"Resurrection Changes"

In the immediate wake of the cross the disciples are broken, fires quenched, dreams dashed, with no notion of their purpose. No wonder they snapped at the women! Then something changes.

[1] “Christ of Maryknoll” by Robert Lentz

Acts 5:27-32

April 27, 2025

Dr. Todd R. Wright

When we left the gospel of Luke last week, the eleven were all together – unified in rejecting the women’s good news of the resurrection as “an idle tale” and united in failing to remember that Jesus had promised he would rise from the dead on the third day.

A lot has happened since then:

Peter ran to the tomb to see for himself;

two disciples reported an encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Emmaus;

the wounded Christ himself appeared to them and commissioned them to be witnesses;

and, of course, all the disciples received the gift of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost!

I think it’s fair to say that the eleven changed. Clustered together post crucifixion, Luke had described them as terrified and doubting, disbelieving and wondering.

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They are very different by the time we get to today’s confrontation!

The back story is their arrest and imprisonment.

Most would be scared straight by a night behind bars. Most would clam up when in the hands of the same people who had arrested their Lord. Most would flee for the safety of home!

Actually, this is not their first time in prison. They had been arrested one chapter earlier.

But that time they were more timid. When ordered not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus, Peter and John answered, “Whether it is right in God’s sight to listen to you rather than God , you must judge …”  

What changed?

An angelic jail break seems to have emboldened them. By the time Luke reports their confrontation with the high priest and the council, they are unafraid.

This time when reminded “We gave you strict orders not to teach in [Jesus’] name!” Peter replies with cheek, “We must obey God rather than any human authority.”

What has happened to these people?

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In the introduction to his book On the Anvil, Max Lucado writes,

“In the shop of a blacksmith, there are three types of tools.

There are tools on the junk pile: outdated, broken, dull, rusty.

They sit in the cobwebbed corner, useless to their master, oblivious to their calling.

There are tools on the anvil: melted down, molten hot, moldable, changeable.

They lie on the anvil, being shaped by their master, accepting their calling.

There are tools of usefulness: sharpened, primed, defined, mobile.

They lie ready in the blacksmith’s tool chest, available to their master, fulfilling their calling.

Some people lie useless: lives broken, talents wasting, fires quenched, dreams dashed.

They are tossed in with the scrap iron, in desperate need of repair, with no notion of purpose.

Others lie on the anvil: hearts open, hungry to change, wounds healing, visions clearing.

They welcome the painful pounding of the blacksmith’s hammer, longing to be rebuilt, begging to be called.

Others lie in their Master’s hands: well tuned, uncompromising, polished, productive.

They respond to their Master’s forearm, demanding nothing, surrendering all.”[2]

It is an evocative set of images that fit Luke’s account!

In the immediate wake of the cross the disciples are broken, fires quenched, dreams dashed, with no notion of their purpose. No wonder they snapped at the women! Then something changes.

The eleven are transformed, by the resurrection, from broken tools to useful ones! They are uncompromising witnesses, productive evangelists, fulfilling their calling! A triumph for the gospel!

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But look closer and the story is more complicated.

Luke describes Peter as doing Peter things:

He is the obvious leader of the eleven.

The rock on which the church will be built.

As always he is bold and impulsive, speaking up, speaking out, just as he’s always done.

But I think if we look closely, we can see that he is still on the anvil, not in the toolbox.

Lucado says the tools found on the anvil are wounded and in need of healing.

You can hear that woundedness in Peter’s voice when he says, with venom, the council members are the ones who “had Jesus killed by hanging him on a tree.”  

He is angry. He is hurt. He is looking to assign guilt.

For centuries many have been all too ready to join him. It’s easier to pick one enemy.

But Peter is not telling the whole story.

He is whitewashing Judas’ betrayal with a kiss.

He is forgetting the crowds who refused Pilate’s offered mercy and demanded Jesus’ death.

He is ignoring the Romans who used crucifixion to eliminate any threat to the Empire.

There is enough guilt to go around.

And, I suspect, Peter is himself wounded[3] by his role in denying his Lord and in failing, on that fateful night, to live up to his boast “I am ready to go with you to prison and to death!”

Those are the kind of words that will haunt you!

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I’m guessing you have some words that haunt you – things you wish you could take back or things that you wish you had said – just like Peter.

I’m guessing those self-inflicted wounds still hurt … and that your pain sometimes surfaces in ways that surprise you – just like Peter’s did.

And I’m guessing that while you wish you could take the fast lane from being a broken tool to a useful one, you will have to spend some time on the anvil, just like Peter.

Take heart! This is an Easter sermon about an Easter story! And Easter changes us!

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Peter has been working on this forgiveness thing for a while. You may recall him asking Jesus, “If my brother sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” and being astonished at Jesus’ answer: “Not seven times. But seventy times seven!”[4]

He will need to learn to forgive the council members for the role they played in the death of his Lord … just as he will need to forgive himself.

I’m not sure if he could ever have been able to do that if Jesus had stayed dead.

But his resurrection turned everything upside down. It opened a new chapter in the story. It gave Peter another chance to repent and to be transformed.

Notice that when he sums up the story for the council, he mentions forgiveness of sins.

I’m sure he thought he was preaching to them.

I think he was preaching to himself, as all preachers do.

Eventually all that good preaching would take its toll.

God would melt and mold; God would hammer and heal; God would forgive and fashion.

That’s how the divine blacksmith works … on Peter and on each one of us!

So as we experience the season of Easter, listen for stories of how resurrection changes people.

And claim that power as available to change you! Amen

[1] “Christ of Maryknoll” by Robert Lentz

[2] From On the Anvil, pages xv-xvi

[3] For this insight I am thankful for Matt Gaventa’s sermon, “Opening Day” on day1.org, 4/7/13

[4] See Matthew 16:18