Brief synopsis of the readings: The first reading from the Acts of the Apostles is a chapter earlier than last week’s reading. Peter, already taking his place as the leader of Jesus’ followers, speaks to his fellow Jews. He tells them that the God they have worshipped all their lives sent Jesus to be among them. They then turned him over to Pilate and he was killed while a murderer (Barabas) was set free. Peter then tells them that they did not know what they were doing and this was how God carried out his plan. Peter then tells those gathered to repent and turn to God to have their sins forgiven. Luke’s Gospel takes place immediately after two disciples encountered Jesus on the road to Emmaus. The disciples returned to Jerusalem and began to describe their sighting to the others. As they were talking Jesus appeared to them. They were at first frightened because they thought they were seeing a ghost. Jesus assured them he was real and showed him his hands and feet and ate a piece of broiled fish to show them he was real. He then went through Scripture to show that this is what had been foretold all along.

This had to be good for the disciples and everyone gathered: Jesus is not only alive, he’s resurrected. This Jesus, this man who we all felt so compelling, whose words burned in our ears, is back. So many of his words were puzzling and it was easy to ignore what we didn’t understand. And now we understand them and are learning that so much of what we didn’t understand was the most important part of his message.

But I wonder if this joy wasn’t tinged with just a little bit of fear. Peter’s words were pretty frank: You, all you gathered here on Solomon’s Portico (where Jesus was rejected in John’s Gospel chapter 10 verse 23), you took the man God sent. You had him arrested by Pilate who set free a murderer and killed Jesus. And now Jesus is back.

I wonder how many in the crowd feared that Jesus may be back to settle some scores. “I remember you: you were the one who told everyone that my turning water into wine was a trick, a sleight of hand. And you, you were the woman who told my mother that she should be ashamed of me. And you Pharisees: you didn’t like it when I accused you of binding up heavy loads for others to carry but I was right. I see you still use your intelligence to make others feel foolish and benefit from the work of others for your livelihood. You, who were supposed to be my followers, rejected me at every turn. Well I’m back. And I’m your worst nightmare. It’s MY turn now.”

Of course this is not what happened. As a matter of fact Peter makes excuses for them: they didn’t really know what they were doing and this echoed Jesus on the cross (Luke 23:34): “Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” For most of our human experience this idea of forgiveness and excusing past behavior has been a sign of weakness. Strength must be used to enforce power and revenge is a powerful tool to make sure nobody makes the same mistake again.

We see that even more clearly in Jesus’ dealings with his disciples. Let us not forget that it was not long before that these very disciples abandoned Jesus on the cross. As a matter of fact Peter, the leader of this ragtag band, denied he even knew Jesus. [As an aside whenever one of my hospice patients worries that his or her sins will prevent entry into Heaven I remind them that Peter denied Jesus three times and now has the keys to the place].

In the writing of this passage from Luke we can see how bewildered and then thrilled the disciples were from seeing the resurrected Jesus, but we don’t have much insight into how Jesus felt. Perhaps he forgave them through grit teeth but I don’t think so. I think Jesus was able to see into the heart of his disciples and see that their sins were not so much calculating as they were filled with fear. Peter did not deny he knew Jesus because he was going on to the next chapter of his life, but because he was afraid he would end up under the same sentence as Jesus. Those who abandoned Jesus did it out of a well placed belief that the Romans were not done with his band of followers.

And so Jesus embeds his forgiveness in the quelling of their fears. His first words to them were “Peace be with you.” Peace, and not “teaching a lesson” would be the path of Jesus. He set us on a course of love and reconciliation, not power and revenge.

This month we commemorate the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War. On April 9, 1865 General Grant of the Union armies accepted the unconditional surrender of Robert E. Lee of the Confederate army. Many in the north demanded, and many in the south feared, revenge. Just as George Washington and our founders knew that the gallows would await their defeat, many thought that Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee should face the same fate.

But President Lincoln did not. A man of deep and at times tortured spirituality spoke these words in 1864:

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

Unfortunately, in a cruel irony of history, President Lincoln was assassinated a few days later and his dream of healing and reconciliation was replaced by a policy of Reconstruction that scars us to this day. Carpetbaggers, opportunists, and thieves sought to profit on southerners who were already at the point of starvation.

Nobody wanted a repeat of the Civil War with its over 600,000 dead. But President Lincoln’s vision of peace through healing and reconciliation was replaced by “making the South pay.” Without making too much of this I believe that our history would have taken a much better path had we (quoting Lincoln again) listened to the “better angels of our nature.”

And while we will likely never have as large a part in our history as President Lincoln, we all live with the choices he made and the path Jesus chose for us. We all live with individual betrayals, broken promises, and the like. We can all list those times when someone did not treat us according to the better angels of their nature and we have to decide how we are going to respond to that hurt.

And honestly there are times when the other person acted with malice and the relationship needs to end. Also there are times when we are victimized by someone we aren’t (and never will be) in relationship with. But the resurrection of Jesus calls us toward the path of love because exacting revenge or “teaching a lesson” only raises the ante and calls the other to do the same.

That said we live in a society where seemingly every day some event “goes viral.” Sometimes they are short videos of kittens being kittens but sometimes they are something darker. Last month a busload of fraternity brothers in Oklahoma chanted a racist and deeply offensive song (sung, ironically, to the tune of If You’re Happy and You Know It Clap Your Hands). This was clearly sinful behavior but it was a sin committed by young men whose judgement was still developing and for whom peer pressure is a strong and dominating force. The fact that this chant was secretly videotaped and released to the press did nothing to make the sin more serious but it went viral. Within a few days, two members of the fraternity were expelled, the campus fraternity was closed, and some members of the fraternity received death threats.

Nobody excuses what they did but instead of using this as a teachable moment and a recognition that racism still exists in our nation, it turned into a virtual lynch mob complete with the internet equivalent of pitchforks and torches. This could and should have been a recognition that wisdom called them to step back from the need to get along and realize how hurtful speech is not our call. Instead we have young men who fear that the stupidest moment of their lives will follow them. Of the two young men who were expelled, I hope they can quietly enroll somewhere else and live their lives looking forward. But I fear that they will never be free of the fear of hearing: “Weren’t you that guy who…”

Let us, this Easter season, use our gifts to advance healing and reconciliation. Let us not settle scores but instead move us forward. Let us recognize that we want to be seen and remembered by the better angels of our nature and not our worst moments. And let us live with the awareness our actions can allow others to do the same.