Fight, Flight, or Forgiveness?

A Reflection on the First Reading for April 18th, 2021:
Third Sunday of Easter

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Acts
3.13-15, 17-19

At the temple gate, Peter addressed the people: “The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him.

“But you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.

“And now, brothers and sisters, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. In this way God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the Prophets, that his Christ would suffer.

“Repent therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out.”
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Pause. Pray.

And then read more...

Right before this moment, when he gives the surrounding people in the Temple this exhortation, Peter healed a man who was begging at the gate. He said to him, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” (Acts 3:6) Peter comes across brash here, but his message is repentance and mercy. In the same way that he had better to offer than silver and gold to the beggar at the gate, he had a better thing to offer than wrath and revenge — he instead offers redemption and mercy.


When we are faced with someone who has hurt us, do we offer them exactly what they ask for or exactly what we think they deserve? The latter is the human response. When someone has hurt the person we love most, the natural human response is to be filled with anger. We want them to have a taste of the hurt they have created. That feels like justice; an eye for an eye.


We remember Peter’s reaction in the Garden of Gethsemane. When the High Priest’s men came to seize Jesus, Peter “[W]ho had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's servant, cutting off his right ear.” (John 18:10) Peter’s human reaction was to lash out. To strike out in anger against those who were threatening his Lord.


After Peter’s actions had been quelled by a firm word from Jesus, he followed Jesus, but was then overtaken by fear and self-preservation. We saw fight, but then we saw flight. When a woman in the courtyard asked if he was one of the disciples, he denied Jesus three times. Two human reactions to trauma in one day of Peter’s life — the worst day of Peter’s life.


The contrast between the Peter of the Passion and the Peter of Acts is massive. Here in Acts, Peter is working in unity with the Risen Christ and the Holy Spirit. The reaction of Peter is transformed. Instead of offering anger, he offers mercy. He knows the complete answer to the question, “Who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15), and is moved to invite those who he would otherwise see as unforgivable. Because forgiveness is a gift greater than any silver or gold. God’s justice is tempered with mercy, not brought at the end of a sword. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus have transformed Peter, a humble and very human man, into someone who can offer forgiveness to the very one who shouted for the death of Jesus.


Are there people in our lives who we struggle to forgive? Do we nurture anger and wrath in our heart, or do we work to open our hearts to forgiveness? This is no easy task, made exponentially more difficult by the depth of the hurt, but it is one Jesus is inviting us to join Him in. And that forgiveness doesn’t come from our own sheer willpower. That mercy can flow in us through an outpouring of grace from the Spirit, but it requires us to open our hearts to accept that. Forgiveness is a gift to both ourselves and that person, an easing of burden and an unleashing of chains. It doesn’t mean we don’t speak truth to those people, but it does mean that the truth is stripped of anger and soaked in a path of forgiveness.




Stephanie Potter

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