Acts 2:14a, 36-41

If you ever doubted that the resurrection was important to Christianity, this should be a passage to consider. It repeats 2:14a from last week, so we are reminded this is Peter speaking. Peter is sometimes called the first Bishop or first Pope, but I don't need to get into that controversy. Let's just say he was important. The “certainty” that Peter is expressing is due to the fulfillment of the prophecies of David. We skipped that little bit of loving poetry that Peter reads from Psalm 110 (which he would have ascribed to David)

The Lord said to my Lord:
Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies
a footstool for your feet.

Hearing this, the people in the crowd want to be on the right side. They didn't want to be part of that “corrupt generation”. Words like this echo throughout history.

1 Peter 1:17-23

I'm not always happy with the translations we get from the Vanderbilt website that I link to. “Exile” here is sometimes “sojourning” or “as strangers”. Those indicate something more like us as temporarily existing on this earth, trying to find our place. The word “fear” is not one that changes much. The Vanderbilt translation adds “reverent”, while the King James Version does not. I think in King James' day that would have been understood. You are not to cower in the presence of God, but to revere Him.

The next lines give one of the most enduring interpretations of the death of Christ; that his blood was a ransom for our sins and the sins for our ancestors. If you think this is the only interpretation, you might want to read Tony Jones' “Did God Kill Jesus?”, where he surveys the history of the interpretations of this pivotal story in history. We also hear that we are at the “end of the ages”. Unfortunately he doesn't really explain that.

Luke 24:13-35

Jesus was busy that week after he died. Some people have tried to synthesize all these stories about who saw him when and where. I guess, if you accept he's a ghost, it doesn't seem that hard to accept that he could be in all those different places. Quite a bit of time here is spent hearing what these two people think about all this, then, in verse 27, Jesus interprets the entire Bible for them so they can understand where he fits in. Too bad we don't get to hear what he said.