Thursday of the
Third Week of Easter
(Acts 8:26-40; John 6:44-51)
Last year an article questioning the value of the Old
Testament appeared in a leading religious journal. The author drew attention to the work of a
German scholar who says that the Old Testament should no longer be used in
Christian churches. The scholar believes
that it does not contain references to Christ as the Fathers of the Church took
for granted. Also, the scholar holds
that reading the Old Testament as if it did insults the Jewish people. Both readings today, however, point to a
different conclusion. They show that it
was not only the Church Fathers of the third, fourth, and fifth centuries who read
the Old Testament as a treasury of coded references to Christ. They demonstrate that the New Testament
authors did the same.
In the reading from Acts, Philip instructs the Ethiopian
that the reference in Isaiah referring to the Suffering Servant foretells the
mission of Christ. In the gospel Jesus
says the verse, found also in Isaiah, “They shall be taught by God,” refers to
himself. There are probably hundreds of other
passages from the Old Testament incorporated in the New. Before the gospels were written, the apostles
saw the correlation between Jesus’ life and the writings of the Old Testament.
The Church long ago declared the validity of the Old
Testament as the inspired word of God.
We must see its value not only in what is foretells of Christ but also
in what it teaches independent of those references. We are to study it, teach it, live it and
cherish it. In doing so, we will draw
closer to Jesus, our Savior.
