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cheeto1
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In this first reading, Peter and John are arrested for healing a cripple. They had to stay in jail all night for this. In the morning when they are examined, they are asked, “By what power and whose name have you done this?” By this question, the high
priests are saying that Peter and John used some kind of power to do this. They are also saying that a name has power. How can a name have power? Easy. We know that the name of Jesus has power. But how did the high priests know to ask this question? If they knew that it was by the power of Jesus that they did this, then why
did they arrest them?
Today’s gospel is very, very interesting. Three things.
In this first reading, Peter and John are arrested for healing a cripple. They had to stay in jail all night for this. In the morning when they are examined, they are asked, “By what power and whose name have you done this?” By this question, the high
priests are saying that Peter and John used some kind of power to do this. They are also saying that a name has power. How can a name have power? Easy. We know that the name of Jesus has power. But how did the high priests know to ask this question? If they knew that it was by the power of Jesus that they did this, then why
did they arrest them?
Today’s gospel is very, very interesting. Three things.
- The number 153 means something. To the Greeks, it was the number of
different kinds of fish they believed there were. - Notice the fish were too heavy to be hauled in by the disciples. Then when
Jesus says, “bring me some of the fish you caught”, Peter goes over and
hauls the whole net up on shore by himself! I have heard it said that God
can’t steer a parked car. But in this case, fishing all night did nothing, until
they did it at the command of Jesus. Again, the net was too heavy, but at
the command of Jesus, Peter did the whole thing by himself. - If you continue reading past the end of the reading, you see the little story of
Jesus asking Peter if he loves Him 3 times. I didn’t notice this before, but
each time He asked him, He called him “Simon, son of John” instead of Peter.
That must have hurt his feelings as much as being asked “do you love Me?”
did. He was calling Peter by his former name, as if He was taking back the
name Peter because of the denials, and giving him back his old name.