The Fourth Sunday of Easter – B – April 21 2024
We get another speech from Peter in today’s first reading but with a different context. Last week, Peter preached the Gospel to a crowd whose ears and hearts were opened to its message by the miraculous healing they had witnessed “in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean.” From that, the number of Jesus’s followers—even after his death—grew to five thousand.
This week, detained by the religious authorities, with John and the man they had healed standing at his side, Peter preaches the very same message to a tougher audience. The Jewish religious leaders thought they had silenced Jesus and his movement by killing him.
When we put in the work and long hours to preach the Gospel and lead the people in prayer and song, are we looking for them to follow us and give us our due?
But the crowd’s response to his disciples made the authorities even more afraid of losing their influence over the people. For what good is it to be the leader if the people aren’t going to follow you and give you credit?
That was the stumbling block for the high priest and those who wielded authority with him. And it’s ours as well who stand before our communities as leaders. When we put in the work and long hours to preach the Gospel and lead the people in prayer and song, are we looking for them to follow us and give us our due? Or are we focused on the voice of the One whom we, ourselves, are to heed and follow?
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