Ignorance is excused as truth is revealed
These last two weeks, we as a community have been contemplating Acts chapter 3, verses 17 to 26.
The passage begins with Peter accepting that the people acted in ignorance by how they treated Jesus.
17 “Now, fellow Israelites, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders.
I pondered on the phrase ‘acted in ignorance’. The example that came to me was once speaking with a woman who punched another woman, only to realise the other woman was pregnant. Now it wasn’t right to punch in the first instance, but she was horrified when she learnt that the woman was pregnant. She probably wouldn’t have done it if she knew the other was pregnant.
It seems Peter is extending the same grace to his fellow Israelites that if they knew that Jesus was the Christ, they would have acted differently.
Now he offers them the chance to reconsider Jesus.
He draws from the Tanach (Jewish Bible), specifically Deuteronomy chapter 18, verses 15 and 19, to convince them that Moses had prophesied the coming of Jesus.
“The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him.
And I will hold accountable anyone who does not listen to My words that the prophet speaks in My name.”
A word that stands out is the Greek word for Messiah, ‘Christ’, or in Hebrew, 'Mashiach'.
18 But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer. 19 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, 20 and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you — even Jesus.
In ‘The Church of Christ Scientist’, it was my observation that the word ‘Christ’ was used more often than ‘Jesus’. In this passage, the terms ‘The Messiah’ or ‘The Christ’ are used. The Christ being the Messiah and Jesus being the person to occupy that position. The Mashiach was, and is, a belief within Judaism.
The early church was Jews who believed Jesus was the Mashiach.
The other phrase that caught my attention was from verse 19
that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,
If we are not fresh, what are we?
My mind goes to the 40 years of walking through the wilderness and how each day God provided fresh bread for the people (The Book of Exodus, chapter 16).
Our faith, if it is to be fresh, has to be centred in today. That requires believing that each day we will be provided with what we need for the day. It also means living in the present moment.
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If you wish to read the passage, click on the link below.
