Easter Week 2 Tuesday

Readings: Acts 4.32-37; Psalm 93; John 3.7-15

Another thing that comes through strongly from the readings in these early days of Eastertime is that everything that happened to Jesus is already contained in the earlier scriptures, if only we had the eyes to see it.

Last week we heard him saying to the disciples on the road to Emmaus 'how foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have declared. Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.' On Easter Sunday we heard that Peter and the beloved disciples saw the empty tomb tomb and believed. But believed what? For we are also told that 'as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.' When Jesus appeared to the disciples as a group he reminds them of what he had said, that everything written about him in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled. These are the three parts of the Hebrew Bible, the law, the prophets and the writings: it is all about him. As he said in the Sermon on the Mount, he had come not to abolish the earlier scriptures but to fulfil them.

And once more, in today's gospel, the same point is made in his question to Nicodemus, 'you are the teacher of Israel and you do not understand this?' As if to say what I am teaching should not come as a surprise to you if you really understand what God has revealed so far.

What is it that prevented so many - and still prevents so many - from seeing in the 'Old Testament' the paschal mystery that was to come? What prevents us seeing God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, already present and acting among the Chosen People? Perhaps it is the anti-Judaism that has marked Christian history so deeply. But not just that. Is the suffering of God's Servant the stone on which we stumble? That was it for the first disciples. That was it for Paul also, the scandal of the cursed one hanging from the tree. Again in today's gospel there is reference to it, for when Jesus speaks of himself being 'lifted up' so that all who believe in him might have eternal life - this is taken as a reference to his being lifted up on the cross.

A radical re-focusing of vision is needed if we are to see what is waiting to be seen. At least we continue to read all of the scriptures, acknowledging that everything there is somehow about Christ. Saul/Paul was helped to see everything in a new light through his encounter with the Risen Lord. Jesus is calling Nicodemus to the same realisation. And the call reaches us also, to be born again from above. The new life sends us back to the record of God's promises in order to see those familiar texts once again and, by God's grace, know them for the first time.