Of Shepherd and sheep
Commentary
We do not give much thought to shepherds and sheep these days. Many preachers dread the lessons for this Sunday because they cannot -- rightly -- bring themselves to continue the analogy of the Scriptures that the people are sheep. To so portray human beings as animals -- not even animals in the first cars on the brain train -- is an insult to us modern folks who pride ourselves in making our own decisions and exercising our freedom. Besides, how many of our listeners have ever seen a sheep except on a mural above the altar in Jesus' arms or in the movie Babe?
Two of the lessons for today -- the second and the Gospel in addition to the Psalm -- take us smack into the ancient world of sheep and shepherds. As they do, they focus not so much on the sheep as on the Shepherd, and so perhaps we can skirt our aversion to the sheep imagery by focusing on what the texts are announcing to us about the identity of Jesus.
Acts 2:42-47
The verses describe the new life that had come upon the three thousand that were baptized following Peter's Pentecost sermon. They had pleaded with Peter to tell them what to do to break free of "this corrupt generation," and they followed Peter's exhortation to repent and be baptized.
Having been baptized "in the name of Jesus Christ," these new persons demonstrated what a life of repentance looked like. "Repent," we have seen in previous discussions, means turning around, making a 180-degree turn. That "about face" is the content of this lesson.
Instead of the rugged individualism that has haunted humanity for millennia, these new creations "were together and had all things in common" (v. 44). They took everything they owned independently, sold it, and shared the proceeds to any and all, so that all needs were cared for. Not only did they share a communal life for the necessities of the body, but they spent much time worshiping together as a new community. Interestingly, they worshiped, as Jesus did, in the temple, but their praise and thanksgiving to God were now offered as a community gathered "in the name of Jesus." In a society like ours in these United States, one described most adequately by Robert Bellah and his colleagues in Habits of the Heart, that message about community versus individualism can provide a powerful challenge to the new creations who listen to our sermons today.
1 Peter 2:19-25
The lifestyle of the Christian is also the thrust of the second lesson, although we must recognize that the entire pericope was addressed originally to slaves (the addressees of this paragraph are not mentioned due to the elimination of verse 18 from the pericope). Intended to provide more general instruction, then, the lesson as we have it encourages Christians to endure suffering at the hands of others.
The model that is provided for such endurance of unjust suffering is that of Jesus himself. Yet Jesus' own response to the suffering inflicted on him and the vicarious nature of his suffering is described in imagery from the Suffering Servant song of Isaiah 52:13--53:12. The song offers the following verses to the dirge of Jesus' experience: Isaiah 53:4, 5, 6, 9, 12. Since the song-based narrative goes beyond the humble acceptance of suffering at the hands of others to include the vicarious nature of the servant's suffering, there is reason to believe the author is here incorporating a body of material known in the early church. The role of vicarious suffering makes no sense in the present context addressed to slaves apart from the recognition that it belonged to a whole that is here quoted. The incorporation of an entire hymn that includes much more than the context requires is evident also at Philippians 2:1-11, where the exaltation at the end moves far beyond the stress on humility, the reason for which the hymn was quoted.
In any case, the imagery of sheep and shepherd provides the punch line to the hymn-like narrative. "For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls." That Jesus Christ is the shepherd of the flock, a chip off the divine block, is the focus of the Gospel for the day. That he is also the "guardian of your souls" is vital in this epistle which addresses people who are under threat of persecution on the one hand and are facing those "desires of the flesh that wage war against your souls" (2:11) on the other. Jesus is the episkopos who will protect them from eternal alienation from God.
John 10:1-10
This Gospel for the day prevents us from ignoring the difficult issue of shepherd and sheep simply because it speaks of nothing else. The pericope falls one verse short of Jesus' announcement, "I am the good shepherd." What follows that "I am" saying demonstrates the good shepherd is one that gives his life for the sheep. Yet we have enough in this segment of chapter 10 to know that on a scale of one to ten, Jesus ranks 10 as shepherd.
Jesus' saying here begins as many do: "Very truly, I tell you" (literally, "Amen, Amen, I say to you"). John uses this expression 25 times in his Gospel, only a few less than Matthew (thirty) and more than Mark and Luke (thirteen and seven respectively). The expression has the point of indicating that what Jesus says is as good as gold. It would be equivalent to our comment, "I give you my word," or in a legal sense, "I solemnly swear to tell the truth...." Truth, after all, is why Jesus came into the world: "for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth" (18:37). Truth, above all, is who Jesus is: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life" (14:6). It only makes sense that when Jesus speaks, he is telling the truth.
The truth he expounds at this point is his identity as the shepherd of the flock and the good news of that relationship for the flock.
While the image of shepherd and sheep might make our wool stand up and bristle, the imagery goes back in history to some of our earliest written records. Hammurabi, the founder and king of the Old Babylonian Empire in the eighteenth century B.C., called himself the shepherd of his people. One king after another employed that same metaphor, especially when they made the annual state-of-the-kingdom addresses to their gods. The metaphor designated royalty -- only the king was the shepherd of the flock.
The same royal ideology was used in the Old Testament to designate David and Davidic kings as well. "He chose his servant David, and took him from the sheepfolds; from tending the nursing ewes he brought him to be the shepherd of his people Jacob, of Israel, his inheritance" (Psalm 78:70-71). The psalm is not simply describing David's career climb from sheep to people. Rather it takes the common royal ideology about shepherds and moves it back to David's youth. Like a chip off the old block, later and future Davidic kings, even the ideal Messiah to come, will serve as shepherds (Ezekiel 34:23 and Micah 5:3).
Since only the king could claim the title of shepherd of the people, it stands to reason that God the King would also be the shepherd par excellence. At Ezekiel 34, after the prophet has described the work of the bad shepherds -- the leaders of the people responsible for their being scattered and unfed -- the Lord speaks of his taking over the role himself: gathering them, taking them home, grazing them, binding their wounds, strengthening them, and feeding "them in justice" (v. 16). Likewise, Second Isaiah describes the coming salvation of God by comparing his work to that of a shepherd -- feed, gather, carry, lead (Isaiah 40:11). Psalm 80 begins with defining God as "Shepherd of Israel" and immediately connects the metaphor to divine kingship: "You who are enthroned upon the cherubim" (v. 1). Psalm 23, the selection for the day, is unusual in that it presents the Lord as "my" shepherd, individualizing the otherwise corporate image; there, too, however, the idyllic scene changes in midstream to the Lord as host in the temple (a palace for divinity).
It must be said that while Jesus had before him the shepherd imagery of the Old Testament, by the time he used the metaphor in the first century, the shepherd was no longer a royal concept. On the contrary, shepherds were not highly regarded at all. Spending time with the sheep did not exactly enhance their social graces. They were not home at night to protect their own wives and families, and so they were not considered honorable. And when one happened into town, any discerning nose could detect the presence of a shepherd in the narrow streets.
Jesus knew both sides of the reputation of shepherds when he chose to describe himself to the Pharisees who were still chirping over the blind and sight issue of the previous chapter. In their presence he made a distinction similar to the one the Lord made in Ezekiel 34: there the contrast was between bad shepherds and the good shepherd, here the difference was between thieves and shepherds.
Jesus' first contrast centers on the approach to the sheepfold. The thief finds his own way, hidden from the gatekeeper, but the shepherd, known to the gatekeeper, enters through the door. Immediately the issues of trust and honesty and openness rise to the surface, but perhaps behind them all is the simple truth that some do not belong in the fold and others do.
The second difference between thieves and shepherds is voice recognition. Because the voice of the shepherd is familiar, his own sheep will gather around him and will follow out through the gate into pasture land. The thief's voice, on the contrary, will obviously sound strange to the flock, and so they will run the other way. In the modern context we see many movies today in which entrance to some secret location is based on hand or voice recognition. Imitating that voice is the key to solving many a spy thriller, but when that happens, someone inevitably finds out. Some people belong in the place, and others do not.
Before Jesus continues, John tells us readers that the disciples and others were having difficulty understanding what he was talking about. The lack of comprehension began in chapter 2 following the cleansing of the temple. Jesus' teaching about raising up the temple in three days made sense to the disciples as a reference to his body only after the resurrection (v. 22). In the discussion with Nicodemus, Jesus expressed his astonishment that a teacher of Israel could not understand what he meant by being born of the Spirit (3:10). In discussion with the Jews in the temple precincts John writes they did not understand that Jesus' words, "he who sent me," meant the Father (8:27). His disciples did not understand why Jesus had to ride into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday on a donkey; only after the resurrection did they achieve their aha! experience (12:16). Jesus himself tells the disciples that "what I am doing you do not know now, but afterward you will understand" (13:7). In short, only the resurrection and ascension and the gift of the Holy Spirit will enable the dumbfounded to comprehend who Jesus was and what he meant by his imagistic language.
The third major difference between the good shepherd and thieves is that the latter are bent on destruction: "steal and kill and destroy" (v. 10). Jesus, the good shepherd, however, "came that they may have life and have it abundantly." The goal of the shepherd's care for the sheep is the gift of life. Since "life" occurs 47 times in John's Gospel, we should not be surprised that it occurs here. Life is the stated reason for the writing of the Gospel: "that through believing you may have life in his name" (20:31). That life does indeed come by believing in Jesus, and it is life that begins now and continues through eternity. No thief, however manipulative, can offer that.
The "who is Jesus" issue jumps to the foreground when Jesus makes his second "You have my word" announcement in our pericope. This certain word is another of John's "I am" passages: "I am the gate for the sheep" (v. 8 and again at v. 9). Not only is Jesus the shepherd who enters the fold because the gatekeeper knows him, but also he is the gate itself. Entry into the fold, into the new community called the church, can occur in no other way than through Jesus the Gate. He is the means by which people "will be saved, will come in and go out and find pasture" (v. 9). The words call to mind those of Moses, who asked that the Lord provide a successor to himself "who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, so that the congregation of the Lord may not be like sheep without a shepherd" (Numbers 27:17). As an immediate response to that request, the Lord appointed Joshua (v. 18), whose name in Greek is, of course, Jesus. Moses could never have imagined that one day the shepherd Joshua/Jesus would not only lead the sheep in and out for pasture but also that he would become the gate itself through whom the flock would find life itself.
We have his word on it!
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Achtemeier
Acts 2:42-47
These stories in Acts about the beginning of the church in Jerusalem are intended by Luke, the author of Acts, to tell of the powerful work of the Holy Spirit. So it is that after Peter's sermon concerning the resurrection of Christ, which we looked at last Sunday, we read in Acts 2:41 that "there were added that day about three thousand souls" to the fellowship of the church.
These conversions were no momentary outbursts of enthusiasm, however, that had no effect on the lives of those who believed and were baptized. Rather, in our text for the morning, Acts immediately goes on to tell us about the changes that were wrought in the lives of the new Christians. Belief brought about transformation, as true faith always does.
We learn first, therefore, that all of these new Jerusalem Christians were bound together in a community, in a church, if you will -- not like our churches with buildings and ministers, educational programs, and weekly worship services, but a church nevertheless. The work of the Spirit produced a new fellowship that probably met in various-sized groups in persons' houses, since most of the New Testament churches were house churches (cf. Romans 16:3-5). These early Christians had placed their trust in a risen Lord who had taught them to forgive and minister to and love one another. And the Holy Spirit of Christ produced that love and caring among them. They became persons who bore one another's burdens (cf. Galatians 6:2), who took an interest in each other's welfare, and who gave of their time and labor for one another. They became a community truly living by the Spirit of Christ.
The amazing result, therefore, as verses 44 and 45 tell us, is that they "had all things in common. They sold their possessions and goods and distributed them to all, as any had need." Now those verses disturb us modern-day Christians a great deal, don't they, because they seem to suggest a communist or socialist way of life. Or, if we take them personally, they run up against our strong objections to their implications for us materially wealthy and comfortable church members. We have no intention of selling all we have and of distributing the profits among our fellow Christians. We are very much like that rich young man in Jesus' story in Mark, whom our Lord commanded to "go, sell what you have, and give to the poor ... and come, follow me" (Mark 10:17-22). We too go away sorrowful, because we have "great possessions."
But I think we have to get at the basic thrust of this description of the early Jerusalem church in Acts in verses 44 and 45 of our text. It is not laying upon us the necessity of a communal society in America. Rather, what it is saying is that those early Christians were conscious of and ministered to the material needs of one another. They loved one another, and so they did not let anyone in their fellowship want for the necessities of life. They gave to those "who had need." And that is the responsibility laid upon us also -- to give generously to those in need, wherever they may be in the far-flung reaches of the church. There should be no one hungry or unable to provide for their children or lacking proper shelter and clothing in the Christian Church. We must not ignore others' basic needs. In whatever way we meet those necessities, by whatever mission giving or financial method or plan of employment, one of the marks of true Christian fellowship is concern, not for our own comfort, but for the welfare of our fellow believers.
Our passage lays out other characteristics of that early Jerusalem church that was formed by the Spirit of Christ. "They devoted themselves," says verse 42, "to the apostles' teaching." And that is an integral part of Christian life in the church -- teaching, learning, education. But their education was not simply a discussion of the problems of their society, as so much of our education is. Nor was it designed to be simply inspirational or therapeutic, as again ours often is. No, it was study of the apostles' teaching. In other words, it was a study of what Peter and Paul, James and Philip, and the other apostles had proclaimed about Jesus Christ. In addition, it was a study of Jesus' words and deeds as those related to the Old Testament, which was the Bible of the early church. They studied what we now have written in our Bibles: that is, the apostolic teaching. They learned what God had done in the history of Israel and of Jesus Christ, and they discussed and meditated and memorized those mighty, saving acts.
That is indeed a model for our church life, isn't it, because the foundation of our faith consists in the accounts of the words and deeds of God found now in our Old and New Testaments. Those words alone tell us who God truly is and what he desires and what he is doing. Those words alone can anchor our faith firmly in the way, the truth, and the life, and give us the knowledge that must accompany our religious zeal. Without knowledge, Christian faith dies, and most of us unfortunately are lacking in that basic knowledge. If we want to be the church, we must devote ourselves to the apostles' teaching, now found in our scriptures.
That early Jerusalem church also worshiped together. They participated in the "breaking of bread," which is probably a reference to the Lord's Supper (v. 42), for Luke earlier tells us that the disciples first knew the risen Christ in "the breaking of bread" (Luke 24:35). And we know him there too, do we not? In our celebration of the Lord's Supper together, the risen Christ comes to us once again in the Spirit, and pours out his vitality and power upon us, and binds us together with himself and the Father, with one another, and with all of the faithful through the ages. Finally our faith finds its empowering motivation in our communion with our Lord and one another. And without that relation to our Lord, we cannot be Christians.
Those forbears of our faith in Jerusalem also prayed together (v. 42), lifting up their praises and thanksgivings (v. 46), their confessions and penitence, their petitions for themselves and others to God through Christ. Their prayer was the response to all that God did for them, and our prayers are our response also. God in Christ in the Spirit has done all things for us. In prayer, we give back our thanks and the concerns of our daily lives, laying all out before him in our surrender to his love.
It is no wonder that Acts can tell us that group of early Christians in Jerusalem could perform wonders in their community (v. 43) -- after all, they lived in the power of God. And it is no wonder that they found favor among the people, or that numbers of converts were added to their fellowship day by day (v. 47). They lived and moved and had their being in the Spirit of Christ that had been poured out on them. They truly were a church. And that is the community we too can be if we let the Lord Christ have his way with us.
Two of the lessons for today -- the second and the Gospel in addition to the Psalm -- take us smack into the ancient world of sheep and shepherds. As they do, they focus not so much on the sheep as on the Shepherd, and so perhaps we can skirt our aversion to the sheep imagery by focusing on what the texts are announcing to us about the identity of Jesus.
Acts 2:42-47
The verses describe the new life that had come upon the three thousand that were baptized following Peter's Pentecost sermon. They had pleaded with Peter to tell them what to do to break free of "this corrupt generation," and they followed Peter's exhortation to repent and be baptized.
Having been baptized "in the name of Jesus Christ," these new persons demonstrated what a life of repentance looked like. "Repent," we have seen in previous discussions, means turning around, making a 180-degree turn. That "about face" is the content of this lesson.
Instead of the rugged individualism that has haunted humanity for millennia, these new creations "were together and had all things in common" (v. 44). They took everything they owned independently, sold it, and shared the proceeds to any and all, so that all needs were cared for. Not only did they share a communal life for the necessities of the body, but they spent much time worshiping together as a new community. Interestingly, they worshiped, as Jesus did, in the temple, but their praise and thanksgiving to God were now offered as a community gathered "in the name of Jesus." In a society like ours in these United States, one described most adequately by Robert Bellah and his colleagues in Habits of the Heart, that message about community versus individualism can provide a powerful challenge to the new creations who listen to our sermons today.
1 Peter 2:19-25
The lifestyle of the Christian is also the thrust of the second lesson, although we must recognize that the entire pericope was addressed originally to slaves (the addressees of this paragraph are not mentioned due to the elimination of verse 18 from the pericope). Intended to provide more general instruction, then, the lesson as we have it encourages Christians to endure suffering at the hands of others.
The model that is provided for such endurance of unjust suffering is that of Jesus himself. Yet Jesus' own response to the suffering inflicted on him and the vicarious nature of his suffering is described in imagery from the Suffering Servant song of Isaiah 52:13--53:12. The song offers the following verses to the dirge of Jesus' experience: Isaiah 53:4, 5, 6, 9, 12. Since the song-based narrative goes beyond the humble acceptance of suffering at the hands of others to include the vicarious nature of the servant's suffering, there is reason to believe the author is here incorporating a body of material known in the early church. The role of vicarious suffering makes no sense in the present context addressed to slaves apart from the recognition that it belonged to a whole that is here quoted. The incorporation of an entire hymn that includes much more than the context requires is evident also at Philippians 2:1-11, where the exaltation at the end moves far beyond the stress on humility, the reason for which the hymn was quoted.
In any case, the imagery of sheep and shepherd provides the punch line to the hymn-like narrative. "For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls." That Jesus Christ is the shepherd of the flock, a chip off the divine block, is the focus of the Gospel for the day. That he is also the "guardian of your souls" is vital in this epistle which addresses people who are under threat of persecution on the one hand and are facing those "desires of the flesh that wage war against your souls" (2:11) on the other. Jesus is the episkopos who will protect them from eternal alienation from God.
John 10:1-10
This Gospel for the day prevents us from ignoring the difficult issue of shepherd and sheep simply because it speaks of nothing else. The pericope falls one verse short of Jesus' announcement, "I am the good shepherd." What follows that "I am" saying demonstrates the good shepherd is one that gives his life for the sheep. Yet we have enough in this segment of chapter 10 to know that on a scale of one to ten, Jesus ranks 10 as shepherd.
Jesus' saying here begins as many do: "Very truly, I tell you" (literally, "Amen, Amen, I say to you"). John uses this expression 25 times in his Gospel, only a few less than Matthew (thirty) and more than Mark and Luke (thirteen and seven respectively). The expression has the point of indicating that what Jesus says is as good as gold. It would be equivalent to our comment, "I give you my word," or in a legal sense, "I solemnly swear to tell the truth...." Truth, after all, is why Jesus came into the world: "for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth" (18:37). Truth, above all, is who Jesus is: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life" (14:6). It only makes sense that when Jesus speaks, he is telling the truth.
The truth he expounds at this point is his identity as the shepherd of the flock and the good news of that relationship for the flock.
While the image of shepherd and sheep might make our wool stand up and bristle, the imagery goes back in history to some of our earliest written records. Hammurabi, the founder and king of the Old Babylonian Empire in the eighteenth century B.C., called himself the shepherd of his people. One king after another employed that same metaphor, especially when they made the annual state-of-the-kingdom addresses to their gods. The metaphor designated royalty -- only the king was the shepherd of the flock.
The same royal ideology was used in the Old Testament to designate David and Davidic kings as well. "He chose his servant David, and took him from the sheepfolds; from tending the nursing ewes he brought him to be the shepherd of his people Jacob, of Israel, his inheritance" (Psalm 78:70-71). The psalm is not simply describing David's career climb from sheep to people. Rather it takes the common royal ideology about shepherds and moves it back to David's youth. Like a chip off the old block, later and future Davidic kings, even the ideal Messiah to come, will serve as shepherds (Ezekiel 34:23 and Micah 5:3).
Since only the king could claim the title of shepherd of the people, it stands to reason that God the King would also be the shepherd par excellence. At Ezekiel 34, after the prophet has described the work of the bad shepherds -- the leaders of the people responsible for their being scattered and unfed -- the Lord speaks of his taking over the role himself: gathering them, taking them home, grazing them, binding their wounds, strengthening them, and feeding "them in justice" (v. 16). Likewise, Second Isaiah describes the coming salvation of God by comparing his work to that of a shepherd -- feed, gather, carry, lead (Isaiah 40:11). Psalm 80 begins with defining God as "Shepherd of Israel" and immediately connects the metaphor to divine kingship: "You who are enthroned upon the cherubim" (v. 1). Psalm 23, the selection for the day, is unusual in that it presents the Lord as "my" shepherd, individualizing the otherwise corporate image; there, too, however, the idyllic scene changes in midstream to the Lord as host in the temple (a palace for divinity).
It must be said that while Jesus had before him the shepherd imagery of the Old Testament, by the time he used the metaphor in the first century, the shepherd was no longer a royal concept. On the contrary, shepherds were not highly regarded at all. Spending time with the sheep did not exactly enhance their social graces. They were not home at night to protect their own wives and families, and so they were not considered honorable. And when one happened into town, any discerning nose could detect the presence of a shepherd in the narrow streets.
Jesus knew both sides of the reputation of shepherds when he chose to describe himself to the Pharisees who were still chirping over the blind and sight issue of the previous chapter. In their presence he made a distinction similar to the one the Lord made in Ezekiel 34: there the contrast was between bad shepherds and the good shepherd, here the difference was between thieves and shepherds.
Jesus' first contrast centers on the approach to the sheepfold. The thief finds his own way, hidden from the gatekeeper, but the shepherd, known to the gatekeeper, enters through the door. Immediately the issues of trust and honesty and openness rise to the surface, but perhaps behind them all is the simple truth that some do not belong in the fold and others do.
The second difference between thieves and shepherds is voice recognition. Because the voice of the shepherd is familiar, his own sheep will gather around him and will follow out through the gate into pasture land. The thief's voice, on the contrary, will obviously sound strange to the flock, and so they will run the other way. In the modern context we see many movies today in which entrance to some secret location is based on hand or voice recognition. Imitating that voice is the key to solving many a spy thriller, but when that happens, someone inevitably finds out. Some people belong in the place, and others do not.
Before Jesus continues, John tells us readers that the disciples and others were having difficulty understanding what he was talking about. The lack of comprehension began in chapter 2 following the cleansing of the temple. Jesus' teaching about raising up the temple in three days made sense to the disciples as a reference to his body only after the resurrection (v. 22). In the discussion with Nicodemus, Jesus expressed his astonishment that a teacher of Israel could not understand what he meant by being born of the Spirit (3:10). In discussion with the Jews in the temple precincts John writes they did not understand that Jesus' words, "he who sent me," meant the Father (8:27). His disciples did not understand why Jesus had to ride into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday on a donkey; only after the resurrection did they achieve their aha! experience (12:16). Jesus himself tells the disciples that "what I am doing you do not know now, but afterward you will understand" (13:7). In short, only the resurrection and ascension and the gift of the Holy Spirit will enable the dumbfounded to comprehend who Jesus was and what he meant by his imagistic language.
The third major difference between the good shepherd and thieves is that the latter are bent on destruction: "steal and kill and destroy" (v. 10). Jesus, the good shepherd, however, "came that they may have life and have it abundantly." The goal of the shepherd's care for the sheep is the gift of life. Since "life" occurs 47 times in John's Gospel, we should not be surprised that it occurs here. Life is the stated reason for the writing of the Gospel: "that through believing you may have life in his name" (20:31). That life does indeed come by believing in Jesus, and it is life that begins now and continues through eternity. No thief, however manipulative, can offer that.
The "who is Jesus" issue jumps to the foreground when Jesus makes his second "You have my word" announcement in our pericope. This certain word is another of John's "I am" passages: "I am the gate for the sheep" (v. 8 and again at v. 9). Not only is Jesus the shepherd who enters the fold because the gatekeeper knows him, but also he is the gate itself. Entry into the fold, into the new community called the church, can occur in no other way than through Jesus the Gate. He is the means by which people "will be saved, will come in and go out and find pasture" (v. 9). The words call to mind those of Moses, who asked that the Lord provide a successor to himself "who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, so that the congregation of the Lord may not be like sheep without a shepherd" (Numbers 27:17). As an immediate response to that request, the Lord appointed Joshua (v. 18), whose name in Greek is, of course, Jesus. Moses could never have imagined that one day the shepherd Joshua/Jesus would not only lead the sheep in and out for pasture but also that he would become the gate itself through whom the flock would find life itself.
We have his word on it!
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Achtemeier
Acts 2:42-47
These stories in Acts about the beginning of the church in Jerusalem are intended by Luke, the author of Acts, to tell of the powerful work of the Holy Spirit. So it is that after Peter's sermon concerning the resurrection of Christ, which we looked at last Sunday, we read in Acts 2:41 that "there were added that day about three thousand souls" to the fellowship of the church.
These conversions were no momentary outbursts of enthusiasm, however, that had no effect on the lives of those who believed and were baptized. Rather, in our text for the morning, Acts immediately goes on to tell us about the changes that were wrought in the lives of the new Christians. Belief brought about transformation, as true faith always does.
We learn first, therefore, that all of these new Jerusalem Christians were bound together in a community, in a church, if you will -- not like our churches with buildings and ministers, educational programs, and weekly worship services, but a church nevertheless. The work of the Spirit produced a new fellowship that probably met in various-sized groups in persons' houses, since most of the New Testament churches were house churches (cf. Romans 16:3-5). These early Christians had placed their trust in a risen Lord who had taught them to forgive and minister to and love one another. And the Holy Spirit of Christ produced that love and caring among them. They became persons who bore one another's burdens (cf. Galatians 6:2), who took an interest in each other's welfare, and who gave of their time and labor for one another. They became a community truly living by the Spirit of Christ.
The amazing result, therefore, as verses 44 and 45 tell us, is that they "had all things in common. They sold their possessions and goods and distributed them to all, as any had need." Now those verses disturb us modern-day Christians a great deal, don't they, because they seem to suggest a communist or socialist way of life. Or, if we take them personally, they run up against our strong objections to their implications for us materially wealthy and comfortable church members. We have no intention of selling all we have and of distributing the profits among our fellow Christians. We are very much like that rich young man in Jesus' story in Mark, whom our Lord commanded to "go, sell what you have, and give to the poor ... and come, follow me" (Mark 10:17-22). We too go away sorrowful, because we have "great possessions."
But I think we have to get at the basic thrust of this description of the early Jerusalem church in Acts in verses 44 and 45 of our text. It is not laying upon us the necessity of a communal society in America. Rather, what it is saying is that those early Christians were conscious of and ministered to the material needs of one another. They loved one another, and so they did not let anyone in their fellowship want for the necessities of life. They gave to those "who had need." And that is the responsibility laid upon us also -- to give generously to those in need, wherever they may be in the far-flung reaches of the church. There should be no one hungry or unable to provide for their children or lacking proper shelter and clothing in the Christian Church. We must not ignore others' basic needs. In whatever way we meet those necessities, by whatever mission giving or financial method or plan of employment, one of the marks of true Christian fellowship is concern, not for our own comfort, but for the welfare of our fellow believers.
Our passage lays out other characteristics of that early Jerusalem church that was formed by the Spirit of Christ. "They devoted themselves," says verse 42, "to the apostles' teaching." And that is an integral part of Christian life in the church -- teaching, learning, education. But their education was not simply a discussion of the problems of their society, as so much of our education is. Nor was it designed to be simply inspirational or therapeutic, as again ours often is. No, it was study of the apostles' teaching. In other words, it was a study of what Peter and Paul, James and Philip, and the other apostles had proclaimed about Jesus Christ. In addition, it was a study of Jesus' words and deeds as those related to the Old Testament, which was the Bible of the early church. They studied what we now have written in our Bibles: that is, the apostolic teaching. They learned what God had done in the history of Israel and of Jesus Christ, and they discussed and meditated and memorized those mighty, saving acts.
That is indeed a model for our church life, isn't it, because the foundation of our faith consists in the accounts of the words and deeds of God found now in our Old and New Testaments. Those words alone tell us who God truly is and what he desires and what he is doing. Those words alone can anchor our faith firmly in the way, the truth, and the life, and give us the knowledge that must accompany our religious zeal. Without knowledge, Christian faith dies, and most of us unfortunately are lacking in that basic knowledge. If we want to be the church, we must devote ourselves to the apostles' teaching, now found in our scriptures.
That early Jerusalem church also worshiped together. They participated in the "breaking of bread," which is probably a reference to the Lord's Supper (v. 42), for Luke earlier tells us that the disciples first knew the risen Christ in "the breaking of bread" (Luke 24:35). And we know him there too, do we not? In our celebration of the Lord's Supper together, the risen Christ comes to us once again in the Spirit, and pours out his vitality and power upon us, and binds us together with himself and the Father, with one another, and with all of the faithful through the ages. Finally our faith finds its empowering motivation in our communion with our Lord and one another. And without that relation to our Lord, we cannot be Christians.
Those forbears of our faith in Jerusalem also prayed together (v. 42), lifting up their praises and thanksgivings (v. 46), their confessions and penitence, their petitions for themselves and others to God through Christ. Their prayer was the response to all that God did for them, and our prayers are our response also. God in Christ in the Spirit has done all things for us. In prayer, we give back our thanks and the concerns of our daily lives, laying all out before him in our surrender to his love.
It is no wonder that Acts can tell us that group of early Christians in Jerusalem could perform wonders in their community (v. 43) -- after all, they lived in the power of God. And it is no wonder that they found favor among the people, or that numbers of converts were added to their fellowship day by day (v. 47). They lived and moved and had their being in the Spirit of Christ that had been poured out on them. They truly were a church. And that is the community we too can be if we let the Lord Christ have his way with us.
