The theme for the Fifth Sunday of Easter is Life in Christ. In the Gospel, Jesus described Himself as the Vine and the believers as the branches which bring forth fruit. How one becomes a person in Christ is demonstrated by the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch in the first lesson. To be in Christ means to obey the commandments of God, to love not only in word but in deed.
“God is love,”
and He has manifested Himself to us by sending “his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him” (1
John 4:9, 16). By the ministry of the Gospel, “he has given us of his Spirit,” so that we also believe and confess
“that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.”
In this way, we “abide in him and he in
us,” and we “love one another” (1
John 4:2, 7, 13). Such divine love is exemplified in Philip’s preaching of “the good news about Jesus” to the
Ethiopian eunuch. And when “they came to
some water,” the eunuch was baptized into the very Gospel that Philip had
preached (Acts 8:35–38). That Ethiopian was thereby grafted into “the true vine,” Jesus Christ (John
15:1), just as we are. Already we are clean because of the Word that Christ has
spoken to us and by the washing of water with His Word. We now abide in Him by
faith in His forgiveness. As He abides in us, both body and soul, with His own
body and His blood, He “bears much fruit”
in us (John 15:3–5).[1]
—Psalm 145:1-2,
8, 10, 21; antiphon, John 16:16—The
antiphon is taken from the Lord’s promise to His followers, “A little while, and you will see me no
longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.” Few doubt that the
first phrase refers to the interval before the crucifixion. But interpretations
differ as to whether the second refers to the interval preceding the
resurrection or the coming of the Spirit, or the return of Christ on the Last
Great Day. It seems that the language here best fits the resurrection.
Collect for Psalm 145: Loving Father, you are faithful in your promises and tender in your compassion. Listen to our hymn of joy, and continue to satisfy the needs of all your creatures, that all flesh may bless your name in your everlasting kingdom, where with your Son and the Holy Spirit you live and reign, now and forever.[2] -26 April 2021
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