Homily for the Third Sunday of Easter, Year B

“The Author Of Life You Killed, But God Raised Him From The Dead”

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Third Sunday of Easter, Year B

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, MN

Sunday, April 14, 2024

In the first century, the cross was an awful Roman instrument of torture and death. It was Rome’s way of asserting its power, of quieting any dissent, opposition and disobedience to its authority, and of maintaining its dominance, not only in Rome but around the ancient world. Crucifixion on the cross was widely considered too petrifying, too cruel, and too gory to even describe directly. The most frightening and terrifying image at the time was the image of the cross. The image of a man crucified was so heart-wrenching and so horrifying at the time. It is like seeing an image of a man hanging from a noose. When I was 12 years old, I saw the image of a man who committed suicide by hanging himself on a tree. To tell you the truth, that image haunted me for several years. That’s how people of the ancient world saw the cross and crucifixion. 

But if the image of the cross was that horrifying, if it caused nightmares for the people of the first century, how come the first Christians celebrated the cross of Jesus Christ? What enabled them to hold up the cross, to sing its praises, and to wear it as a decoration? And by the way, wearing the cross is part of my fashion. I wear the cross all the time. It has become part of my dressing up. But in the first century, it was something dreaded by many and considered an instrument of unspeaking pain and suffering. Why then did Jesus’ disciples celebrate the cross? The answer is to be found in St. Peter’s sermon in the Jerusalem temple. Speaking to people who were amazed, astonished and mesmerized by the healing of a man crippled by birth, Peter said, “The Author of life you put to death, but God raised him from the dead.” 

What does that mean? Up and down the centuries, there have been several attempts to name and make clear the salvific nature of the cross. But in the first century, it became crystal clear to the first Christians that on that terrible cross of Christ, sin had been dealt with. The curse of sin had been removed, and taken care of. On that terrible cross, Jesus functioned, just as John the Baptist had predicted, as the “Lamb of God,” sacrificed for sin, who has come to take away the sins of the world.

But does this mean that God the Father is a cruel taskmaster who demands a bloody sacrifice so as to calm and appease his anger? Not at all! The crucifixion of Jesus on the cross is the opening up of the divine heart so that we could see that absolutely nothing, no sin, no dysfunction of ours etc. could ultimately separate us from the love of God. In Romans 8:38-39, the great St. Paul says “I am convinced that neither death, no life, nor angels, nor principalities, no present things, nor future things, nor peers, nor heights, no depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” How does St. Paul know that? We killed God on the cross, but God returns with forgiving and redeeming love. The great good news of Christianity is that there is absolutely nothing that can finally separate us from God’s love, for on the cross, the price was paid. Before he expired on the cross, Jesus himself said, “It is finished,” Tetelestai in Greek, C’est fini in French, esta terminado in Spanish, Ogwusiwo in Igbo.