P&F Lectionary Commentary: 4-Easter 05/02/2004

Lectionary Commentary

Acts 9:36-43
Psalm 23
Revelation 7:9-17
John 10:22-30

Acts 9:36-43
The story of Peter raising Tabitha is a wonderful example of how the disciples of Jesus are empowered by the Spirit to do again the things that Jesus does, so that they may carry on Jesus’ mission and ministry in the world. In process terms, we may say that the eternal objects that characterized Jesus’ life and ministry are re-enacted in those who follow Jesus, so that they literally re-present Jesus in their own actual worlds. As Bernard Lee puts it, “During the historical life of Jesus, community was already touched off in the response of [people] to him—by positive prehensions of him. There had to be things about Jesus that made sense to the community that formed around him… the ‘things about him’ that made sense were introduced into the patterns of living of a community of [people]; the ‘things about him’ also became ‘things about them’” (The Becoming of the Church, (New York: Paulist Press, 1974) 212). As people who follow Jesus prehend—grasp for themselves—the meaning and ministry of Jesus, they are enabled to act out that meaning and ministry in themselves. Peter here reproduces almost exactly a miracle of healing performed by Jesus earlier in the Gospel, the story of the raising of Jairus’s daughter. According to Luke’s version of that story (Luke 8:49-56), Peter was present to witness the healing; Peter would remember how Jesus put the mourners out of the room, how he took her by the hand and said “Child, get up!”, how he returned her to her parents. Now, in Joppa, Peter does very nearly the same things: he puts the mourners out of the room, he kneels beside the bed in prayer, he calls “Tabitha, get up!”, he gives her his hand to help her stand, and he returns her to her community. (The resemblance is even more striking if we consider the Markan version of the story, which Luke was using as his literary source, in which the words of Jesus to Jairus’s daughter are given in Aramaic: “Talitha, cum.” The verbal similarity between “talitha” and “Tabitha” is a mere pun, of course; but scripture frequently points to matters of spiritual significance by means of puns.) Peter here re-enacts the patterns of behavior he witnessed in Jesus, and by doing so he represents, he makes present again, in his situation the ministry and healing grace of Jesus. While not all instances of disciples re-enacting Jesus’ acts will be this dramatic or this miraculous, the story is nevertheless a powerful call to disciples to keep on letting the “things about Jesus” become “things about them,” confident that the grace of Christ will work through them to accomplish God’s aims in their actual worlds.

Psalm 23
The psalm is chosen to go along with the “shepherd” theme found in the Gospel. To a process/relational reader, and despite the psalm’s great popularity and devotional power, Psalm 23 can seem like a very individualistic rendering of our relationship with God. Especially read through a Christian lens, the psalm can seem to extol a kind of “me ’n’ Jesus” spirituality that goes against the grain of much process/relational spiritual understanding. The speaker in the psalm can seem quite passive, a recipient of God’s action, rather than a co-creator with God who actualizes God-given possibilities in the world. We can note, however, how the psalm portrays God’s shepherding as the environment, the milieu, in which the psalmist’s own experiences are harbored and allowed to take shape. Whether the psalmist experiences green pastures or still waters, dark valleys or the presence of enemies, anointing or overflowing—all these experiences are seen as happening within the greater context of God’s guidance and providence. All original aims and all ultimate values lie with God; therefore, the truest meaning of any experience is only to be found in reference to God. Therefore, trusting in the ultimate goodness of the divine milieu, the psalmist can truly say, “Because God is my shepherd, I can lack nothing.”

Revelation 7:9-17
John’s vision of the worship of heaven continues, as he hears the song of “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands.” It is explained to him that these people have “come out of the great ordeal,” and because of their perseverance through suffering are given a place of honor in the ranks of creatures “worshiping day and night within God’s temple.” Given the popularity of the Left Behind series and its dispensationalist apocalypticism, it would be tempting to try to identify the “great ordeal” and the ranks of the redeemed in terms of our own historical situation. But I think John’s original point goes much deeper than that. What is significant is that these people are followers of the Lamb, and “the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd.” The risen and ascended and heavenly Jesus is portrayed here, not as a mighty conqueror, but as a lamb who is also a shepherd, a leader who is one with the led, the one who has already gone through the “ordeal” of suffering for compassion and justice, and is therefore able to lead others through that same ordeal and into eternal life. Where the psalm might give the impression that following the Lord as shepherd is a passive reception of grace, this lesson says outright that following the Lamb as shepherd must be an active living out of the Lamb’s own sacrificial action for compassion and justice.

John 10:22-30
The Fourth Sunday of Easter is traditionally known as “Good Shepherd Sunday,” and the gospel lessons assigned for this Sunday in each of the three lectionary years focus on some part of Jesus’ “Good Shepherd” discourse from John. This Sunday also marks a turn in the content of the gospel readings: the first three Sundays of Easter relate gospel stories of resurrection appearances of Jesus; from the fourth Sunday on, the gospel readings return to pre-resurrection stories of Jesus’ teaching—although of course in Easter season those teachings are interpreted in terms of resurrection themes. That is precisely what is happening in this section of the “Good Shepherd” discourse. Jesus’ teaching on the Good Shepherd takes place about midway through his public ministry, yet the themes and content of the Good Shepherd imagery seem more suited to the risen and ascended and heavenly Jesus of post-resurrection faith. Jesus’ promise to give his sheep eternal life, and his claim “the Father are I and one,” can only be understood from the point of view of resurrection. In such a context, Jesus statement of his relationship to his followers—“My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me”—is also best understood from the point of view of resurrection. Those whom Jesus knows are not only the small circle of disciples with whom he shared his earthly ministry, but all those who believe, in all times and all places. To hear Jesus’ voice and to follow him means not only to engage his mission and ministry in the world (important as that is), but also to pass with Jesus through death and into larger life. Understood from the perspective of Easter, the role of the Good Shepherd is not only to lead the flock, but to provide the divine milieu in which God-given aims and co-created satisfactions can flourish in human life, and can extend beyond human life into the everlasting life of God. Jesus the Good Shepherd receives those who hear him, and holds them in divine love, so that no one will snatch them from him, no hostile or destructive power will erase their value from its full valuation in God, and, though human life be a perpetual perishing, what lives on in God will never perish.

Paul S. Nancarrow is rector of St. George's Episcopal Church in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. and canon theologian of the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota. He is a co-author of The Call of the Spirit: Process Spirituality in a Relational World.

If you found this lectionary helpful, please consider contributing to Process & Faith by making a donation or becoming a member.