Overcoming Ignorance for Repentance and Conversion by Peter’s Speech and Overcoming Fear due to Lukewarm Belief by Risen Jesus’ Physical Appearance and Teaching for Mission – Thursday of Paschal Octave

Today’s Scripture Readings (Acts 3:11-26; Luke 24:35-48) address how the Christological truth of Jesus was made known to those who were ignorant about it – through Peter’s speech to those who handed Jesus to be crucified (Acts 3:11-26) and through Jesus’ post-Resurrection appearance and teaching to his disciples (Luke 24:35-48).

As we read in yesterday’s First Reading (Acts 3:1-10), Peter healed a paralyzed beggar by the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, as Jesus healed a paralytic man by the Sheep Gate of the Temple (John 5:1-9), those who witnessed were astonished (Acts 3:10).

In response to their amazement to what he did to the paralyzed beggar in the mighty name of Jesus (Acts 3:6-8), Peter said, “You Israelites, why are you amazed at this, and why do you look so intently at us as if we had made him walk by our own power or piety?”(Acts 3:12). To Peter, they were amazed because they did not know Jesus – who Jesus is. Had they known and believed in Jesus as the prophesized Messiah, then, they should not have been amazed at what Peter did in Jesus’ name to the paralyzed beggar.

So, Peter spoke of Jesus as the fulfillment of the prophesized servant of God to suffer (Isaiah 42:1–4; 49:1–6; 50:4–7; 52:13–53:12) and the prophet, whose resurrection was prophesized in the Torah (Deuteronomy 18:15-18), acknowledging that they handed him to be crucified out of ignorance, as influenced by their religious leaders. He also spoke of the prevalence of the Messianic – Christological truth of Jesus and its benefits to those who believe, as this is already verified with his resurrection. So, he encouraged them to repent and to convert, turning away from evil and sinful ways to Jesus, whom God sent to bless them (Acts 3:13-26).

In order to make the content of his speech (Acts 3:13-26) credible, Peter said that he and other disciples witnessed the resurrection of Jesus (Acts 3:15). And this witnessing of risen Jesus is reflected in today’s Gospel Reading (Luke 24:35-48).

On the evening of the day of the Resurrection, risen Jesus appeared to the disciples and greeted with his peace, saying, “Peace be with you”, when they were talking about how Cleopas and another disciple encountered him and Peter also met risen Jesus (Luke 24:35). But, they did not recognize him as risen Jesus. Instead, they thought of him as a ghost, being terrified of his sudden appearance (Luke 24:37). This tells that the not all of the disciples were yet believing of Jesus’ resurrection - in spite of Peter and two other disciples shared their encountered with him.

So, risen Jesus said to them:

Why are you troubled? And why do questions arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have (Luke 24:38-39).

And, risen Jesus showed his hands and feet as a tangible evidence to help these skeptical disciples believe.

Voila!

The disciples’ immediate reaction was mixed: hard to believe but joyous (Luke 24:40a).

So, risen Jesus needed another push to make them believe his resurrection. And, he asked them:

Have you anything here to eat? (Luke 24:40b)

Sure, Jesus might have been hungry for not eating while being in the tomb for 3 days. But, he asked for something to eat to demonstrate that he is alive as a ghost does not eat anything. Jesus wanted emphasize to his disciples that his resurrection means that he has fully functioning human physiology.

And, they offered him baked fish, and he ate it while they watch (Luke 24:42-43).

Then, Jesus made one more push to help them really believe by reminding that he had spoken about his death and resurrection to them (Matthew 16:21; Mark 10:33-34; Luke 18: 31-33) and giving scriptural explanation on his resurrection from the Torah (Deuteronomy 18:15-18) and Psalm (Psalm 16:10-11)(Luke 24:44).

At last, the disciples began to understand the scriptural reference to Jesus’ resurrection as they opened their mind to this truth (Luke 24:45) – though neither Peter nor John did not understand this scriptural reference when John began to believe the resurrection upon seeing Jesus’ burial clothes neatly left inside the empty tomb in that morning (John 20:9).

And to further affirm their understanding, in order to prepare them to be commissioned to be sent on missions upon his Ascension, Jesus said to the disciples:

Thus it is written that the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things (Luke 24:46-48).

The disciples greeted risen Jesus with fear, thinking of him as a ghost, though he greeted them with peace. So, Jesus showed his body to them and to eat fish to help them believe. But, showing and demonstrating the truth of his resurrection physically was not enough for the disciples to be convinced. So, risen Jesus gave scriptural explanation to convince them of his resurrection. And this is to set the disciples to be sent on mission to preach the world to repent and to forgive from Jerusalem.

Remember, the Resurrection is to prepare us for Pentecost, which is the day that we are empowered by the Holy Spirit and to be sent on missions to all nations – to all the ends of the earth to preach about Jesus and his teaching.

So, we read and reflected how Peter continued to do so in today’s First Reading (Acts 3:11-26). Notice that Peter sure preached about repenting to those who once set Jesus for crucifixion out of their ignorance.

Though Peter and two other disciples, including Cleopas, had privilege to have seen risen Jesus before he appeared to the disciples altogether in the evening of the Resurrection Sunday, they were still skeptical about the resurrection of Jesus. And, Jesus showed physical evidence and explained the scriptural reference to the resurrection, as today’s Gospel Reading (Luke 24:35-48) describes. On the other hand, the Frist Reading (Acts 3:11-26) describes Peter made a similar scriptural reference about Jesus’ resurrection to verify the truth in his speech on Jesus to those who pushed Pilate to crucify Jesus out of ignorance.

Jesus implicated to the disciples that believing in his resurrection was to prepare them to be sent to teach repentance and forgiveness (Luke 24:47), and Peter concluded his teaching about Jesus and his resurrection, with scriptural reference, in order to preach those who had Jesus killed the importance of repentance and conversion to be benefitted from what Jesus has made available to them through his death and resurrection (Acts 3:19-20).