Confrontation – Acts 5

A text – Acts 5:27-32

²⁷ When they had brought them, they had them stand before the council. The high priest questioned them, ²⁸ saying, “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you are determined to bring this man’s blood on us.” ²⁹ But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than any human authority. ³⁰ The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. ³¹ God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. ³² And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.”

A reflection:

Peter and John had been sitting in prison, arrested by the authorities for continuing to preach and heal in Jesus’s name. An angel came to them and let them out. Both the religious authorities and the Romans who kept order saw them now as truly repeat offenders.

When a group of them were arrested once again and brought before the Jewish high council, the high priest begins by charging them again with (1) flouting their previous order against teaching in Jesus name, (2) expanding their ministry to “fill Jerusalem,” and (3) blaming Jesus’s death directly on the council. Peter’s response is maybe the clearest statement of the good news of Jesus that exists in the scriptures:

1. We must obey God first, not humans.

2. The God we all worship raised Jesus from being dead at your hands.

3. God exalted Jesus so that Israel could repent and be forgiven.

4. We are witnesses to all of this, along with the Holy Spirit, whom God is giving to anyone who obeys God.

Though Peter declared that the high council was responsible for Jesus’s death, He is not out for vengeance (even though the council is trying him for the third time on this offense). He is instead offering mercy: repentance and forgiveness for Israel and for anyone who obeys God. Peter is proclaiming the good news of Jesus.

What happened next? You can read it in Acts yourself, but the shortened version is that Peter’s simple statement of their mission as witnesses enraged the council, who were ready to kill the apostles. But a wise Pharisee, Gamaliel, moved the apostles to the next room and then calmed the council down by reciting how some past rebellions against Jewish authority had been quelled. When everyone’s blood pressure was normal, he told them to let Peter and his friends go; if their work is of human origin, he said, it will fail, but if it is of God, we are powerless to stop it.

Those in power want to be obeyed. People who disobey rile up both the authorities’ anger and their worst fears. Once fear arrives, no logic, reason, or loving appeal can work. Gamaliel understood his colleagues. Recite something pertinent that takes awhile, and when you see normal breathing, make one point as simply as possible. Gamaliel did not know whether Peter was right. But he knew that releasing them was the only answer.

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for Peter and his friends’ persistence in witnessing about Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Help us to see that nothing will ever stop your story from being told, though the tellers may pay a high price for doing the work you have given them to do. Amen.