Restoration

 Twelfth Saturday of Pentecost

Our Bible study continues with Peter's speech in Acts 3:11-26. You should read it before you read this blog any further.

Peter addresses the crowd as "Israelites." They are all Jews. The location is Solomon's portico in the Jerusalem Temple complex. We don't exactly where Solomon's portico was, the Temple complex having been totally destroyed by the Romans forty years later. The speech is very Jewish, clearly directed to Peter's audience. Peter uses the name of Jesus but not the title "Son of God." The speech is an effort to persuade his audience that Jesus is the long awaited Messiah, prophesied in the OT. 

In his first reference to God, he calls God, "The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of our ancestors." This places Peter's ideas firmly in Jewish bedrock. He is not preaching a new religion to these Jewish listeners, but a fulfillment of what they have always believed all the way back to the time of Patriarchs. The healing of the crippled man, which the people have witnessed, demonstrates the power of God, working through the name of Jesus. 

Peter rebukes them for handing over Jesus to Pilate, but in v. 17 he excuses both them and the Romans, because they acted out of ignorance. 

In v. 15, Peter says, "You killed the Author of Life." There will be many of what scholars call Christological titles throughout the NT, but this is one of the oddest. To begin with, I really don't like the translation of the Greek word archegos as "Author." The Greek NT  lexicon translates it as meaning "first in a series," or "originator." "Author" is not given as an alternative translation. Paul refers to Jesus as "the second Adam." I think that's what Luke/Peter intends here. The idea of "new life" is all over the NT. Jesus is the originator of this newness of life.

The Jewish expectation of the Messiah was that he would restore the Kingdom of Israel, long dominated by a series of empires, the Romans being only the latest. Luke tends to regard the crucifixion of Jesus as a human crime, not as a part of a divine plan. God overcame this worst of crimes by raising Jesus from the dead. The promise of the messianic restoration of the Kingdom is still there. Jesus was the Messiah, but he did not accomplish the restoration while he was on earth--this time. Jesus is now in heaven with God. He will return one day to restore the Kingdom. Unlike Matthew, Paul, and Revelation, Luke does not seem to think that the return of Jesus is imminent. All this is in vv. 20-21. In his time on earth Jesus brought "times of refreshing," another curious phrase. That refreshing continues even after Jesus' time on earth was ended.

Jesus was sent first to the Jews (v. 26) but his restoration of the Kingdom will be universal (v. 21). Refreshed by Jesus and the subsequent empowerment by the Holy Spirit, the Apostles are to take the message of the Kingdom to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). 

We Christians are the continuation of the work of the Apostles. The Gospel is still far from reaching the ends of the earth. We are helping Jesus to usher in the Kingdom. That is not our only job, not by a long shot, but it is an essential job for us, one which we Methodists have, in my view, sadly neglected over the last seventy years. We have done many other things well, very well indeed, but have we brought the restoration of the kingdom any closer? Maybe it's time to start. 

Faithfully,

Christian