Epiphany
January 10, 2020
Scripture Reading:
Acts 10:34-43
They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.’ –Acts 39b-43
What happens after we are forgiven of our sins?
I split the above Scripture reading between yesterday and today in the middle of verse 39. It made sense when I did it but when I saw that choice resulted in the pronoun “They” as the start of the first sentence, I thought I needed to add back in the people it was describing. The “they” has no named people. The Greek referring to the land of the Jews* is translated Judea by the New Revised Standard Version. Whether the “they” is referring to the Jews is not clear. Who killed Jesus in the final analysis is a political question. The Romans tried him, found him guilty, and hung him on the cross. The Jewish faith leaders instigated the process. The ambiguous “they” in both the English and the Greek walks the tightrope of political correctness to get to the gist of the message. Whoever sins can and will receive forgiveness through the name of Jesus Christ.
The news reported this week that the USA killed an Iranian general we considered a terrorist. The Iranian army retaliated by shooting several missiles onto two USA military bases in Iraq that did not hurt or kill anyone but did some damage to equipment. The Iranians reported to their own people that there were multiple casualties. The USA claimed we knew the missiles were coming and took the precautions needed to keep soldiers and others out of harms way. The possibility exists that Iran pick targets sans people. We probably will never be able to fully trust anything regarding this situation. In the meantime, a passenger plane flying from Iran to Ukraine was apparently hit by something, crashed and all 176 persons aboard were killed. I am sure that both the USA and Iran will say they had nothing to do with the crash. Our sins impact innocent people.
God does forgive us of sins. Our response, in lasting appreciation, must be to change our behavior and never return to the behavior again.
Prayer: Lord, we thank you for forgiving us repeatedly for the same and different sins. We pray for your guidance and support in learning from our mistakes and remaking our lives like yours. Amen.
*https://biblehub.com/interlinear/acts/10-39.htm
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.