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Jesus' unique rising: Acts 9:36-43

The mark of a good wonder-worker is his similarity to wonder-workers of the past. Though Jesus exceeded Moses in teaching authority, his miraculous acts are patterned after his prophetic forebears Elijah and Elisha. John the Baptist is commonly compared to Elijah in the New Testament, but the implicit corollary—that just as Elijah is followed by Elisha, so John is followed by Jesus, and the latter do greater things than the former—is never made explicit.

Peter's familiar story: John 21:1-19

Fred Snodgrass made one mistake and the world never let him forget it. Snodgrass was playing center field for the New York Giants in the 1912 World Series against the Red Sox. The teams were tied in the tenth inning when a fly ball fell into Snodgrass’s mitt—and he dropped it. The Red Sox won the series, and the error stuck with Snodgrass the rest of his life. Sixty-two years later, his New York Times obituary read: “Fred Snodgrass, 86, Dead; Ball Player Muffed 1912 Fly.”

That’s the way we might have remembered Peter: “Simon Peter, Fisherman; Denied His Lord in 33 AD.”