Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for April 19, 2026 (Easter 3A)

Supper at Emmaus (1648). Oil painting on panel by Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669). Musée du Louvre, Paris. (Click image to enlarge)

First Reading: Acts 2:14a,36-41

Appropriately for Eastertide, themes of resurrection continue in our lectionary readings this week. In the first reading, Peter utters harsh words, blaming “the entire house of Israel” for crucifying Jesus, the Lord and Messiah. As with the angry references to the Jews in the Passion Gospels, modern Christians must read this kind of accusation – which recurs throughout the Acts of the Apostles – in its historical and cultural context. At the time of this writing, extreme tension remained between early Christians and Jews, who had separated into angry factions after the destruction of the Temple. Perhaps in this passage we can focus instead on God’s gracious promise that forgiveness through the gift of the Holy Spirit is available to all.

Psalm: Psalm 116:1-3, 10-17

Psalm 116, a hymn of thanksgiving, expresses the Psalmist’s gratitude for recovery from illness. The first selection chosen for this reading is vivid in its description of the anguish of severe sickness and the fear of death; but then the remaining verses change tone, portraying the transforming joy that comes with recovery. There is a theme of resurrection here, too, as we think of the joy that comes with escaping the darkness of the underworld to win the bounty of salvation.

Second Reading: 1 Peter 1:17-23

These verses, from the first of the two letters written in Peter’s name, offer a glimpse into the efforts of the church around the end of the first century to discern the meaning of Jesus’ death and resurrection. We hear the author working out the significance of Jesus’ death as ransom for our sins, a theological question that has continued from the early church through the Middle Ages to modern times. Through Christ, the author points out, we trust in God. Through Christ we love one another. And through Christ we gain life in the enduring word of God.

Gospel: Luke 24:13-35

What a confusing time the first Easter must have been for those who loved Jesus! This Gospel passage, like last Sunday’s reading about Jesus entering the locked room where the disciples were hiding, shows his followers as uncertain, uneasy, even scared. “We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel,” two of them told the stranger who joined them on the road to Emmaus, the past tense hinting that this hope, once alive, now was gone. Nor does it seem that they believed the women who had gone before them to the empty tomb. But the traveler, after lecturing them about the prophets’ teachings about the Messiah, revealed himself as Jesus when he broke bread for them at the dinner table.