Second Sunday of Easter, Cycle B

Psalm 133

Since the only texts selected from the Older Testament for the Sundays after Easter in Series A, B, and C of this lectionary are the readings from the Psalms, with selections from the Lukan literary drama Acts of Apostles used for the First Reading instead of texts from the Old Testament, the selections from the Psalms should be given special attention during the coming six weeks.

Who could disagree with the beautiful statement of the blessings that are the result of people living together peacefully, as expressed in the first verse and throughout Psalm 133? Who would not enjoy the analogies utilized in this wisdom psalm? The statement in verse one has universal application, especially appropriate for us as Christians during the Easter season and throughout the year. The analogies that follow verse one are thoroughly Israelite-Jewish, but useful also for us.

Acts 4:32-35

At first glance, this text follows Psalm 133 very well, providing an excellent example of how productive and harmonious it is when members of a religious community live together in peace and harmony, sharing their resources for the benefit of all. Attempts at communal living and sharing are common within past and current religious communities, including Christian communities. Various Christian monastic communities have functioned well for long periods of time. Others, such as John Calvin’s Geneva and a number of communities in the USA during the 19th century, were viable only for a generation or two. What the Lukan playwright depicts as problems beyond this text in Acts 5:1-11, however, is fairly typical of the attempts at communal sharing within religious communities.

What degree and level of sharing do you consider to be most advantageous within the congregation in which you serve? Would it be desirable to have a higher level of sharing within your congregation, perhaps for a relatively brief period of time, for example during the Easter season each year? Would a very high level of communal sharing be more likely to be successful in a small, new “mission” congregation supported by other congregations than in a large, well-established congregation? In your opinion, how much communal sharing is ideal within a Christian community of faith?

John 20:19-31

Like the Luke 24-13-49 text and unlike the Mark 16:1-8 texts considered above, this John 20:19-31 text is a proof of Jesus’ physical resurrection account. It is somewhat different from Luke 24:13-49, however, in that here in John the Risen Christ is depicted as passing through doors without opening them, as a “spirit,” while at the same time having the same body as before his death, even having scars from wounds inflicted upon him prior to his death. Here he has the same body, but it is a body that no longer has the mortal limits of time and of space.

Here Jesus as the Risen Christ greets his disciples with a message of peace. Here he shows to his disciples his wounded hands and side. He breathes on them and tells them to receive the Holy Spirit. He gives to them power to forgive and to retain sins. He tells them to believe.

Within our worship services this coming Sunday, we shall want to share within the congregations in which we serve everything that Jesus is said to have shared with the disciples in this text. Many of our claims within the Church are based on accounts such as John 20:19-31. We believe because those who have delivered to us these traditions have believed. We are called to deliver these traditions to others.

It is regrettable that those who wrote the Gospel According to John included the words dia ton phobon ton Ioudaion (which is usually translated into English as “because of the fear of the Jews”) in 20:19. The Johannine community had apparently experienced “fear of the Jews” in its recent past (probably during the decade of 81-90 C.E.) because of its contention with Jews who remained Jews. It is likely that negative experiences of frustration over the inability of members of the Johannine community to attract Jews to believe what the members of the Johannine community believed about Jesus had caused pejorative statements about the Jews in general to abound as the members of the Johannine community told their own story.

Grammatically, the genitive case in the Greek expression ton Ioudaion can be translated into English either as a subjective genitive “the Jews’ fear,” that is, because of the fear that the followers of Jesus as Jews had of the Roman occupational authorities who had tortured and crucified Jesus, or as an objective genitive “the fear of the Jews,” in which the Jews are the object or reason for the fear that the disciples of Jesus had. If John 20:19-31 were a documentary of the activities of the disciples of Jesus the third night after Jesus had been crucified by the Romans, these disciples of Jesus could indeed be portrayed as being afraid as Jewish followers of Jesus that the Roman authorities who had killed Jesus as a threat to Roman security in Jerusalem might come to seize, torture, and crucify them also.

The Four Gospels are not objective documentaries, however. Instead they are largely theological accounts, expressions of faith. Within the context of the Fourth Gospel, in which in most instances “the Jews” are presented as opponents of the Johannine Jesus and of his followers within the Johannine community, we must translate into English within the context of the Fourth Gospel and of the perspective of the Johannine community during the last decades of the 1st century.

Nevertheless, we can and should translate the words dia ton phobon ton Ioudaion with sensitivity. We can include some nuances when we translate these words into English during this the 21st century. Accordingly, in my The New Testament: A New Translation and Redaction (Lima, Ohio: Fairway Press, 2001), I have translated John 20:19 as follows: “During the evening of that day, the first day after the sabbath, while the doors where the disciples were staying were locked because they were afraid of what Annas and Caiaphas might do to them, Jesus appeared and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ ”

Incidentally, the expression dia ton phobon ton Ioudaion is the only overtly anti-Jewish expression within chapters 20-21 of the Fourth Gospel. Most of the anti-Jewish polemic in the Fourth Gospel is centered in chapters 5-12.

1 John 1:1–2:2

This reading from the beginning portion of 1 John complements the John 20:19-31 Gospel selection for this day beautifully. It is made-to-order as a companion reading for the account of the disciples of Jesus seeing the Risen Christ with their own eyes and of Thomas being asked to touch the hands and the side of the body of Jesus where the nails had pierced his hands and the sword had gashed into his side. It also expresses very well the concept of atonement accomplished by the Christ, who is described as the expiation for our sins.