June 19, 2006
Acts 10:34-43 (New Jerusalem Bible)
Then Peter addressed them, 'I now really understand', he said, 'that God has no favourites, but that anybody of any nationality who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 'God sent his word to the people of Israel, and it was to them that the good news of peace was brought by Jesus Christ -- he is the Lord of all. You know what happened all over Judaea, how Jesus of Nazareth began in Galilee, after John had been preaching baptism. God had anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and because God was with him, Jesus went about doing good and curing all who had fallen into the power of the devil. Now we are witnesses to everything he did throughout the countryside of Judaea and in Jerusalem itself: and they killed him by hanging him on a tree, yet on the third day God raised him to life and allowed him to be seen, not by the whole people but only by certain witnesses that God had chosen beforehand. Now we are those witnesses -- we have eaten and drunk with him after his resurrection from the dead - and he has ordered us to proclaim this to his people and to bear witness that God has appointed him to judge everyone, alive or dead. It is to him that all the prophets bear this witness: that all who believe in Jesus will have their sins forgiven through his name.'
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4 comments:
Jesus went about doing good and curing all who had fallen into the power of the devil.
I find this line interesting. It sums up Jesus' entire earthly ministry. And yet seems so very far away from our everyday lives. Blindness. Lameness. Each and every cure -- is a liberation for all who had fallen into the power of the devil.
I talk a good line about powers and principalities. But when push comes to shove -- its not how I envisage ministry. Nor healing.
Jesus went about doing good and curing all who had fallen into the power of the devil.
Maybe this means that any badness or wrongness, physical, spiritual, or mental/emotional, is a kind of illness that can be cured?
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This passage reflects the basic theology of the Christian community to which Luke belonged.
What grabs me first is the universality: "anyone who 'fears' God and does what is right is acceptable to him". This undercuts the tribalistic exclusivity of all denominations or religious communities of any sort (I unfortunately find it all too common among Quakers, perhaps the most inclusive Christian body I know.)
Peter made no claim of deity for God; he is Lord of all, but that term has broader connotations than deity. Peter did claim that Jesus "ordered us ..... to bear witness that God has appointed him to judge everyone, alive or dead".
And finally he witnessed that through Jesus our sins will be forgiven.
People can take these statements in many ways: they have 'supernatural" meanings and also 'natural' ones.
Perhaps God may mean for some of us to take one and some the other.
For me forgiveness especially means something other than a 'ticket to heaven'. It means a healed psyche.
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