Third Sunday of Easter
Rev. Christopher Sterry
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Readings: Acts 9.1-20, John 21.1-19
Two very exciting stories today in the Bible readings, one about Paul the other about Peter, those two great characters of the early church often known as the Princes of the apostles.
Peter was one of the first disciples of Jesus—called as he was working beside the Sea of Galilee with those simple but authoritative words: “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.”
Last week we heard about the two appearances of Jesus in the upper room in Jerusalem. He came into the locked room and gave them those words of commission: “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”
You might think those would be life-changing words for the disciples—the beginning of the mission. But no. Today, in the final chapter, here they are again, back where Peter started off, fishing on the Sea of Galilee—or rather, trying to fish, because they didn’t catch anything.
Many of the traditional features of Resurrection appearances are found here. At first, the disciples don’t recognize Jesus. Then, in a scene reminiscent of the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus feeds them with bread and fish. The focus of today’s gospel is the dialogue between Peter and Jesus. During the trial of Jesus, three times Peter denied that he was one of his followers. These denials took place in the high priest’s courtyard beside a charcoal fire. Now, beside another charcoal fire, in a setting which suggests Peter is ready to return to his old life, Jesus asks him three times, “Peter, do you love me?” Three times Peter says, “Yes Lord, you know that I love you.” These three questions and Peter’s three answers are a reversal of his three denials. At the end, Jesus says, “Follow me.”
Surely Peter was feeling guilt about his denial of Jesus on the eve of his crucifixion. Words of sending and the breathing of the Holy Spirit don’t seem to have lifted that guilt. Immediately, he heads back to Galilee with a few friends and takes up again his life of fishing. It takes that personal conversation with Jesus—three more questions—to lift the guilt and assure him of the love and presence of Jesus.
Today’s epistle begins with the words: “Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord…”
Peter was a denier, but Saul was an active persecutor. He too met Jesus—not in bodily form in Galilee or Jerusalem. He met him on the road to Damascus when a bright light shone, he was thrown to the ground, and a voice spoke. It is all very reminiscent of the scenes of the Transfiguration, but this time the voice is not that of the Father but of Jesus himself.
And just as in that conversation with Peter, Jesus begins with a question: “Saul, why are you persecuting me?”
“Who are you, Lord?” asks Saul. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”
When Paul, struck blind after the encounter, is led into Damascus, Ananias goes to the house where he lays his hands on Saul and says: “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on your way here has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” And immediately his sight is restored and he gets up and is baptised.
And then, without hesitation, right there in Damascus—where he had planned to arrest Christians—Paul began the powerful ministry that would occupy the rest of his life until his death in Rome, maybe some 30 years later.
In the Roman Missal, the proper preface on the feast of Saints Peter and Paul (29th of June) has these words:
“Peter, our leader in the faith, and Paul, its fearless preacher.
Peter raised up the Church from the faithful flock of Israel. Paul
brought your call to the nations and became the teacher of the
world.”
Simon the denier becomes Peter—the rock—the nickname that Jesus gave him—the rock upon which the Church is founded. Saul the persecutor becomes Paul the preacher to the Gentiles, the driving force of the Church’s mission.
At the heart of both of those vocations lay an encounter with the risen Jesus and a personal and transformative conversation. And in both cases the Holy Spirit is given to the individual. Without them, the Church could not have grown as it did.
We have never seen the earthly Jesus—but then, nor had Paul. Most of us have never had a vision or events such as that which led to the conversion of Paul—but then, neither had Peter. But we are called by Jesus, all of us spoken to by Jesus, all of us have received and continue to receive the Holy Spirit.
My ministry is a very public one. Yours may be much more private—perhaps a ministry of welcome, of hospitality, of prayer, of listening and loving.
Whatever our own ministry—be it public or private, in words or in acts—the Holy Spirit is with us and assures us of the presence and the life of the risen Jesus at every moment of our lives.
At some moments we may not recognize him until he turns and says “Peace be with you” or feeds us with bread and fish. Sometimes we may feel ashamed of our lack of faith, our lack of ability to do anything useful for the gospel.
But to all of us, Jesus says: Follow me.
Peter and Paul were changed by Christ’s call—and so are we, each in our own way.