Today's Scripture Reading (February 29, 2024): Acts 4
If there is a saying that seems to have characterized
my life, it might really be that "no good deed ever goes unpunished."
I remember working as a parts manager at a Toyota Dealership, and I had ordered
the wrong part for a car. It happens occasionally, but the person had brought
their vehicle in to have this part placed on their car before anyone realized
the error. Eventually, it was the service manager who revealed my mistake. So I
reordered the proper part, while the service manager asserted that he would
make up some excuse for the delay. But I wanted to follow a different path;
unbelievably, I wanted to be truthful, so I told the service manager that I
would admit my mistake and assure the customer that the problem could be
remedied in the next few days.
I remember the service manager laughing at me, but he
acquiesced. I was allowed to handle the situation and told the truth to the
customer. What happened next was a moment of humor for everyone in the
dealership who happened to be in the area. There was a pause after my
confession before the customer called me a liar and stormed out of the
dealership. The story's moral might be that we want excuses more than the
truth.
Peter gives the lame man what he has, Jesus, and then
finds himself standing before the Sanhedrin, the ruling council of Israel. The
Sanhedrin had the legal authority to do anything except put a man to death; the
death penalty required the participation of Rome.
The Sanhedrin had seventy-one members. The High priest
was the ex-officio president. As members, it would have priests (mostly
Sadducees who wanted to preserve the status quo so that Rome would not have any
reason to come down on them), Scribes (experts in the law), Pharisees (fanatics
for the law), and respected men from the community. This meant that the members
of the Sanhedrin worked with sometimes competing purposes. The Priests (almost
all Sadducees) were sympathizers of Rome. They had reached a level of social
and economic advancement they could maintain as long as there was no
significant disturbance in Israel. But, Jesus had already become a threat to
the status quo, so the idea that Peter and John had given the lame man Jesus
was a significant problem. For the Scribes and the Pharisees, the dividing line
was over the issues of the law; Peter and John had broken the law repeatedly by
performing healing in the name of Jesus, who had been condemned for breaking
various laws, including healing on the Sabbath. As a result, in the end, the
Sanhedrin would not be favorable to Peter and John.
Peter tries to cut through all of this by returning to
the point. From the Sanhedrin's point of view, Peter and James stood before
them because they invoked the name of Jesus; Peter reminds them that the truth
was that they stood before them because Peter in John had healed a man who
couldn't walk; they had exercised a kindness. They had not beaten anyone up; no
one had been killed; the disciples hadn't lied or stolen. They weren't guilty
of breaking any commandments. All they had done was heal a man who had been
unable to walk for his entire life.
But part of the problem was that these two uneducated
fishermen were becoming leaders, and the Sanhedrin didn't like where they were
leading the people. Michael Breen has a great quote. He says we all look like
sheep from the front and shepherds from behind. The Sanhedrin looked at Peter
and John, and they looked like sheep, with the expectation that they would
follow the leaders: the Priests, Scribes, and Pharisees. However, from behind,
they were beginning to look like shepherds and starting to lead people in a
direction with which the rulers were uncomfortable.
Tomorrow's Scripture
Reading: Acts 5
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