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 something considered by many to be too gory and too petrifying. But what is it that empowered and emboldened the first Christians to hold up the cross, to sing its praises, and to wear it as a decoration? It is precisely in what St. Peter, our first Pope said in his sermon to the crowd who gathered in the Jerusalem Temple: “The Author of life you put to death, but God raised him from the dead.” In Acts chapter 3, we are told that Peter and John were going to the temple area for the three o’clock hour of prayer. Today, the 3 o’clock hour is the hour of Divine Mercy. Getting closer to the Temple, they saw a crippled man from birth sitting by the gate called “the Beautiful Gate” and begging for alms. As they were about to go into the temple, the crippled man asked for alms. Looking intently at him, they said to him, “Look at us.” The crippled man looked up expecting to receive something from them. But from his depth, Peter said, “I have neither silver nor gold, but what I do have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, rise and walk.” With faith that his prayer has been answered, Peter took the crippled man by the right hand and raised him up. Immediately he leaped up, stood and walked around. With great joy, he went into the temple with them, walking and jumping and praising God. When people saw the crippled man walking and praising God, they recognized him as the abandoned one who used to sit at the Beautiful Gate and beg for alms. And they wondered what had happened to him. 

Responding to people’s amazement and astonishment at the restoration of the crippled man, Peter boldly proclaimed the central facts of the Gospel. He told them that the crippled man had been healed by faith in the name of the One they had betrayed, denied and killed, but whom God has now raised up. He declared that it was faith in the name of Jesus Christ that healed the crippled man. I tell you, Peter’s bold sermon hit many in the crowd like a spiritual thunderstorm that many of them believed. 

Now, what are the central Gospel facts that Peter preached in the Temple? The first is, “The Author of life you put to death…” In the Nicene Creed we profess Jesus as “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things (including life) were made.” He is indeed the Author of life— human and divine. He is the Creator and Source of all life. But because God so loved the world, he went all the way down— he became a human being. In Jesus, the Creator became a creature, the all-powerful became all-powerless, the almighty became all-weak, he became a baby took weak to even raise his head. As if his coming all the way down is not enough, as if his kenosis, the emptying of himself is not enough, he went further down to being stripped naked, which was part of the torture and humiliation of the cross and to being crucified on the cross like a common criminal. For what purpose? For what reason? In order to pay for our sins. On the cross of calvary, what all the burnt sacrifice of bulls and goats were unable to do, that is, to take away sins, the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ on cross, did it once for all. By his stripes, we are healed. Salvation is now won for us. The gate of heaven has been thrown wide open. Jesus has paid the price. 

The second central message of Peter is: “…But God raised him from the dead.” I can’t say it enough that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the be all and the end all of the Christian faith. It is a revolution. It is an earthquake that changed human history and turned everything upside down. Without the Resurrection of the Lord, our faith is in vain, our preaching is in vain, preachers of the Christian message are fake prophets and we are still living in sin. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, it means that injustice won. It means that evil won. It means that wickedness, lies, deceit, betrayal, hatred won. If Jesus did not rise, it means Satan won the battle. It means that God is defeated by his enemies. It means death defeated life. It means might is right. But glory be to God, Jesus is raised by the power of God. 

The third message of Peter is, “Of this we are witnesses.” What exactly are they witnesses of? Everything that Jesus had said and done, his arrest, trial, death, burial and resurrection. This is not second hand news. It is not a myth, a legend or fairytale. Peter is speaking as someone who had a first hand experience. And Peter is a historical figure. He is not peddling in a “once upon a time in a distant galaxy” story. If you are questioning and doubting the historicity of Peter, travel to Rome and they will show you where he is buried. What Peter is saying is a reliable documented fact. And every Christian is called to also become a witness as well. This is what evangelization is about. 

The fourth message of Peter that is often neglected, ignored and explained away today is that faith in the name of Jesus, the Author of life, is the only way to be saved and receive eternal life. How come? If Jesus has been raised from death by God, then he is the full manifestation of God, and he must be the center of our life. More to it, Christianity has to be the fullness of God’s revelation. There is no third option. Jesus has to be God’s definitive and final outreach to the human race. Anyone telling you something else or offering you another path doesn’t get it. And we should not forget that from his own lips, Jesus says, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6). If someone says he is a way, it means there are other ways. If someone says I am a truth, it means there are other truths and I happen to be one of them. If someone says I am a life, it would mean there are other modes of life out there and I just happened to be one of them. But what Jesus said is “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” which means the only way and access to God, the only truth that must be known and lived for, and the only life that deserves giving our entire life for.