-- Acts 5:38-39
I try to imagine the frustration the teachers of the law felt during the time of the early church.
Here was this Man making the "blasphemous" claim that He was the Son of God. He performed miraculous signs, raised the dead and really tended to get in your face whenever it came to the traditions you based your belief system on. You brought Him to trial and you had Him executed. That should have been the end of the story.
It should have been. Strike the head and the body dies, right?
But what if, just maybe, this Jesus was who He said He was? Worse, what if He is who He says He is.
No, no. He's dead. You watched it happen. You watched those nails being pounded into his hands. You heard the that righteous cry as He expended His last breath. Forgive me? Because I don't know what I'm doing?
It's taken months to shake the shiver of that moment off your spine. That was not a desperate Man you hung on that cross. That was a Man of Purpose. He knew exactly what He was doing. But He died. You saw it.
Still, three days, three nights and that tomb was empty. There's no disputing that. And these people just won't keep quiet about having seen Him. Forty days, they say. He was among them for 40 days, showing the wounds you gave Him. Impossible.
But still, that's a lot of a people telling the same story. Impossible.
And now, here are these two, Peter and John. Healing, speaking with boldness and authority, striking chords deep within the hearts of man.
You thought you dealt with this already, but now there are two more? Neither one will take the credit for themselves. They keep pointing our people back to this Jesus.
So you forbid them from saying that Name. If you can't strike the Man from the record, surely you can withhold His name.
But that only grew the following.
More healings, even Peter's mere shadow falling on those he passed seemed to have power. The numbers continued to grow. People were starting to look at you, wondering what your real relevance was anymore.
Enough. This could not stand. You grab all 12 of those apostles and throw them behind bars.
If you can't kill the movement, surely you can contain it.
But it seemed even the sealed hole and armed guards couldn't keep them. Why does this seem so familiar?
The next morning, there they are, in our temple, teaching that Name. Impossible.
So you haul them back in. "Explain yourselves," you demand. "Why do you insist on saying that Name. Why are you intent on pinning that Man's blood to me?"
"We ought to obey God, rather than men," they say. "The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. Him God exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins."
That gets you going. Kill them. Rid the earth of them. You've done it before, what's a couple more? What's a hundred more, a thousand more if it means bringing balance back to the council?
But what's this? Your teacher, Gamaliel, has something to say. Seems he's seen enough. He sends those "apostles" out of the room. He wants to speak just to us.
He references other uprisings, how they play themselves out in time. How giving them opposition only strengthens their resolve.
"Keep away from these men and let them alone," he says. "For if this plan or this work is of men, it will come to nothing; but if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it -- lest you even be found to fight against God."
You nod. Everyone nods. No one wants to fight against God. But this Jesus is not of God. We've already declared our sentence on that. No going back on that now.
You send the apostles away with a severe beating. That doesn't stop them. They only teach and preach all the more.
What is it that drives these men?
More time passes. The miracles continue. The number expands.
You kill more of these "Christians." You set out to destroy them. The "jailbreak" slips into a distant hint of a memory as you fight the good fight.
Then one day, as you journey with your companions to round-up these believers from Damascus, a bright light pierces you to your very soul.
You hear a voice. You've heard it before. But now He speaks directly to you.
"Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?"
In that single moment your teacher's words come flooding back.
You have been fighting against God.
No more. Not any more.
---
A word of caution about the above tale. You may not come down on the side you think you do. I know I didn't.
A friend pointed out the other day that we, the church, tend to treat non-believers like the enemy. This happens because we miss who the real enemy is in all this -- Satan. Sin.
Do we reach out like Jesus reached out? To everyone? Do we teach and witness like the apostles did? Without reservation -- even to the point of physical harm and death?
A lot of times I have believed I've been on God's side in an issue, fighting vehemently for it (if even in my own thoughts) only to realize later that I was actually fighting against Him -- hindering the message to those He wants to reach.
I've come to realize in such situations that I'm no different than a pharisee -- fighting against what God is trying to do instead of first seeking His will and then obeying.
When you find yourself fighting for the faith, take a good step back and consider who it is you are actually fighting. If your object is to defeat a person or a group, consider how it is God would instead reach out to that person.
Remember, at the end of the day, the battle belongs to the Lord.
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"This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief." -- 1 Timothy 1:15
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