The Fourth Sunday of Easter Year B
Taken from Lectionary Reflections - Year B
Description
The Fourth Sunday of Easter
Acts 4.5-12
1John 3.16-24
John 10.11-18
Today’s readings are deeply challenging. Christian mission has sometimes been done as though determined to prove that we are right and everyone else is wrong, whereas all of today’s writers think that Christians must preach and show Jesus Christ because that is actually how the world is.
In Acts, Peter and John have been arrested. They healed a lame man and then preached to the astonished crowds that gathered. But whatever the ostensible reason for the arrest, the question that the religious authorities ask is a telling one. ‘How did you do it, and whose side are you on?’ is what it boils down to. The Temple committee are already a bit suspicious of this new movement but, on the other hand, the healing did take place in the Temple, so it’s possible that they are hoping to make religious capital out of it for themselves. If Peter and John are amenable, and say that they work through the power and in the name of God, then perhaps a happy compromise for all can be reached...
Taken from Lectionary Reflections – Year B by Jane Williams