Bible Study: Easter 4 (C) – May 11, 2025

RCL: Acts 9:36-43; Psalm 23; Revelation 7:9-17; John 10:22-30

Acts 9:36-43

The collect for this week describes Jesus as the good shepherd, “who calls us each by name.” Names play a significant role in this passage from Acts, in which Peter—who was so nicknamed by Jesus himself—replicates the sort of healing work that Jesus did in the Gospels. Tabitha’s miraculous resurrection might specifically cause us to recall the healing of Jairus’ daughter (Matt. 9:18-26; Mark 5:21-43; Luke 8:40-9:6) with the Aramaic words “Talitha koum,” translated as “Little girl, get up!” Tabitha’s name is not far off from “Talitha,” the form of address used for Jairus’ daughter, which is perhaps why we are given both her Aramaic and her Greek name.

Aramaic does not show up often in the New Testament, which was written in Greek, so when it does, we can be sure it’s there for a reason. We might consider the significance of Jesus addressing Jairus’ daughter in her native tongue or of Peter calling Tabitha by her Aramaic name even though his instruction to “get up” is in Greek. Relationships with God are personal!

• Like Peter and Tabitha, we are all inevitably called different names by different people with whom we have different relationships (think: nicknames, pet names, titles). Which, of your many names, are the ones God might call you by, and what significance do they have for you and your relationship with God?

Psalm 23

Psalm 23 is one of the earliest biblical instances of the good shepherd imagery used for today’s collect, and it’s pretty famous for showing up as a suitable option for use in Episcopal healing and burial services. With verses like “He revives my soul,” and “I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever,” it is only too fitting.

Our oldest Hebrew manuscripts of the Psalms do not have vowel markings, so sometimes we come across words that could be translated multiple ways, depending on the missing vowels (imagine only seeing “bt” and deciding whether it means “bat,” “bet,” “bit,” “bot,” or “but”). In these cases, we can look at later translations to other languages or newer manuscripts with vowel markings added by scribes and see how the saints who have gone before chose to interpret the ambiguity, but there’s no guarantee that one interpretation is right or wrong. The sequence of Hebrew consonants that we traditionally translate as “I will dwell in,” in Psalm 23, for instance, could also have meant “I will return to,” which carries a significantly different meaning when talking about “the house of the Lord.” If the house of the Lord is Heaven, for example, does returning mean that we were there before we inhabited this earthly life? “Dwell” certainly raises fewer theological quandaries!

• Try reciting the final verse of Psalm 23 with “return to” in place of “dwell in.” Does it change the meaning for you? How so? Which do you prefer, and why?

Revelation 7:9-17

We’ve been assuming the metaphor of shepherd for Christ for this week’s readings, but in this passage from Revelation, he’s also characterized as the capital-L Lamb! The last verse (17) paints a confusing picture in which the Lamb is also shepherd, and this is par for the course in the topsy-turvy imagery of Revelation. The Lamb’s blood has also been used to wash robes white, which is, uh, not the color we typically think of blood being.

The fact that we can think of Jesus as both Lamb and shepherd is telling. It reflects something about Christ’s nature as both fully God and fully human (the fancy theology term for this is “hypostatic union”). The shepherd metaphor reminds us of his deity and power to care for and guide us while the Lamb imagery reminds us of the vulnerability of his human incarnation: if human beings are his sheep, he is also The Sheep.

• There are many metaphors we use to make sense of what God is like, many but not all of which are from Scripture (e.g. “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit”). What metaphors do you use for God? What do you imagine God looks, sounds, or feels like? What might these imaginings tell you about God’s nature?

John 10:22-30

The festival of the Dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem (or, Hanukkah), which serves as the backdrop for this scene in the Gospel of John, was a big deal, to say the least. It was celebrating how, not long before, in 164 BCE, the Temple was rededicated after its desecration by King Antiochus IV of the Seleucid Empire (1 Macc. 4:52-59). During this time, and in the Second Temple period more broadly, the Temple was the center of ancient Jewish faith and life and a holy site of pilgrimage.

Jesus’ confrontation in this chapter is more serious in some ways than others that we see him have with Pharisees and priests throughout the Gospels. By claiming to be one with God the Father, he was committing what would have been considered a heresy at the time, and he was doing it in the holiest place there was at a time when that holiness was being celebrated. Meanwhile, under Roman occupation, fear abounded about further threats to the Temple’s ongoing existence. It was indeed not long for this world. In 70 CE, the Romans would destroy the Temple for good, and the Jewish people would learn to survive and worship in diaspora, hoping, along with many Christians, for a future third Temple. In the midst of this anxious tension, Jesus, like a good shepherd, promised that his sheep would have eternal life, and no one would be able to snatch them out of his hand. This stood in stark contrast to a very reasonable concern the Jewish people had about their ongoing life and the life of their Temple.

• Jesus promises us everlasting spiritual life in him, but he doesn’t promise that the things we hold dear and think important now will be eternal. What is something that feels essential to your faith now? What would it be like to go without it?

The Rev. Molly Cooke is a seminarian at Berkeley Divinity School at Yale.

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