apostles of the Apostles. But. But that title is. Is given at least to Mary Magdalene, Apostle of the apostles. [00:24:44] Speaker A: Yeah. Yep. So, I mean, I'm not suggesting you would do this all in an Easter Sunday sermon, but by. By putting these two possible gospel texts along side by side, you can see there's. There's quite a different focus. [00:24:58] Speaker C: Yes. [00:24:59] Speaker A: Although we do have some similarities. We do have the women in Luke's case and Mary both testifying. [00:25:05] Speaker C: Yes. [00:25:06] Speaker A: So they're on the basis of remembering words here in John's Gospel, we get this association of seeing and believing, of sight, which will get disrupted, but. [00:25:16] Speaker B: Which will get disruptive. Yeah. But also I think there's another feature here, and that is that Mary shows herself to be one of the. The sheep of the good shepherd. [00:25:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:25:26] Speaker B: Because she. He. She recognized. He knows her name. He calls her by name. [00:25:30] Speaker A: He calls her by name. [00:25:31] Speaker B: Overtones of the good shepherd here and. And her being one of the flock and a leading one of the flock too. [00:25:38] Speaker A: Yes, I like that. And she, she calls him this rabbi word teacher. I mean. [00:25:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:25:41] Speaker A: A teacher is someone you follow. [00:25:43] Speaker B: Yes, yes, exactly. [00:25:45] Speaker A: So the other thing I. Connection I made for the first time, and I don't want to overrate John's symbolism, and we do get this in the other gospels. But of course, in John's Gospel we have had. I think it's back in chapter 11, the raising of Lazarus. [00:25:59] Speaker C: Yes. [00:26:01] Speaker A: And there Lazarus comes out of the tomb and he's still wrapped in his linen tomb clothes, including this word, the Sudarion, which is like the head cloth. The head clothes. Yes. And so we get the same word. There's some different language here, but Jesus head cloth is mentioned as the thing that's folded neatly. So I mean, I just wondered whether one could also play with Jesus comes out of the tomb unbound. Right. This is a different resurrection. Lazarus was raised but still bound. [00:26:31] Speaker B: Yes. [00:26:32] Speaker A: There's something here about the cloths being left behind. And that's the first thing testified to that there's no body, but there's cloths is whatever's happened to Jesus, he has been left unbound by the things of. [00:26:45] Speaker B: Life and by death itself. [00:26:47] Speaker A: And by death itself. Yeah. [00:26:48] Speaker B: I think that's really good Parallel there. Because Lazarus, of course, his life is again under threat in chapter 12. [00:26:56] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:26:56] Speaker B: Whereas Jesus leaves his mortality behind, not his humanity, but his immortality. Yes, he leaves that behind. [00:27:02] Speaker A: Yeah. And that's part of the promise of this resurrection. And of course, John pointing us immediately to ascension as well. So the resurrection, ascension, tied up together. [00:27:11] Speaker B: I think, for John, the cross, in many ways, for John, the cross is the high point. And this is a confirmation of the cross. And I think the cross, the resurrection, the ascension, they're all one for John, and indeed the giving of the Spirit, they're all one. They're all one theological event. [00:27:28] Speaker A: One big event. Yes. Yep. Well, let's turn quickly to Acts, chapter 10. Did you know you could join our Facebook group by the well, for extra content and discussion. So the context here in John 10, 35, 34 is. It's a speech of Peter. [00:27:50] Speaker C: Yes. [00:27:51] Speaker A: But Peter to Cornelius and his household, who is a Gentile. So Cornelius has a vision. This has provoked the calling of Peter to come and share the Gospel with him. And of course, it's part of a narrative of a number of things that happen in Acts that is about the Gospel extending beyond the Jewish community into the Gentile community. Because Cornelius is a Gentile. [00:28:15] Speaker C: Yes. [00:28:16] Speaker A: And so that gives some context to the way Peter begins his speech. I truly understand that God shows no partiality or no favoritism is another way to perhaps interpret that. I. I noticed. I looked up David Bentley Hart's translation, and he actually has. I perceive that God is not a respecter of persons. [00:28:38] Speaker B: Yes. [00:28:39] Speaker A: Which might sound odd, but it's basically like the things that we respect, status, ethnicity. [00:28:44] Speaker C: Yes. [00:28:45] Speaker A: None of that matters to God. [00:28:46] Speaker B: No. So there's irrelevant. [00:28:48] Speaker A: And I think if we follow the logic of where this preaching goes, it. It is ultimately about, you know, what the resurrection means. And so part of this new world order that's been, you know, sparked by the death and resurrection and. And ascension for Luke of Jesus is that the world is changed. And part of that change is the kingdom has no partiality in this kind of way. [00:29:15] Speaker B: Yes, exactly. [00:29:16] Speaker A: But I'm getting to the end before the beginning. What else would we want to note here in Acts 10? [00:29:24] Speaker B: I think it's. It ties in with Pentecost too, in. In Acts and the prophecy of Joel about I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. So the full implications of that are now being drawn out here in relation to Cornelius and the Gentiles. Yeah. And that. That in the inclusive nature of the good News. And I note in. In verse 35, every. Anyone who fears God. That means. Stands in awe of God, worships God and practices righteousness. [00:29:55] Speaker A: Yeah, it's both. [00:29:56] Speaker B: Both. It's both, yeah. Is acceptable to God. And. And it's preaching peace. [00:30:03] Speaker A: Yes. [00:30:03] Speaker B: By Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all, not just of Jews, but also of Gentiles. [00:30:08] Speaker A: I know that that verse 36 is a very powerful potential message to pick up. What does it mean for Christians in this world where we are so divided over so many big issues, to be preachers of peace. [00:30:22] Speaker B: Yes, exactly. [00:30:23] Speaker A: And to remember that our God is Lord of all, not just of us or people who are like us or, you know. Exactly, exactly. There's a lot to unpack there. So. [00:30:32] Speaker B: And therefore Christ's lordship or sovereignty is seen in peacemaking. [00:30:37] Speaker A: Yes. [00:30:38] Speaker B: Everywhere. To everyone. [00:30:40] Speaker A: And even if we go to the start of the verse, he sent to the people of Israel. So God worked through a particular nation and through, you know, a particular group, but again, for all people. So that expansion from the particular to the universal. [00:30:54] Speaker B: And I think that's a calling that Israel still has. [00:30:57] Speaker A: Yes. [00:30:57] Speaker B: To be proclaiming peace and to be practicing righteousness. [00:31:01] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, that's right. Because that's the. [00:31:03] Speaker B: That's the thread they're calling. [00:31:05] Speaker A: Yes. [00:31:05] Speaker B: And we're drawn into that as Gentiles. The outsiders are drawn in, but the insiders still have that very solemn responsibility. [00:31:14] Speaker A: Yep. The other thing that I was struck with here is if we trace the subject of the verbs. Because, I mean, this speech of Peter is really a summary of the gospel and a great example of what apparently early Christian preaching was like. But God is the subject. So if we start in verse 36, God is the one who sent. God anointed Jesus. God raised Jesus up. God made him appear to others, and. And God commanded them then to preach or proclaim what they've witnessed. So all the key activity is God's. [00:31:47] Speaker C: Yes. [00:31:48] Speaker A: And the human response is this. Excuse me, language of witnessing. We are witnesses. We're commanded to witness, to testify to what God has done. So another possible preaching approach here, to think about how we testify to what God has done for us in our lives, what this actually means, and what God is doing. [00:32:13] Speaker B: Because I think in the early church, as. As Luke depicts it, it's not just. It's not just words. It's actually action. [00:32:21] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:32:22] Speaker B: It's on. It's sharing possessions, it's caring for the poor. It's looking after widows, people who are most vulnerable. I mean, it's bearing witness is seen in. In action as much as in words. [00:32:34] Speaker A: Yeah. So a challenge here for the Christian church and for everyone who wants to be part of this, to hear the Easter message as, as a, a calling into this, this doing what is right, you know, fearing God and doing what is right. And that includes preaching peace and, and. [00:32:52] Speaker B: Also, I think, having a broader trinitarian perspective, which I think Luke does have implicitly, not perhaps explicitly, but that God is the subject of those verbs. This is not just all about Jesus. [00:33:05] Speaker A: No. [00:33:06] Speaker B: It's about God the Creator, and also about, of course, the work of the Holy Spirit. Yes. [00:33:15] Speaker A: Thanks, Dorothy. By the well is brought to you by Pilgrim Theological College and the Uniting Church in Australia. It's produced by. By Adrienne Jackson. Thanks for listening.