Easter People - the command and obedience

Easter Octave - Saturday

April 27, 2019: Acts 4: 13-21; Mark 16: 9-15

The Apostles in front of the elders and the high priests were not saying anything untrue, nor were they speaking figuratively. They were stating a fact: that they have received a command from their Master and their obedience to that command is absolute. The Gospel presents to us that scene where the command was given. There is something very important to note here. That command was not for the apostles alone!

I remember an experience from our Scout Master's Training days (it is still fresh though 20 years have passed). The Leader-Trainer would demonstrate the drill standing in front of the troop and he would announce: "the Command is only for me" and then proceed with the demo. When Jesus lived with his disciples he was in the command-is-only-for-me mode. But once he demonstrated what it means to take the good news of the Reign of God to the people, he opened the command to the rest of his followers. The command was not for the apostles alone, but for every person who wanted to follow Christ. In fact, it is not that the command is for the apostles but that every one who receives the command becomes an apostle! 

He has shown us by example what it means to live that command on a daily basis, and become truly his apostles. The way to become his apostles is evidently, to realise today, that we have received the command too. 

The threatening circumstances and ruthless fanaticism, like that of the Srilankan Easter Carnage which is still so fresh in our minds or scores of other forms of inhuman realities all around, can warn us as the elders and the high priests did: do not speak of the good news from Christ. But whom are we going to obey? These threatening subhumans? Or the Divine Master who became human and showed us what it really meant?

Let us remember, Easter People know the command and they know whom to obey!