April 24th, 2021

On this, the Fourth Sunday of Easter, with this Sunday also having the name of ‘Good Shepherd Sunday’, you might think that all the texts have something to do with sheep. But that is not the case when it comes to the text from Acts. In the text from Acts for this week, in chapter 4[:1-12], Peter is coming down hard on some of the religious leaders of the day [for a detailed list of them, see 4:5-6]. Perhaps it was because they were not being very good shepherds of the people.​

Peter basically told them that ‘you crucified … Jesus Christ, the Nazarene … [verse 10].’ And he basically has made this same statement before. In his first two sermons in Acts 2 and 3, both are to the Jews in Jerusalem, and he covers the same point. But he describes the crucifixion somewhat differently.

It might be helpful to compare those sermons in the book of Acts to other similar speeches that show up later. I think that something particularly interesting is the description of the crucifixion in each of those sermons, as the speaker lays out some of the immense ramifications of what this God-man, Jesus, did with that relatively small piece of wood. What follows are somewhat-literal translations of the crucifixion sections of those four ‘sermons’:

Acts 2:23         …this man, in the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, was given up through the hands of lawless men, fastening, you did away with him….

Acts 3:14-15a  But you, yourselves, denied the holy and righteous one, and you asked for a man, a murderer, to be granted to you, and the originator of life you killed….

Acts 10:39       And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the country of the Jews and Jerusalem; whom also they did away with, hanging him on a tree.

Acts 13:28-29  And no cause of death finding, they asked Pilate for him to be done away with; and as they finished all the things concerning him having been written, taking down from the tree, they placed him into a tomb.

In essence, here are some of the basic crucifixion statements within each of the above quotations:

You did away with him, fastening … you killed the originator of life … they did away with him, hanging on a tree … they finished all the things concerning him having been written.

Obviously, there is a significant amount of variety in those statements. The greatest variety is within the statements of ‘you’ or ‘they’, who actually did the crucifying. As was said before, in the first two, the words are being spoken to the people in Jerusalem, quite soon after the crucifixion. In the last two, the words are spoken to others. In the third one, Peter is speaking within the house of Cornelius. (And it certainly took a while for Peter to feel comfortable in the house of a Gentile.) But the end result of Peter’s talk is quite similar to the day of Pentecost [see 10:44-45]. In the fourth one, Paul is in a synagogue in Pisidian Antioch—quite a distance from Jerusalem—and he is giving those gathered there a word of exhortation.

I like the variety within these four summaries of Jesus on the cross, and this variety even reminds me of the variety within the four gospel accounts, especially when it comes to the crucifixion and the progression to that event within the gospel accounts. Here are some of the connections that I have found that connect these four sermons to the normal order of the four accounts. Perhaps you may come up with even more:

In Acts 2, there is an emphasis on God’s knowing beforehand, and the Gospel according to Matthew has a strong connection to the Old Testament and what God did in the past among his people, Israel. Also, when describing the crucifixion, the word ‘fastening’ is used, and this is an extremely rare word. At the base of this word is the word ‘to build’, and even this word is rare in the New Testament! It is something that a person usually constructs or puts together (but see Hebrew 8:2). Also connected to this word is the idea of being firm. And after the soldiers are described as crucifying Jesus, they are uniquely described as ‘sitting’ and guarding him there [Matthew 27:36]. One may see a few references to people within this particular crucifixion-description, and that happens in the Gospel according to Matthew with all the teaching that is happening.

In Acts 3, a different word for the crucifixion is used, a much stronger word, a word clearly connected to killing. And regarding the person of Jesus, the first definition in the dictionary for that word here is ‘one who has a preeminent position’ [A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Christian Literature, third edition, University of Chicago Press, 2000; page 138]. One can see this ‘preeminent’ position given to Jesus within the Gospel according to Mark in some different ways. The disciples of Jesus are not portrayed very positively here, especially when compared to other accounts, and Jesus therefore tends to stand out more. For a good example of this, see Mark 10:32.

In Acts 10, the word ‘hanging’ is used, and this is also used in Acts 5:30 in the speech of Peter and the apostles to the Sanhedrin. But it only appears in the four gospel accounts to describe a crucifixion in Luke 23:39, when it describes those who were ‘hanged’ with Jesus. And the fact that Jesus was hanging is within a larger statement that Peter is one of the witnesses to what Jesus did, and such a statement is quite clearly made in Luke 24:48.

Acts 13 has by far the most unusual description of the crucifixion. To ‘finish’ all the things having been written concerning him does not clearly mention death. Here, again, seems to be an oblique reference to the Old Testament, and the Gospel according to John does go back to the very beginning at its start.

The closest mention of death in this section of Acts 13 is that the people asked for Pilate literally to ‘take away’ Jesus, and it is the same word used in the other cases. In the same way, Jesus’ trial is described in a somewhat similar fashion in this account to the way it is described in the other accounts.

Another thing to note is that the word ‘finish’ comes up in some surprising ways near the very end of Jesus’ life in the Gospel according to John. Here is a somewhat-literal translation of this interesting section:

After this, Jesus knowing that now all things have been finished, that the scripture might be finished [usually this phrase uses the verb ‘to fulfill’], says, “I thirst.” A jar of vinegar, full, was set; a sponge, therefore, full of the vinegar, putting around a hyssop, they brought it to his mouth. When, therefore, he took the vinegar, Jesus said, “It has been finished,” and bowing his head, he delivered up the spirit [John 19:29-30].

Even if there were no connections between these statements and the four gospel accounts, there is still a significant amount of variety within those above four statements. And why is that? The easy way that this question was answered was that the different writers wrote at different times in different places in different situations. While that could be true, it also could be true that the thing written about is so important that it takes a few different perspectives to explain adequately what is happening and what are the huge ramifications of such an all-important thing.