We hear about Peter and John heading off to the Temple to pray when a lame man stops them and asks them for help. Instead of giving this man money to help him economically, they heal him through the Holy Spirit. This man leaps for joy and shouts praises to God, which draws the attention of a large crowd. This gives Peter the opportunity to preach to the people about Jesus. He tells the crowd about what happened to their Lord. Peter wants the people to repent, to change their lives, to become followers of the Lord. In this miracle, it is not the miracle itself that draws attention, but rather the power and truth behind that miracle as it teaches us about God’s kingdom and about our faith.
When we think about this story, we might think about aspects of our faith that weave in and out of our own journey of faith. We celebrate the reality of the resurrection in a special way during the Easter season. Jesus tried to help the disciples understand this reality. He is not alive again in a purely earthly way. But neither is he a ghost. He is risen - he is resurrected - this is a new reality. Secondly, there is the cross. The resurrection does not exist by itself; with the resurrection is the reality of the cross. Christ would have to suffer and die in order to be raised from the dead. Third, there is our need to repent. We heard the call for repentance many times during Lent. Repentance is a theme in our reading today in the Easter season. We are to feel the urgency to repent and renew our lives again and again as disciples of Christ. It is not something we do once and for all.
May we hear the message of Christ in the words of Peter and John today. We need to be comforted by the Good News of Christ, yet we also need to radically repent and to bring this message of repentance to our world.
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