"The whole House of Israel
The sermon of Peter in Chapter 2 of the Acts of the Apostles is
the first Christian sermon, and the model for all Christian sermons. The
reading itself focuses on the results
of that sermon, and moves from the opening sentence, where Peter calls the
crowd to attention, to the climax, his proclamation that "The whole House
of Israel can be certain that God has
made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ."
He proclaims that God has made Jesus Lord and Christ, the anointed one,
priest, prophet and king, who rules all creation from God’s right hand. In
contrast, his hearers are responsible for God’s anointed one, the hope of Israel
The contrast between the action of crowd in crucifying Jesus, and of
God in making Him Lord and Christ, strikes home, for his listeners are “cut to
the quick”.
The frightening conclusion that Peter's listeners come to is that, by
killing God's Chosen One, they have
placed themselves in a position of unforgivable enmity with God. There is a
note of desperation in their question to the Twelve, "What must we
do, brothers?" Peter first, tells them three things they must do:
"You must confess your
sins." The listeners were righteous Jews, in Jerusalem from all over the
civilised world for the Passover. They are now told to confess that far from
being righteous men as they would have supposed, they are sinners.
"You must be baptized."
Baptism was for the Jews a ceremony performed when a pagan became a Jew. It was
a symbolic washing away of the filth of idolatry as the person became a member
of God's Chosen People. Peter now tells them that, though they are Jews, they
must be baptized. "in the name of Jesus,"
not only as a symbolic washing away, but "for the forgiveness of your sins."
"Receive the free gift of the Holy Spirit." This is the gift the Twelve
have just received, and which they
now set out to share with their first converts.
The second section of Peter's answer must have brought wonderful
comfort and hope to his listeners. All that Peter has said is a promise which has been made "to you
and to your children and to all those who are far off." It is hard here
not to make a comparison with the terrible words uttered by the crowd to
Pontius Pilate on Good Friday: "His blood be upon our heads and upon our
children's." This curse is now blotted out with a blessing. What is more,
it is made to "whoever should
call on the name of the Lord their God," in other words, the name of
Jesus. Tongues which had called down the blood vengeance of the Lord upon
their heads are now invited to call upon his name for salvation!
Peter finally calls on them to "Save yourselves from this wicked
generation." Those who put Jesus to death, and refuse to repent of
this crime and believe in the Good News, are setting themselves up in
opposition to God, and thus adopting false worship. It is not the crime of killing the Lord's anointed that counts, so much
as repentance for that deed.
Similarly, it is not the crime which sends the "wicked
generation" to its end, so much as its stiff-necked
refusal to repent.
This message was one of great comfort to its first receivers. It should
also be a comfort to us. We are sinners who have rebelled against God. We all
share in the death of the only Beloved Son of God. When challenged that his
film The Passion of the Christ was anti-Semitic, Mel Gibson gave just
this answer. He said that the first person he would accuse of the death of
Christ, was himself. It was his own hands that Hammered in the nails in the
movie.
We are stiff-necked, rebellious, intent on doing and believing what we want to do, no matter how it squares
up with what God wants us to do. We would rather have our own way; if it
comes to a choice between what is desirable to us and what is pleasing to God,
how often do we choose our own way, and shut God's way out of our lives! When
it comes to a human confrontation, how often do we, in our attitudes, actions and words, particularly in our
witness to other people, fail to acknowledge him as the Lord and Christ.
If it were dependent upon our sins, upon what we do, we would all be damned. But the wonderful message of hope in
today's First Reading is that it does not.
It depends not upon our sins, but upon God's
mercy. Despite all the offences we have committed against God, he has decided to wipe them away, and
never to call them to mind. And he does this through the same Jesus whom we
brought to his death. And all God asks of us is that we repent. After the violence with which the human race greeted the
coming of its Saviour, comes God's mercy and his call to repentance, with its promise of redemption.
Let us rejoice in the words he addressed to us through Peter in today's
First Reading. Let us repent, we who are far off, and call on the name of the
Lord, for this promise of salvation is for each one of us. Let us indeed
repent, and be saved from this evil generation.
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