Scripture Study for
Fourth Sunday of Easter
Acts 4:8–12 / Psalm 118:22 / 1 John 3:1–2 / John 10:11–18
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Understanding the Word
By Dianne Bergant, C.S.A.
Peter responds to the leaders of the Jewish community in Jerusalem who challenged the healing of a crippled man. He claims that it was in the power of Jesus’ name that the man was healed, and it will be in the power of this same name that all will be saved. Peter speaks out against the leaders of the people, not because they are Jewish but because they have rejected Jesus. For the crippled man, salvation took the form of healing; for others, it can take the form of spiritual transformation. The name of Jesus is the one and only source of salvation, hence no one can afford to reject it.
The love of which the author of the second reading speaks is generative, transforming; it makes believers children of God. Everything that happens in the lives of believers is a consequence of their having been recreated as God’s children. As children of God, they are a new reality and hence not accepted by the world, the old reality. The “now but not yet” of Christian eschatology is clearly stated. Believers have already been reborn as children of God. However, their transformation has not yet been completed. That is dependent on a future manifestation. Promised an even fuller identification with God, believers will see God as God is.
As shepherd, Jesus is committed to the well-being of the sheep. He is willing to protect his flock even to the point of risking his own life for them. He has a mutual, intimate relationship with them based on the mutual, intimate relationship that he has with God. This is true even of sheep that are not now his. The high Christology can be seen in the control that he has not only over his death but also over his resurrection. He has the power to take up his life again. He received this power from God. The universally saving death of Jesus is the work of the Father through the Son.