Third Sunday of Easter Year B 2024

The three passages present three points: Jesus was accredited by God as Messiah (for in the first and last than in 1 Peter, addressed to gentiles), Jesus was executed by the Jewish leaders with the help of the Romans but this was by divine plan and (especially in 1 Peter) to rescue us from our “futile conduct” thought a Passover sacrifice leading to a new Exodus, and that he was raised by God and is seated at God’s right hand as the judge of the living and the dead, accepting our allegiance now so that we need not meet him as judge in the final judgment. This is his self-giving as resurrected Lord in the Eucharist, which we hopefully see with our spiritual “eyes”, but do we make it central to our proclamation.

Notes

Transcript

Title

The Core of the Gospel

Outline

There are many gospels out there

“God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life” was one I learned growing up.

For others the gospel is just love or giving oneself for others.

Our texts speak to the core issues

The first issue is that Jesus was designated by God as Messiah and accredited with “mighty deeds, wonders, and signs” worked by God. This is the start of Peter’s speech in Acts and the part of the story those on the way to Emmaus got right. Both are spoken to or by Jews who wanted or expected a Messiah.

The second issue is that the Jews/Jewish leaders killed the Messiah with Roman help. Yet this did not surprise God, for it happened “by the set plan and foreknowledge of God.” As our Gospel says, “Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” The “necessity” was that it had already been revealed in the Scriptures. First Peter adds a purpose: “you were ransomed from your futile conduct . . . with the precious blood of Christ as of a spotless unblemished lamb.” He is addressing gentile Christians for whom killing the Messiah was not “their sin,” for then needed freedom from their “futile conduct,” and yet he uses Passover imagery in citing the lamb so that is likely a Scripture Jesus used on the way to Emmaus.

The third issue, and certainly one not stressed in the gospels of my youth, is that “God . . . raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.” Or that “God raised this Jesus; of this we are all witnesses. Exalted at the right hand of God, he received the promise of the holy Spirit from the Father and poured it forth.” This is what the two on the way to Emmaus were talking about and which Jesus refers to as “enter into his glory.” The point is that Jesus was resurrected (God is usually the agent), that it is an objective event that was witnessed, and that was his first step towards “sitting at the right hand of the Father,” i.e. as his executive agent. This is the same Father who accredited Jesus as Messiah. This is the high point of the message: there is a king, you are in trouble, but he accepts your allegiance and on that basis will forgive your sins. Final judgment by the resurrected Jesus is at the core of the message.

Now we celebrate this but do we proclaim it?

Jesus was revealed in the breaking of the bread which is repeated twice in our gospel. He is there, his resurrected presence is in the Eucharist. He is there giving himself for us so that our meeting at the judgment may be as his courtiers.

We see his presence in our spirits in the sacrament, but do we proclaim it? His his physical, if transformed, resurrected life and his sovereignty over the universe the climax of our proclamation, formal or informal? And is it central for our lives?