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Easter Season · Third Sunday of Easter · Year A

1 Peter 1:17-21

Ransomed Not with Silver or Gold

April 19, 2026

The Sacrificial Lamb, Josefa de Ayala (Josefa de Óbidos)
The Sacrificial Lamb, Josefa de Ayala (Josefa de Óbidos), c. 1670Walters Art Museum
A Portuguese painter, one of very few women running her own workshop in the seventeenth century. A bound lamb lies on a slab with flowers scattered round it, alive and looking out.You were ransomed with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish.Walters Art MuseumA father-and-son collection given to the city of Baltimore, running from Egypt to Art Nouveau, and free to enter.Walters Art Museum
Roman Lectionary
GospelLuke 24:13-35Lk 24:13-35
Second Reading1 Pet. 1:17-211 Pt 1:17-21
First ReadingActs 2:14, 22-33
Responsorial PsalmPs. 16:1-2a+5, 7-8, 9-10, 11 (11a)Ps 16:1-2a+5, 7-8, 9-10, 11 (11a)

Overview & Insights

“You were ransomed… with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.” (1 Peter 1:18-19)

The letter addresses resident aliens scattered across northern Asia Minor (1:1), and verse 17 keeps that vocabulary, calling the present life a time of exile or sojourning. The ransom image in verses 18 and 19 sets two currencies against each other, silver and gold against blood, and the standard required of the lamb, without blemish or spot, is the Passover requirement of Exodus 12:5. What the readers are ransomed from is named with unusual bluntness, the futile ways handed down from their ancestors, which suggests a largely Gentile audience. Verse 20 sets the whole transaction in a wide frame, foreknown before the foundation of the world and made manifest at the end of the ages, and verse 21 makes the resurrection the ground of faith rather than only its object, so that faith and hope terminate in God.

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Take it further: 1 Peter 1:17-21

Commentary

Commentary on 1 Peter 1:17-23Commentary on 1 Pt 1:17-23 Working Preacher

Lutheran commentary on holy living as ransomed exiles.

1 Peter 1:17-23 Commentary1 Pt 1:17-23 Commentary Center for Excellence in Preaching

Reformed preaching commentary contrasting perishable and imperishable inheritance.

1 Peter 1 Commentary: Living Like You are Born Again1 Pt 1 Commentary: Living Like You are Born Again Enduring Word

David Guzik's commentary on living as those born again through Christ.

1 Peter 1 Resources1 Pt 1 Resources Precept Austin

Verse-by-verse evangelical commentary resources for 1 Peter 1.

The impartiality of God's love in 1 Peter 1 video discussionThe impartiality of God's love in 1 Pt 1 video discussion Psephizo

Anglican video discussion of God's impartial judgment, naming this as the Easter 3 (Year A) epistle.

Background & Word Study

1 Peter 1 Interlinear1 Pt 1 Interlinear BibleHub

Greek interlinear text for word-level study of the passage.

The Church Fathers

1 Peter 11 Pt 1 Catena Bible

Patristic commentary on 1 Peter 1.

Study Hub

1 Peter 1:17 - Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary1 Pt 1:17 - Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary StudyLight

Verse-by-verse hub gathering multiple historic commentators on 1 Peter 1:17.

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