On the day of Pentecost, Peter preaches the first Christian sermon. T a crowd of Jew from many different lands, gathered in Jerusalem for the Passover, he proves that Jesus, who was crucified and is risen from the dead, is the Messiah whom they all awaited. Their reaction is horror – Jesus is the Messiah, and we have killed him! For a Jew, the thought that he has killed the Messiah is about the worst of all thoughts. Peter’s hearers are, they believe condemned for it beyond hope of heaven. Desperately they ask Peter, “What can we do?”
Peter’s answer is one of the most consoling in the whole of Scripture. On Good Friday the crowds called down a curse upon themselves and their children. Jesus’ forgiveness has turned this curse into a blessing. Further, God does not hold the death of his son against them. Jesus had to die. But he died to bring everyone back to God. The death of Jesus Christ on the cross, his rising from the dead, has an enormous significance for Peter’s hearers. “You must repent, and believe in the Good News.” It is not the death of Jesus that brings down a curse upon them; it has, in fact, brought down the blessing of salvation. But only if they accept his saving love into our lives. To refuse to accept Jesus as Saviour, means that they have emptied the cross of meaning in their lives.
This is as true for us today as it was on that first Pentecost. Jesus has died and risen for us, to redeem us from our sins. Actor Mel Gibson, asked if his film The Passion of the Christ did not make the Jews out to be “Christ killers”, held out his own hands and said, “If I were to be asked whose hands killed the Christ, I’d first hold our my own ones and say, ‘These ones did’ ”. In the film, in fact, the hands hammering the nails into Jesus’ hands are Gibson’s. Our sins have indeed nailed Jesus to the cross. By his death on that same cross to which our sins have nailed him, our sins are forgiven. But only if we choose to follow him. And as with those first hearers of the Word, this will only happen if we turn to him, seek forgiveness for our sins and follow wherever he leads us, do whatever he tells us. Otherwise, we empty the cross of meaning in our lives. And it is that which is the worst sin of all. Peter’s sermon in Acts 2 is thus both promise and warning. It promises us salvation from all our sins. But it warns us that the only path to salvation is through the saving acts of the Lord Jesus. Let us pray, today, that his saving death may become a reality in our lives, and that we might seek him and all that he has done for us, and love and obey him more than anything else, and above all else.
Peter’s answer is one of the most consoling in the whole of Scripture. On Good Friday the crowds called down a curse upon themselves and their children. Jesus’ forgiveness has turned this curse into a blessing. Further, God does not hold the death of his son against them. Jesus had to die. But he died to bring everyone back to God. The death of Jesus Christ on the cross, his rising from the dead, has an enormous significance for Peter’s hearers. “You must repent, and believe in the Good News.” It is not the death of Jesus that brings down a curse upon them; it has, in fact, brought down the blessing of salvation. But only if they accept his saving love into our lives. To refuse to accept Jesus as Saviour, means that they have emptied the cross of meaning in their lives.This is as true for us today as it was on that first Pentecost. Jesus has died and risen for us, to redeem us from our sins. Actor Mel Gibson, asked if his film The Passion of the Christ did not make the Jews out to be “Christ killers”, held out his own hands and said, “If I were to be asked whose hands killed the Christ, I’d first hold our my own ones and say, ‘These ones did’ ”. In the film, in fact, the hands hammering the nails into Jesus’ hands are Gibson’s. Our sins have indeed nailed Jesus to the cross. By his death on that same cross to which our sins have nailed him, our sins are forgiven. But only if we choose to follow him. And as with those first hearers of the Word, this will only happen if we turn to him, seek forgiveness for our sins and follow wherever he leads us, do whatever he tells us. Otherwise, we empty the cross of meaning in our lives. And it is that which is the worst sin of all. Peter’s sermon in Acts 2 is thus both promise and warning. It promises us salvation from all our sins. But it warns us that the only path to salvation is through the saving acts of the Lord Jesus. Let us pray, today, that his saving death may become a reality in our lives, and that we might seek him and all that he has done for us, and love and obey him more than anything else, and above all else.
Fr. Phillip
