April 14 - Fault or Fate?

Third Sunday of Easter

Peter seems to be pretty tough with his listeners in the first reading. He says they handed Jesus over, denied him before Pilate, asked for a murderer to be released in his place, and put Jesus to death. They must have thought they were doomed. Suddenly, he tells them they were just ignorant. And that God had planned all this long ago. So is he saying Jesus’ death is their fault, or just fate?

The answer of course is that it’s everyone’s fault. Our sins are the reason for Jesus’ death. We deny Jesus when we choose to be selfish instead of loving. We hand him over when we tell ourselves we are too busy to take time to pray. We ask for Barabbas to be freed instead of Jesus when we insist on doing things our own way rather than God’s way. We crucify Jesus when we follow the crowd instead of following the Lord.

It is only “fate” in the sense that our sins needed to be forgiven and God plan’s for salvation was through Jesus’ death and resurrection. Does that mean our sins cause something in the past to happen? There were sinners long before Jesus’ time and God knew there would be sinners after that. God also planned to forgive anyone who repented their sins. In one sense, Jesus died for those who deserved to be punished for sin, and also for those who would deserve punishment in the future. He rose from the dead to show that God’s forgiveness raises us up from guilt to a new life.

Peter wasn’t laying a guilt trip on the listeners. After all, this is good news. God planned all this to show how much he loved us. Our response should be one of joy that we are forgiven because of that love. All we have to do is tell God we are sorry, mean it, and start living our response of love. Sins may be our fault, but Love is our fate.

Tom Schmidt