Filled with the Holy Spirit

Acts 4:8-12

Filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter said :”Rulers of the people, and elders! If you are questioning us today about an act of kindness to a cripple, and asking us how he was healed, then I am glad to tell you all, and would indeed be glad to tell the whole people of Israel, that it was by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the one you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by this name and by no other that this man is able to stand up perfectly healthy, here in your presence today. This is the stone rejected by you the builders, but which has proved to be the keystone. For of all the names in the world given to men,this is the only one by which we can be saved.”

John 10:11-18

Jesus said:

‘ I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd is one who lays down his life for his sheep. The hired man, sincehe is not the shepherd and the sheep donot belong to him, abandons the sheep and runs away as soon as he sees a wolf coming, and then the wolf attacks and scatters the sheep; this is because he is only a hired man and has no concern for the sheep.

I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for my sheep. And there are other sheep I have that are not of this fold, and these I have to lead as well. They too will listen to my voice, and there will be only one flock and one shepherd.

The Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me; I lay it down of my own free will, and as it is in my power to lay it down, so it is in my power to take it up again; and this is the command I have been given by my Father.’

Reflections

One of the recurring themes in Acts is that of the apostles and disciples being ‘filled with the Holy Spirit’ which, in turn, finds expression inthe boldness of their speech. As Peter addresses the rulers and elders, we observe his boldness in answering their query concerning the healing of a disabled person.

Peter qualifies that he does this ‘in the name of Jesus Christ the cruicified one whom God raised.’ He acknowledges that his power and authority come from God through Jesus Christ; he heals as he did. His actions, and not just his words, are testament and witness to the one whom God raised.

The Gospel of John speaks of Jesus as the good shepherd, ‘the one who lays his life down for his sheep.’ This image of Jesus contrasts with that of the shepherds mentioned in the Old Testament who were bad leaders who lead the people of Israel astray. It also interacts with New Testament writings that warn of false shepherds. Jesus, the good shepherd, can be trusted. He is the Son of God and not a hired hand. The focus of the passage is on Jesus as the one who laid down his life freely.

In John’s account, we hear that Jesus has the power to take up his life again.; This is possible, Jesus says, as it is ‘the command I have been given by my Father’ and it offers strong assurance of God’s power in Jesus, of this complete trust in the love of Gpd and his own love for his sheep.

Then God Created Light Again

It doesn’t matter whether you picture of the origin of time the way science does, as beginning with the Big Bang, or whether you take the biblical account of the origins of the world literally. Either way there was a time before there was light. The universe was dark before God created light. However, eventually the world grew dark again. When?

We are told in the Gospels that as Jesus was dying on the cross, between the sixth and ninth hour, it grew dark and Jesus cried out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!” What really happened here ? Are the Gospels saying that it actually grew dark in the early afternoon, an eclipse of the sun, or are they referring to another kind of darkness, of a spiritual kind? Was there an eclipse of the sun as Jesus was dying? Perhaps. We don’t know, but that is of secondary importance anyway.

What the Gospels are referring to is a kind of darkness that envelops us whenever what’s precious to us is humiliated, exposed as powerless, ridiculed, terminally defeated, and crucified by our world. There’s a darkness that besets us whenever the forces of love seem overpowered by the forces of hatred. The light extinguished then is the light of hope, but there is deeper darkness and this is the kind of darkness that the Gospels say formed a cloud over the world as Jesus hung dying.

What’s being insinuated here is that at Jesus’ cruxifixion, creation went back to its original chaos, as it was before there was light. But what’s also being insinuated is that God created light a second time, this time by raising Jesus from the dead, and that is new light is the most staggering light of all. Moreover, unlike the original light, which was only physical, this light is a light both for the eyes and for the soul. For the eyes, the light of the resurrection is also a radically new physical phenomenon. At the resurrection of Jesus, the atoms of the planet were shaken up from their normal physical workings. A dead body rose from the grave to a life from which it would never again die. That had never happened before. Moreover, the resurrection of Jesus was also a radically new light for the soul, the light of hope.

The Resurrection

When darkness enveloped the earth a second time, God made light a second time, and that light , unlike the physical light created at the dawn of time, can never be extinguished. That’s the difference between teh resuscitation of Lazarus and the resurrection of Jesus, between physical light and the light of the resurrection. Lazarus was restored to his self-samebody from which he had to die again. Jesus was given a radically new body which would never die again.

The renowned biblical scholar Raymond E. Brown tells us that the darkness that beset the world as Jesus hung dying, would last until we believe in the resurrection of Jesus. Until we believe that God has a live-giving response for all death and until we believe God will roll back the stone from any grave, no matter how deeply goodness is buried under hatred and violence, the darkness of Good Friday will continue to darken our planet.

Mohandas K Gandhi once observed that we can see the truth of God always creating new light, simply by looking at history: “When I despair, I remember that all through history, the way of truth and love has always won. There have been murderers and tyrants, and for a time they can seem invincible, But in the end they always fall. Think of it, always.”

“Be God’s Light to those still in darkness.”