Acts 1:1-11 (Acts 1:1-14)

Acts 1:1-14 is the Narrative Lectionary passage in Year 1
Acts 1:1-11 or Acts 1:6-14 is the RCL passage for the Ascension/Easter 7.

Summary:  The disciples want a restoration project.  Jesus wants them to be witnesses to the ends of the earth.  Especially after COVID, our churches want things to "get back to normal" or "to restore what we were."  You might also sense that our nation also wants "to get back to the way it was."  (Make X Great Again!)  I wouldn't necessary use Acts 1 as political commentary, but it certainly has parallels to our religious situation, in which our grief makes us trapped in nostalgia.  

You could really go for an edgy sermon:  Acts 1 shows a united church that loves and prays together, but does not do any outreach.  It is "First Lutheran Church of Jerusalem", a small, tight-knit group that sings and worships with joy, fills committee spots (with people that have been here the longest) and avoids outreach at all possible costs.

For those note quite as bold:
Acts 1:1 may just summarize all of the book.  In fact, one word, sometimes missed by the translators, may summarize all of acts:  "began."  Luke says that his Gospel is "all that Jesus BEGAN to do and teach."  Jesus' work in the Gospel's is not complete; it must be continued by his disciples.  By the Spirit, they carry forth and do the greater things Jesus told us we would do if we believed in him.  Luke is inviting us, as readers -- lovers of God! -- into the movement of seeing all things reconciled in Jesus Christ.

Key words:
Θεοφιλος  ("lover of God", 1:1)  Luke may have written this to a specific person name Theophilos.  Or he writes it to all of us who love God!

ηρχατο ("begin" aorist form of αρχω, in 1:1)  It is worth noting that Luke says that Jesus begins his doings and teachings.  The completion of Jesus ministry will be done through the disciples.  This one verb, may in fact, tell you everything you need to know about the book of Acts!

τε και ("and and" in verse 1).  BDAG suggests this combination means "connecting concepts, usually of the same kind."  Here it links the words ποιειν (doing) and διδασκειν (teaching).  A helpful reminder than the hands and head are connected in Luke's mind!

εξελεξατο ("choose" aorist form of εκλεγω, in 1:2; see also 1:24; 6:5 and 15:7;22;25)  Throughout the book of Acts, the disciples have to make choices.  The tricky thing is figuring out how the Holy Spirit will guide this process of choice.  In Acts 1:2 no indication is given for this will happen.  In 1:24, lots are used; in 6:5, the Spirit works through community's approval of the leadership's suggestion concerning deacons; in chapter 15, the choice is made through collective debate.  (One might suggest Acts 1:24 is a judgment because the disciple chosen is never picked from again)

επαγγελια(ν) ("promise", 1:4)  The NIV translates this as "gift."  This seems less helpful.  The word is promise:  Wait for the promise.

τω Ισραηλ ("to Israel"; 1:6)  Jesus was teaching them about the Kingdom of God; they were concerned with the Kingdom which belongs to Israel.

αποκαθιστανεις ("to restore"; 1:6)  This sentence is a sermon in itself.  The disciples want Jesus to be on a restoration project of their particular tribe.  He is not interested in this.  He is interested in the salvation of the earth.
 
μαρτυς ("to witness"; 1:8)  This word looks like "martyr"...because it means just that.  Jesus hear commands his disciples to be witnesses.   When Jesus used the word it had no implication of suffering.  However, the early Christians who were witnesses became "martyrs."  The definition of the word was changed by the heroic actions early Christians.  So, Jesus here is calling his disciples to be martyrs.  Ouch!

Σαμαρια (Samaria; 1:8)  Jesus mission includes the "other side of the tracks."  This is a good way to think about the mission field:  your home town (Jerusalem and Judea), the "other" (Samaria") and the far away (the ends of the earth).  My sense is that most of us have an inclination toward one of these mission fields.

ομοθυμαδόν ("one mind" or "one passion" 1:14)  The people were united.  This is a beautiful scene of the early Christian community:  united in prayer and one might argue, doctrine.  The problem:  they did not do any outreach, but instead spent their time filling spots committees per historical expectations.  When I became a pastor, I loved to preach this sermon and "rip" into congregations for their inward nature.  Now that I've helped lead churches through change (and not just preach), I realize that coming together -- grieving together -- is necessary for their to be the transformation necessary for outreach.

Grammar/translation review:  Word order and Luke's grammatical mastery.
In Greek, word order is not essential for understanding the sentence; in English it is.  For example, "The boy hit the dog" and "The dog hit the boy" are two different ideas in English.  In Greek, the reader knows who did the action by the cases of the nouns, not their order in the sentence.  The nominative does the action; the accusative is the object of the action, regardless of which comes first.  This means that Greek (and to some extent Hebrew) can move words around for emphasis.  For example, Acts 1:2, is very convoluted if you just read the words:  until which day, after he taught the apostles whom he had chosen, he was ascended.  Permissible in English perhaps, but the sentence points out that good Greek can have words all over the place because the cases are governing their function, not word order.

In Acts 1:5 we have a very unusual split of some words:  εν πνευματι βαπτισθησεσθε αγιω 
Although the specific conjugation may be odd, (future passive 2nd person plural is fairly rare for verbs!), the words are pretty clear:  "In the spirit you will be baptized holy."  What is Luke doing?  Could holy be an adverb?  Unlikely. (Long grammar point: it would be in the accusative rather than dative).  Hmm... what to do?  Well, Luke earlier claims that Jesus will baptize us with the Holy Spirit.  (Let's use more clear Scripture to interpret less clear Scripture!)  So what could Luke possibly be doing here by putting Baptism in the middle of the Holy Spirit?  Well, duh, Luke is making the claim that the Holy Spirit and Baptism are bound up in each other!  To put it another way, Luke has stretched Greek language to show us that Baptism is in the Holy Spirit! 

This is something like, in my mind, when Handel has the tenor sing "The rough places plain," the word "rough" has small rapid changes; the note for "plain" is constant and smooth.

Luke 24:44-53 (Ascension)

This passage occurs for Ascension in the RCL, all three years; sometimes this is celebrated on a Thursday, the 40th day after Easter; other times it takes the place of Easter 7.

I added in 2022:  A long digression about repentance and metanoia

Summary:  Normally good-byes are sad.  But not the Ascension!  Luke wants to point out a few things about the ascension.  Namely that it is a commissioning; a celebration; and a crescendo.  A closer look at the Greek suggests this often overlooked story is vitally important for the Christian understanding of God in Christ Jesus.  In fact, Luke's account of the Ascension challenges me to include sending in my list of core Gospel actions:  forgiveness and resurrection.  (If that just sounds too much for your Lutheran piety, you can go with this:  Jesus knows that preaching forgiveness will get us into trouble because, well, the world cannot handle law and Gospel.

Key Words:
μαρτυρες ("witness", from μαρτυς, 24:48) The Greek word there for witness is "martyros," from which we get our word Martyr.  It originally had a simple legal connotation, as in give testimony, or generally, to speak on someone's behalf.  Yet in the Christian context, it very quickly came to mean suffer for this proclamation, including Jesus himself.   So Jesus says (literally), "You are martyrs of these things."  This is the ultimate commissioning:  You will go out and testify to the resurrection and forgiveness of sins and be persecuted for it.

χαρας ("joy", from χαρα, 24:52)  Luke uses this word more than other authors.  It is significant that worship of the ascended Christ still fills the believers with great joy.  Luke makes the point:  Just because Jesus isn't here on earth doesn't mean we cannot worship him. In fact, worship of the risen (and ascended Christ) still fills the believers with joy.  Jesus ascension means unlimited access instead of only local contact; hence the possibility of a universal church.

προσκυνησαντες ("worship", προσκυνεω, 24:52)  For all of the times Luke has Jesus praying, this is the only instance where people are worshiping in his Gospel.  The only other mention of the verb is in the temptation of Christ where Jesus declares we must worship God alone.  For Luke, the ascension confirms Jesus' divinity in a way that allows the disciples to worship him as God in way even his resurrection did not.  The ascension completes his first mission on earth: his suffering, his resurrection and his commissioning.  Now he shall return to be exalted and come again in glory.

διηνοιξεν ("open", 24:45)  We saw this verb last week in Acts account of Lydia's Baptism.  It is interesting that this word is associated in Acts and Luke with understanding the Word.  It also suggests the need for proclamation, because the Scriptures need to be opened.  They are not self-explanatory.

 αρξαμνοι (participle form of "αρχω" meaning, in middle voice, to begin; 24:47)  In both Luke 24 and Acts 1, this word shows up:  begin.  The three year ministry of Jesus Christ is only the beginning of the work of God!  The promised Holy Spirit will move the disciples forward in mission and ministry!

αποστελλω ("sending"; 24:49)  This is the only indicative verb in this entire section is present tense.  I would argue this is the last action of Jesus on behalf of his disciples:  To send the Spirit.  One could make the argument, I think, this is why Jesus came back from the dead.  To send out the Spirit!  Interestingly, it is only once Jesus has sent the Spirit that the disciples can worship! 

One could also argue that this is in the present tense, suggesting that Jesus is continually (always) sending forth the Spirit.

καθισατε ("sit", καθιζω, 24:49)  The disciples are told to "sit" until the Holy Spirit comes.  Part of the Christian life is waiting.

δυναμιν ("power" from δυναμις. 24:49)  This word comes into English as dynamite.  Christ calls us to be both the martrys and dynamite for the world.  The two seem related in tragic ways; yet, Christ does not call us to cause suffering in others, but simply to suffer for others as the world persecutes the news of forgiveness and resurrection.

***

μετανοια(ν)  (literally metanoia, meaning perhaps "repentance", 24:47).  This is a word whose history of translation is fascinating.  

In classic Greek, the word simply meant:  "change one's mind" (Fascinating article on this here.  I believe it is by Robert Wilken.).  The word retains this meaning when used in the Greek OT.  In fact, in the translation of the OT into Greek, the translators almost never translated the classic OT word for repentance "shub" (שוב)  as metonoia.  The more common word translated as metanoia is "nakham" (נחם), which means to change one's mind, often after emotional consideration.  For a variety of reasons that remain unclear to me, in the early Latin church, the word came to be understood as "do penance."  Apparently Tertullian indicated this word should have been translated as "convert."

Codified by St. Jerome, this translation of metanoia as 'do penance' became the standard in Latin Christianity.  This way of thinking would hold sway over a millennia until late Medieval translators (Wycliffe and Luther) came along and 'liberated' the word from the medieval penance system.  The first of the 95 theses, in fact, is about the translation of this word!  Generally, these translators used words having to do with regret and repentance - emotionally loaded words.

Today, a critique of translating metanoia as "repent" has emerged.  Interestingly, one of those leading the charge is Richard Rohr, who aims for the pre-biblical idea of "change one's mind" or "new mind."  While I am not convinced that Rohr goes as far as his students, I think that some of his followers get pretty close to Gnosticism (see here for an example of this), wanting to claim that a specific new mind set, liberated from the past vestiges of bad religion, will free them to be special people.

That said, Rohr and others make a valuable contribution:  shame has limits.  True spirituality is not about fear and regret, but love and hope.  I also wonder how often our people experience shame over sins that are not biblical.  I mean, how many people in our congregations are taking anxiety medicine because they haven't lived up the beatitudes?  Far more often we lead lives of shame and are plagued with a sense of inadequacy that has nothing to do with a failure to love their neighbor, but rather living up to the expectations of their neighbor.  Metanoia in this case then often means rejecting these false judges and replacing them with ourselves as the determiner of true living.  Progress, I guess, but not terra firma.

That aside, God is okay with humans experiencing regret.  The people on Pentecost were, as it turns out, cut to the heart.  As Paul writes in 2 Cor 9-10, there is such a thing as godly sorrow.  Furthermore, metanoia does seem to imply regret in the Bible (Luke 17:4)

Alas, what to do.  I offer that the word metonoia has at least two strands of meaning:

- 'insight': when one has a paradigm shift that leads one to reconsider old ways to operating

- 'regret': when one has an emotional experience of guilt (perhaps even shame) that leads one to reconsider old ways of operating.

The former seems more Greek, the later more Hebrew.  While the NT is written in Greek, it is also hard to separate out the Jewish mindset of most of the New Testament voices.  Would first century Jews really aimed for a repentance that was simply a matter of "have a new mind"?

In this case (Luke 24:47), Jesus says "repentance for forgiveness of sins"  (They are linked by the preposition εις).  One way we could understand this verse to mean this:   repentance -- feeling bad -- is a precursor to forgiveness.  This works well and is an easily defended position.

However, I think one is also justified in saying that Jesus is saying, proclaim "a new way of thinking that results in the forgiveness of sins."  This could mean, for example, that one believes that forgiveness is actually possible!  I wonder how many people this is the new mind they actually need -- that a God of mercy is on the loose in this world!

Grammar concept:  hendiadys; or in this case, hendiatris
Hendiadys refers to the literary device of using two words to mean one thing.  For instance:  "formless and void" of Genesis 1 means "a whole lot of nothing!" or perhaps more accurately, "chaos."

In this case, Jesus refers to Scriptures by calling them:  Moses, Prophets and Psalms.  Here he is referring to all of the OT, not simply Gen-Deut; 12 prophets and Psalms.  He is laying out the Tanakh (Torah, Prophets and Writings) division of Scripture.

John 5:1-9

This passage is an alternate Gospel for the 6th Sunday in Easter, most recently May 25, 2025

Summary:  The man does not want to be healed.  Jesus must interrupt his self-pity.  Hard truth:  individuals, communities and societies often are paralyzed.  While they may complain about what others have done to them, they have no real desire (or capacity) to heal themselves.

It is easily possible to preach a sermon in which we acknowledge how people get trapped in their dysfunction and are unable to move forward without Jesus.  How will you preach resurrection and Gospel here and not just the law.  Will you dare to tell the people to get up and walk in the name of Jesus?

Sickness

ξηρος (meaning "paralyzed", 5:3)  This word originally meant "dry" (like the Greek translation of Genesis 1:9 for "dry land" uses this word.)  Things that were dry became useless, paralyzed, so to speak.  

How have parts of your life become dry and paralyzed?  How have parts of your community or your congregation?  How have parts of society?

υγιης (with the rough breathing this is spelled:  hygies, from which we get "hygiene", John 5:6, 9, 11, 14, 15).  Jesus brings a person to a state of "hygiene."  However, something bigger than germs is going on, as Jesus is looking at the healing of the whole person.

In Greek, this word means "whole, sound, healthy".  What really sheds light on what it means is how it is used in Titus to describe, not a body, but a teaching:

• Show yourself in all respects a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, gravity, and sound speech that cannot be censured; then any opponent will be put to shame, having nothing evil to say of us.  Titus 2:7-8 

This word is paired with "integrity" and "gravity", reminding us that this word does not simply mean "clean from germs."

The context in John's Gospel reveals this is a healing on many levels

• Emotional:  Jesus asks him if he wants to be well.  He cannot answer this basic question, but is caught in a cycle of blaming others and forming a victim narrative.  He cannot heal himself, Jesus must intervene.
  
• Physical:  Now he can walk!
• Spiritual:  After the man can walk, he enters the Temple - likely for the first time -- where Jesus finds him (vs 14).  Interestingly, Jesus warns him to sin no more!  Which makes one consider -- was their something sinful about the state that he was in?
  

Resurrection

I attended a Mockingbird conference this year around the theme of relief.  It centered around the themes laid out in a recent book by David Zahl, called The Big Relief.  Fundamentally, we all have a yearning for relief from the constant burdens of life.  A couple of points here

- The word relief comes from the French for "raise up."  Relief = resurrection!

- Jesus here tells the person to "be raised up" (Ἔγειρε, 5:8)  You could offer that Jesus gives the man relief! 

What is the relief your people seek?

Some Biblical curiosities

εορτη (feast, 5:1)  It turns out that scholars are not certain which festival John references.  How one understands which festival has implications though for how one understands the rest of the Gospel.  For example, is this a foreshadowing of Pentecost?  Is this story somehow a microcosm of the church being born and moving beyond its initial tribal and ritual boundaries?  Is it a story of how the waters must be stirred for the church to be reborn?  Or that we are waiting, as a church, for someone else to stir the waters but we are called forth to be the church?

Or it is a story about the reading of the Torah?  The foundation of God's word is no longer simply the OT Scripture, but Jesus Christ and his revelation?

5:4  Many translations do not include 5:4.  This is because most of the best sources for John's Gospel:  papyrus 66 and 75 as well as the א, B, D and W codices lack this verse.  It certainly helps make sense of the rest of the story.  It also speaks of the connection between angels and healing, if not objectively, within the minds of the people.  That is fascinating that words of healing and angels are on the margins of the church's canon.  Professor Walter Sundberg of Luther Seminary once preached on this verse, focusing on the way in which the edges of the canon and the edges of the church often become sources of renewal.

38 years old.  Still don't know why.

Acts 16:9-16

This passage occurs in the RCL Easter Season, Year C, most recently May 25, 2025.

Summary:  Two things caught my attention about this passage.  First, a woman wins an argument with Paul :-)  Second, Lydia has so much in her life going right for her.  Yet she is not content.  Often we assume that people need to hit rock bottom for the Christian Gospel to make an impact.  In Lydia's case, clearly something about her life was incomplete, even if she was not lamenting her life or commiting awful sins.  I wonder if this is a helpful angle for reaching the consumerists out there -- no, you are not awful, evil and hell-bent people, but deep down something is missing; the world of selling and consuming doesn't add up.

παρακαλων ("encourage" (participle form), 16:9)  It is interesting that the man "encourages" them to come to Macedonia.  You could call him an advocate for Macedonia.  In fact, the word for Spirit in John's Gospel (and the corresponding Gospel text for this week) is παρακλητος, the noun form of this verb.

συμβιβαζων ("proving, pulling together, knit" (participle form), 16:10)  I find this is great verb for how we understanding the work of the Spirit -- we pull pieces together to build of picture, a map, of what the Spirit calls us to do.  When this word is used in Colossians it means "knit together."  We pull at pieces -- visions, stirrings of the hearts and basic facts -- to figure out the will of the Spirit.

κολωνια ("colony", 16:12)  This word does not really feature in the interpretation of this passage, but it speaks to how we can understand Paul's letter to the Philippians:  http://www.zionsjonestown.com/paul/philippi/home.htm  See here for more info.

πορφυροπωλις ("dealer in purple cloth", 16:14) Lydia, unlike the jailer, does not encounter the Gospel at a time of weakness, but of relative strength.  She is a rich merchant who sails the seven sees.  She is at worship.  Yet something isn't right; she hungers for something more.

Sad side note:  Purple cloth was ruined because of over harvesting of the snails that produced the dye.  It is believed those particular snails are actually extinct.

διηνοιξεν ("open", 16:14)  This word can simply mean "open" but it can also mean "open" in a more metaphorical way.  See the word dianetics and Scientology!!

ο οικος αυτης  ("the house of hers", 16:15)  This verse is often used as justification (or permission) for infant Baptism.  The Greek likely strengthens the argument.  It is often translated as "she and her house were baptized."  It should read, "Her house was baptized."  First, the word "she" is not in the Greek; the subject is "her house" and the verb is in the singular, not plural.  Furthermore, the word "de" appears, which suggests a change in subject; "Lydia" was the subject in the previous sentence suggesting a new subject.  She was baptized; my point is simply that her house was not baptized as an afterthought, but that the act was done all together.

Revelation 21:1-6

This passage occurs in the RCL Easter Season, Year C, most recently May 2025; it also occurs for All Saints' Day Year B
 
Summary:
This verse is paired in Year C with John 13:31-35, "By this they will know you are my disciples, if you love one another."  Jesus sets up a strong imperative in John 13 for us to create the Kingdom of God on earth through our mutual love.  But Rev 21 is a perfect antidote, that finally, we cannot create the Kingdom, but this is an act of God.  The Greek really spells this out.  Like much of the Johannine writing, these brief verses allude richly to the Old Testament and other places in John's Gospels.  In fact, the connection to the rest of John is quite striking in this passage.  But to get back to the juxtaposition of John 13 and Rev 21:  This is the tension of Christian community:  We must work for a better world, but know that we cannot get there until Jesus comes again.

2025 insight:  In verse 6, avoid saying "It is done", but rather "It has become" -- see note later -- but basically, the new heaven and earth is a party just beginning as Revelation describes it!

Key Words
καινὸν ("new", 21:1)  At the 2025 Mockingbird conference, Episcopal priest Jacob Andrew Smith pointed out how there is a new heaven.  Why a new heaven?  Because the old heaven was separate from earth.  In the new heaven, there is no more separation.

καταβαινουσαν ("descending", from καταβαινω, 21:2)
εκ του ουρανου ("from the heaven", 21:2)
απο του θεου ("from God", 21:2)
All of these words, put together, form a trifecta clearly showing that the holy city is not established by our activities on earth, but is entirely from God.

νυμφη ("bride", literally "nymph", 21:2)  The Bible begins and ends with a coupling of man and woman, a marriage, first of Adam and Eve and then later of Christ and the church.  I realize that Lutherans have tended to put marriage in the "left-hand" kingdom (and therefore allow it to be dictated by science and not Scripture), but clearly it is something that God cares for.  I guess it is a question worth asking -- what is the bride adorned with?

σκηνη ("tent", 21:3)  In the first chapter of John's Gospel, we read that "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." The word for dwell here is "σκηνεω " which means το tent or tabernacle. (The parallel to the OT is striking here; the next sentence in John's Gospel is "And we beheld his glory." In the OT, once the tabernacle was set up, the people could behold God's glory). This is the same word here. In some ways, this then is a powerful book end of the NT and the Johannine literature. It begins cosmically with God choosing to dwell with us on the old earth; now it ends with God choosing again to dwell with us on the earth he has again prepared for us.

ω ("omega", 21.6) One thing worth smiling about. The word "Omega" is a word in English. In Greek, it is a letter, literally, "Big O", Jesus says he is the "alpha and big O."

αρχη ("beginning", 21:6)
τελος ("end", 21:6)
The word in Greek for the "beginning and end" are "αρχη" and "τελος." Both of these words have all sorts of connotations. Arche can mean ruler (as in monarchy), first principle, beginning. (En arche = in the beginning). Telos can mean completion, final, last, ultimate. Jesus is the beginning and end; Jesus is the ruling principle and ultimate reality.  The point here is that Jesus is both the book ends of the story (in the beginning was the Word), but also the intellectual and emotional beginning and end.

γέγοναν ("become"; 21:6)  This verb is fascinating, worthy of a sermon in itself.  It means be or become.  Here though, it is in the perfect tense, meaning that an action has occurred in the past that sets up a new state of being (as in "I got dressed" or "the stone has been rolled away."  Both are past process actions that create a new reality).  What this means is that the action has been completed, but it is creating a new reality.  Which means that instead of translating this as "It is done", I would translate it as "It has become" or even "it begins" because a new reality has been established, called forth.

Comments from early posts on Rev 21:

21.1 The word sea θαλασσα ("thalassa") is used just a few verses earlier (20.13); it was holding the dead. Perhaps one could argue that if the sea no longer exists, then death also no longer exists.

21.4 The word for wipe away εξαλειφω ("exaleiphoo") means more like wipe out than wipe away. The activity is probably a bit less sentimental than this pastor would like ;-)

John 13:31-35

This passage occurs in the Revised Common Lectionary, Year C, most recently May 18, 2025

Summary:  I offer some initial reflections on the Greek.  If I preach on this, I would likely draw on the narrative in which it is set:  Jesus washing his disciples feet, Jesus being betrayed, Jesus about to be arrested, condemned and crucified.  Jesus is not just talking about love, but revealing it to his disciples.  Likewise, we are called to love each other.  In reality.

Key words:
εδοξασθη (aorist form of δοξαζω, meaning "glorify, 13:31,32):  I was struck by this word; what does it mean for Jesus to be glorified?  What does glory mean in John's Gospel.  In the Old Testament, the word for glory is associated with the awe-inspiring presence of God:

• Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. Exodus 40:34 
• Blessed be his glorious name forever; may his glory fill the whole earth. Amen and Amen.  Psalm 72:19

John presents Jesus as the fullness of God's glory on earth.  The miracles of Jesus reveal this glory.

• And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth.  John 1:14
• Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.  John 2:11 
• Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. John 17:24 
• So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.  John 17:5

Yet Jesus begins to discuss God's glory, especially in these passages (13:31-32) in connection with his crucifixion and resurrection.  This is kind of strange; either John wants us to see the resurrection as the glory (total Christus Victor) or John sees that somehow the crucifixion is an revelation of God's glory.  That is something truly worth considering, not as a theological question, but as a Biblical question -- does John go that far?

The other movement in terms of God's glory is that the disciples, by their actions, reveal God's glory:

• My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.  John 15:8

This is something really worth pondering -- and struggling with as a Lutheran -- to what extent is God's glory revealed through our Spirit-led actions?

υμιν υμας (forms of "you", 13:34)   Jesus gives us a new commandment to YOU and declared he loved YOU.  But the YOU here is actually plural:  Y'ALL!!  Worth remembering that Jesus love is for the whole community, not just the individual.

διδυμι ("give"; 13:34)  Jesus gives this command in the present tense, "I keep giving you the new commandment."  We must be taught, again and again, to love each other.

μαθηται (form of  μαθητης, meaning "disciple"; 13:35).  The word for disciple means pupil.  Are we called to be a pupil of Jesus or his teachings?  The new pope (Leo XIV), in one of his first sermons, said that Jesus doesn't need soldiers, but brothers.  A beautiful reminder that to be a student isn't simply about "discipline" (thanks Latin!) but learning, in this case, learning by serving others.

John 10:22-30

This passage is from the Revised Common Lectionary.  It appears during year C on the 4th Sunday of Easter, often called "Good Shepherd" Sunday (most recently 2025).

Summary:  So much promise.  Jesus knows us, Jesus gives us life, the Father holds us in his hands.   Still dreaming on this passage...

I think the Greek in this passage is not complex.  You are likely work through it with a little help.  Go for it.  The verb tenses are worth paying attention to.

Key terms
εγκαινια  (Hanukah; 10:22)  Most translators call this the Festival/Feast of Dedication.  Which is true, but it would be known to most English readers, certainly in America, as the Hanukah!  Just a reminder that Jesus is a practicing Jew.  In fact, the action in John typically revolves around Jesus celebrating and interpreting anew the Jewish feasts.  The original Hanukah involved a miracle that allowed the temple to stay lit throughout worship...over and against occupation.  So when they ask Jesus if he is the Messiah/Christ, it is a very loaded question.

Thought for 2025:  The word "εγκαινια" is how the Jewish Greek speakers translated "Hanukah" into English, for it means "dedicate."  The verb form of the word has a connotation in Greek of renewal, opening, innovating and inaugurating.  A reminder that any form of innovation will produce push back -- grief even.

στοα του Σολομωνος (Solomon's Colonnade/Porch/Stoa; 10:23)  There is a portico that comes up a few times in the New Testament, where Jesus gathers.  Here is a website that does a nice job giving a quick summary:  https://www.gotquestions.org/Solomon-Porch.html

εργα (works; 10:25, 33)  The NIV translates this word as "miracle"; the NET Bible as "deed" and the NRSV as "work."  I like "work" because it allows for Jesus to say in vs 33 "good works", which has a more biblical ring.  I also think that miracles has a specific Greek word from which it is typically translated (dynamis) and in John's Gospel is related to "signs."  Question to ponder:  What is the difference between "a work of" God and "a miracle"?

ἁρπάζω ("snatch"; 10:29)  The would be gods of this world, as Philippians 2 reminds us, are "snatchers."  They use people, leave them for dead and move on.  This is a powerful word of promise to those who have been abused or suffered addiction.  The grasp of Jesus is greater than the snatchers!

Verb tenses

It is important to pay attention to the verb tenses in this passage

• εκυκλωσαν αυτον .... ελεγον αυτω (10:24) [Aorist verb followed by imperfect verb] 

They encircled him (aorist = one time event) and they were saying to him (imperfect = action not complete, therefore on-going and typically begun in the past)

εκυκλωσαν (encircled; 10:24)  The people have encircled Jesus, not gathered around him!  

Also, they are speaking (ελεγον, imperfect tense) repeatedly to him.  There is conflict brewing!

• ειπον και ου πιστευετε (10:25)  [Aorist verb followed by present tense verb]
  

I spoke (aorist = one time event) and you are not believing (present meaning repeated action).  

Jesus speaking was an event in the past; the not believing is an on-going state of affair 

• A number of verbs are significantly in the present sense, meaning they are on-going actions:
  

γινοσκω ("know"; 10:27)    This word is kind of boring in Greek:  Know, recognize.  But it likely is a translation of the Hebrew "Yada," which has a more intimate meaning.  Regardless, worth pondering -- what does it mean for Jesus to know us!!

ακολουθουσιν (follow; 10:27). If we are to follow, this means that Jesus is leading.

διδωμι (give; 10:28) Jesus indicates he is always be giving us eternal life.  It is not a) not simply a future gift and b) is not a one time gift!  Jesus is always giving us life.

Revelation 7:9-17

This is the Gospel passage for All Saint's Sunday in the Revised Common Lectionary, Year A (most recently November 2023).  It also appears during the Easter season in Year C (most recently May 2025).  

Some words/language constructions I found interesting 

αριθμησαι (form of αριθμεω, meaning "to count", 7:9)  This word has a clear English cognate:  arithmetic! The point here is that the writer first records carefully how many people from each tribe will be in heaven (in the preceding verses).  Then the seer says, wait, no, they can't be counted!!  A lot of people make it to heaven :)  For a funny view of what heaven with many cultures might look like, you can see the cartoon Simpson's Heaven.   Laughing aside, this verse is a powerful reminder that early on the church understood its mission to exist far beyond its own culture and time.

λευκος (meaning "white", 7:9, 7:13).  There is an increasing discomfort with the use of "white" to describe things that are pure.  This is because of how we have often divided the world into skin-tone groups -- races -- with "white" being on the top of the pecking order.  Thus, when churches use "white" albs, use white lilies and associate white with holiness, this could potentially communicates that white skin tones are likewise more holy.  A few thoughts on this:

• White never refers to a skin-tone in the Bible.  In fact, if skin is white, it is diseased.  (See Leviticus 13).  Most of the characters in the bible have far more olive toned than white toned skin
  
• The image in revelation is for people from every nation and language; it is not a forced mono-culture.
• People in the bible almost never would have anything pure white for clothing.  It would be been incredibly expensive to produce and keep clean.  "Such as no one on earth could bleach them" is how Jesus' transfiguration clothing was described in Mark's Gospel.  Bright white clothing would not be reserved for undergarments like in today's America, but would have been spectacular to behold.
  
• The whiteness is often associated with incredible brightness - like a star!

In short, there is no sense that the Biblical writers are trying to reinforce a notion of hierarchy based on skin-tones.  This is not to say we should not be aware of the "world in front of the text" and how people hear the constant association of white with holy.  But the Bible itself is not communicating any superiority based on white skin tones.

στολας ("robe", literally stole, 7:9)  Oddly, the word "stole" in church language typically refers to more of a scarf than a robe.  This passage makes me think a lot about what we are trying to communicate with albs and stoles.

φοινικες (φοινιξ, meaning "palm branch", 7:9) The word for palm branch here is literally "phoenix"!  Now, in John 12:13, the people wave these before Jesus, so translating it as "palm branch" seems fair, especially within the biblical context of triumphal celebrations for a king.  However, I find it very amusing and poetic to imagine that in heaven we each get our own phoenix in celebration of the resurrection!

This also adds to the Messianic overtones of the palm branches when Jesus entered into Jerusalem.

γλωσσων (form of γλωσσα, meaning "languages", 7:9)  We don't learn a new language in heaven.  We communicate in our own earthly language.  Revelation 7 providing us a glimpse of the new creation, yet we have somethings like tribe and language -- human constructs -- that carry over into the new creation.  What else carries on into the new creation, or at least, what else is redeemed but somehow exists in a recognizable form to its previous reality?  Our bodies, our language and I would argue our relationships.

φωνη μεγαλη (meaning "loud voice", 7:10) The words for loud voice is literally "mega phone."  It is interesting to consider, in an era of protests and megaphone, what words are we putting through our megaphones?

σκηνωσαι (aorist form of σκηνοω, meaning "to shelter", 7:15).  The word for "shelter/spread tent" is "skeno-oo" which is from the Greek for tent. In the beginning of John's Gospel (1.14), Jesus is said to have "dwelt" or "tented" among us, drawing on the OT idea of God's tabernacle presence. Now however, the dwelling is not among them, but upon them.  The movement of Revelation is not God away from the earth, but of heaven toward earth, ultimately culminating in the presence of God being with the people.

εξαλειψει (meaning "wipe away", 7.17)  The word "wipe away" or "destroy" (εξαλειψω) is also found in Acts 3:19 and Col 2:14, where Jesus wipes away our sins.  Jesus comes to wipe away both our sin and sorrow.  It is not an either/or.

ποιμανει ("shepherding", 7.17)  This word is not a noun, but a verb, although everyone translates it as a noun. The focus here is less on Jesus as shepherd and more on the activity that Jesus is doing -- leading and taking care.  It is also worth nothing that the verbs in verse 17 are in the future tense.  This suggests that there is something that is already happening (heavenly worship) but something that will happen different/anew.  Now and not yet.

Grammar note

περιβεβλημενους (περιβαλλω, meaning "robe", 7:9)

The participle for "robed" is in the perfect. It happened in the past but still effects the present states, namely, that they are robed. Here it is used as a circumstantial participle; in 7.13 it will be used as a substantive.