Sunday’s first reading from Acts contains one of the several sermons Luke composes for his account of the first years of the Church. In this passage Peter speaks to the Roman centurion Cornelius and his household in whom he has just witnessed the Spirit poured out.
In this sermon Peter proclaims in short form the same narrative plot and message we know in expanded form in the four canonical gospels. Jesus’ ministry begins with the preaching and baptism of John the Baptist. Jesus from Nazareth preaches, heals, and cast out demons all over Galilee. Peter and the other disciples are the witnesses to Jesus’ death and to his resurrection to new life.
In Acts the eyewitnesses to all Jesus did and taught become apostles — missionaries. The risen Jesus commissions them to spread his good news.
We are witnesses.
“You know what has been told all over Judea about Jesus of Nazareth, beginning in Galilee with the baptism John preached — how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and power. He went about doing good and healing all under the power of the devil because God was with him. We are witnesses to all that he did in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him finally, ‘hanging him on a tree.’
“God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all, but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commissioned us to preach to the people and to bear witness that he is the one whom God has sent as judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets testify, saying that everyone who believes in him has forgiveness of sins through his name.”
Acts 10.34,37-43
- If you could quiz Peter as a witness of all Jesus said and did, what would you want to ask him?
- What sense of your life and experience does Jesus’ death and resurrection make?
- What witness do you give in your own life to the truth of the gospel?