Acts 2:22-36; Psalm 15 LXX/16:8-11; Psalm 109 LXX/10:1; Luke 24:13-45; Phil. 2:5-11, 2 Peter 1:19
In this past week, we rejoiced in God’s promise of Pentecost, and the enlivening of the apostles when the Holy Spirit made the fishermen “most wise.” We have a tendency, though, to gloss over a major part of the first apostolic sermon, one of the longest that appears in the Acts. Acts 2:22-38 is appointed for the Wednesday of Bright Week, but we do not frequently attend liturgy that day, and after all the excitement of Pascha may miss its importance. In this episode of our series on Acts, we will read this major part of Peter’s sermon, whose introduction we heard in the last episode, but leaves his closing appeal to the crowd and their response for next time. Our reading, then, is Acts 2:22-36, which itself contains two readings from the Old Testament to illumine what it is that Peter is explaining. Here are the apostle Peter’s words:
Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, losing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. For David says concerning him,
I saw the Lord always before me,
for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken;
therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced;
my flesh also will dwell in hope.
For you will not abandon my soul to Hades,
or let your Holy One see corruption.
You have made known to me the paths of life;
you will make me full of gladness with your presence.Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. For David did not ascend into heavens, but he himself says,
The LORD said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
until I make your enemies your footstool.”Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. (Acts 2:22-36)
This is a pointed and pertinent sermon, bluntly honest about the guilt of those who are listening, both begins and ends with the charge that Jesus was known and crucified by those who were listening. The sermon asks and answers three main questions: Who is Jesus? Who was David? And who are the “Men of Israel,” including the apostles themselves? Peter uses the Old Testament, specifically the Psalms, to illumine these three questions.
First, then, who is Jesus?
The first thing to say is that this question is asked in the present tense (Who IS Jesus?), since Jesus is “the Existing One,” though Peter does not start with this great mystery. Rather, he introduces Jesus as “a man, attested by God,” and “known” to his audience through recent events. It is probably the case that not all of those gathered for Pentecost had been there during the scandalous actions of the Passover, when Jesus was arrested, insulted, and crucified. Peter, though, following the understanding of the times, speaks to them as a body, as “the House of Israel,” and contrasts the actions of their leaders and those in the crowd who followed that lead, with the plans of God. The apostle reminds them of the mighty acts of God done by this “man,” this one who has been among them, and lets them in on a secret. Their leaders may have thought it was their plan to execute him by colluding with the Gentiles, men who did not know the Torah. But all of this was done according to the foreknowledge and indeed the will of God. For though Jesus is indeed a man, he is more—he is also the seed or descendant of David, the King (in fact the Messiah or highly anointed King), and the LORD! Peter’s identification of Jesus moves in a crescendo, beginning with man, then king, then Christ or Messiah, and finally the One who will judge all humanity, and who shares with the mysterious name of Lord (known to Moses as the “I AM, The Existing One”).
Just as Hades was tricked in thinking that he had merely captured another man in death, so the human rulers of the world were deceived in thinking that the crucifixion would be the end of their enemy. But it was only the beginning! After the crucifixion came the release of the captives from Hades, the resurrection, and the Ascension.
The Apostle Peter turns to the Psalter, as he had been taught by Jesus in the upper Room on Pascha evening, to witness to the mighty acts of God. He begins with Psalm 15 LXX/ 16:8-11, where we hear of a mysterious person who is “always with the LORD,” and who even has God on his “right hand.” One with that intimacy could not be held by death, of course, nor could His body be corrupted, but resurrection followed, with paths of new life, and joy in God’s presence. The waiting of Holy Saturday was not in vain, and this became part of the triumph. Then, there is more. The apostle turns to Psalm 109 LXX/110, where the LORD is invited to sit at the right hand of the Father, and even enemies come to adore and worship Him. We are reminded of St. Paul’s words in Philippians 2, where he is probably quoting from an early Christian hymn: “every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that He is LORD, to the glory of God the Father.” This Jesus, whom His own people crucified with the help of Torah-devoid Gentiles, has now been exalted above all the heavens! The Father, says Peter, has made Him both Messiah and LORD! We remember again that in this context, LORD is a way of saying “the existing One,” not just a title of honor, but the very name of God as He reveals Himself to us.
The second question here is “Who was David.” That is less mysterious than the first, but still not straightforward. The people considered David the King of the Golden Age when Israel was united. But of course, he had his great flaws too, including adultery and murder, and he certainly did not defeat death. St. Peter can point to the tomb of David, clearly there on Mount Zion near the great Zion gate. David was not only a king though, says Peter. He was a prophet, and the greatest of his Psalms points to Jesus, his greatest Descendant and in fact, as David names Him, his “Lord.” With this question, and his use of the Psalms, the Apostle gives the crowd their first lesson in Christian interpretation, teaching them to see in the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms, the person of Jesus Himself. He passes on the teaching that Jesus gave in the Upper Room (and on Emmaus) that the major purpose of the Old Testament is to point to the One to come!
This human king, David, this one with prophetic insight and a beautiful voice, perceived the LORD to come in the bosom of God, with the Father always, resurrected, and ascended to glory! As the letter of Peter puts it, the faithful now have, through the apostolic teaching of the Old Testament, “the prophetic word more fully confirmed.” It is this interpretation of the Scriptures to which, says Peter, “you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.” (2 Peter 1:19). To see David as a prophet who saw Jesus is the first lesson that they are given. But there will be much more to learn, and so there is for us. As our Father St. John Chrysostom puts it, the Scriptures are like a vast ocean or fountain that can never be exhausted.
Finally, there is the question, who are the “Men of Israel” and the apostles? Some have been tempted, on the basis of St. Peter’s stern accusation at the beginning and end of this sermon, to see this as a simple question. THEY are the enemies, and the apostles are the friends. But we must recognize that Peter’s charge against the whole group may be extended to the whole of the human race. In Israel’s betrayal of the LORD, we see the sin of the entire world. “He came to His own”, said St. John, “and His own did not receive Him.” “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men,” said St. Paul, going on to explain that we are all without excuse, even Gentiles who don’t know the Torah, “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them [through the creation]” (Romans 1:18-19).
It is as though God has put a magnifying glass over Israel to show us what human sin looks like. And even on that Passover, non-Jews were involved, a sign of complete human complicity: “why do the nations rage and the people imagine a vain thing? They rise up against the LORD and his anointed” (Psalm 2) We would fool ourselves to imagine that if we were there, we would not have been influenced to betray or deny Him as well. Historically, the Jewish leaders, followed by an incited rabble, turned against their Messiah. Historically, even Peter denied Him, while the others all ran away—except for the Beloved disciple and the women. Historically, the recovery took place in Israel as well. All of the apostles were Jewish, and here Peter speaks to his own people, encouraging them to join this expanding movement that is to start from Jerusalem and extend to the ends of the earth.
For what God has done for Israel, He is doing for the whole of humanity: all of us need His favor, His healing, His rescue. In the end, this Jewish crowd has the same identity as the apostles, and as all of us—they are sinners called to repentance, those who denied the LORD Jesus along with men who were ignorant of the Law, but who also are witnesses (either eye witnesses, or those who are now receiving Peter’s witness), and potential recipients of God’s greatest promise, Himself. At this we will stop, marveling at the richness of this brief sermon that asks three key questions of the faith: Who is Jesus? Who was David and how did we read his Psalms? Who is Israel, the apostles, and all of us? Let’s leave the result of St. Peter’s sermon for the next episode, while briefly anticipating those 3,000 who responded, and were changed from enemies into friends. This took place because the Holy Spirit came upon the Twelve, and especially inspired Peter, the one who had denied the LORD, and then had been reinstated by Him. Our God specializes in reversals, and Pentecost is the astonishing sign of this re-creating act of God among the faithful.
Edith M. Humphrey 