Notes for  22 July 2026

This is what is remarkable about life after Pentecost, this is what is remarkable about the book of Acts: all events take place not simply by human understanding and decision, but because the Holy Spirit has revealed His will. We can only sigh over the fact that for some reason things do not work that way for us. But should we only sigh? Is it not worth looking more closely at why it worked for them?

First, it is written that they worshiped the Lord and fasted. This means that people were seeking God’s will, praying earnestly for it, even fasting so as to pray with greater earnestness. For God this was a sign that His word would be heard with full attention and not allowed to pass by their ears. Do we prepare in such a way for God to be able to say something important to us?

Second, it is said that no word of God is powerless (Luke 1:37). Therefore, if God sees, and He really does see, that we are not going to receive His word in obedience, He will not give it to us. Why cast pearls before swine? The next verse (Acts 13:3) shows that in this case people hastened to fulfill God’s will. If only we were like that too!

We all went to school, and some of us even work there. We all know the logical sequence: give the right answer, get a top mark from the teacher and have your mother replace a visit to the dentist with a trip to the zoo. So after Peter confesses that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, the words “Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona” sound entirely natural to us. But then: “Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.” Even the thought of this frightens the disciples, and so Peter says, “This shall not be unto Thee!”

Confessing Jesus as the Son of God opens the way to our reward, but this reward is of a special kind: the opportunity to behold and experience the depth of God's mercy—a frightening depth. It is the opportunity to touch the hidden and ineffable nature of God's love: He gave His only-begotten Son so that the world might be saved through Him. In this depth there is an answer to every murmuring question we may ask, but we must accept Jesus as the Son of God and dare to hear His words.

For human beings this depth of mercy is always incomprehensible. The divine nature is impassible; the Almighty cannot suffer—such is the cry of Peter and the Jews, of Greek philosophers and Hellenized Christian theologians. The incarnate Son of God suffered for us in the flesh, and in horror we either say, like the Jews, that He is only flesh, or, like the Greeks, argue ourselves hoarse that He suffered in the flesh, only in the flesh, while the divine in Him remained impassible. But He Himself says: “Mine heart is turned within Me, My repentings are kindled together” (Hos. 11:8)—and therefore “He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things.”

Standing by the tomb, Mary does not analyze how the enormous stone could have been rolled away; even the sight of angels neither terrifies nor surprises her. All the miraculous and unusual phenomena recede into the background for her: they have no meaning without Christ. Had she become distracted by the surrounding circumstances, she might have failed to notice the Risen One, just as even His closest disciples, who had been there moments before, did not see Him. But because Mary refused to be distracted even by everything miraculous happening that morning, she was able to see Christ standing before her.

Mary recognized the Risen One after He addressed her by name. He had not spoken in vain about the good shepherd who calls his sheep by name and whose voice they know. Yet none of the shepherds on earth, even the best of them, has such unity with those who follow him as Christ does. He asks her not to touch Him, not because He does not want to commune with one of the daughters of humanity, but because the moment has come for Him to go to the Father. Once He has gone to the Father, He will remain in the closest union with His faithful who stay on earth.

These words seem deliberately to contradict ordinary human ideas. Why are the poor and hungry, the weeping and rejected, suddenly blessed, while woe is pronounced upon the rich, the full, and those who laugh? One might think that Christ is proclaiming a revolution that will turn the world upside down! The Kingdom of God that He brings to earth really is radically different from the order of the world familiar to us. Relationships within it are founded on the Father's mercy, not on the struggle for survival. Even as believers, we often forget that entirely different laws prevail in this Kingdom. We call happiness what Christ calls woe, and conversely regard His blessings as misfortune. How greatly we must change to become true citizens of this Kingdom!

Peter and the other apostles were naturally embarrassed. No wonder: the King of Israel was washing their feet, doing a slave's work! Many of us would surely dislike it if the person dearest to us began doing something humiliating and improper. But this washing of feet is a decisive moment in the history of Jesus' relationship with His disciples; anyone who dislikes it is free to leave.

Why is it so important? Apparently it is impossible to understand the Lord and follow Him without learning through experience this lesson in which the Master serves those beneath Him and the Teacher serves His disciples. As Scripture says, this is an example—but not an example on a board or in a picture. Peter and all of us must pass through this shock so that we will never again be shocked by the thought that we too must serve those who are lesser and weaker than we are.

The Lord gives His people commandments that will help them remain faithful to the Covenant and not lapse into paganism. Chief among these are the commandment concerning one sanctuary and the prohibition against consuming blood. Apparently the consumption of animal blood formed part of the pagan cults of Palestine; moreover, blood is the symbol of life, which belongs to God alone. Faithfulness to God is the first step on the way to becoming children of the Most High.

In this connection it is important to ask: how is our faithfulness to Him expressed? In outward forms? In inward attitudes? In keeping the commandments? In love for our enemies?