‘Things get out of hand’ by Owen Lynch, 14 April 2024
Do we get that there’s a massive movement building? Owen Lynch looks at the growing expectation among Jesus’ followers early in the book of Acts that their world would change. Believers were living in revolutionary ways which changed how they saw and handled possessions, hoped and worked for equality, and fought and dealt with corruption.
There began to be deadly consequences, both for a couple whose corruption undermined the integrity of the movement, and for man inspired by God to share the movement’s story as part of the history of Israel.
These stories might be familiar to us, but we might have read wrongly or applied them unhelpfully if we haven’t understood their context. What can we do to understand and learn from them better today?
Transcript
We were in Paris last week for three nights and wandered around the many palaces made empty by the French revolution that lasted from 1789 to 1799.
The French Revolution was not a single event, but a series of developments that unfolded from the frustration of the ordinary people with the deep inequality in society. France was broke due to its involvement in the American revolution and the extravagance of the court of King Louis XVI. Meanwhile, ordinary people were suffering from widespread economic hardship and distress.
Where such massive inequalities exist, there is always some form of revolution at some point.
I mention this, because revolution is the backdrop to the events described in the part of the Bible called Acts.
I think if we fail to understand that the movement based on Jesus was seen as a political revolutionary movement, then we will not really understand the events described.
The interpretive key to Acts and all the letters of the New Testament is the belief that Jesus was going to reappear and seize power from the Priests, Lawyers and Politicians and establish a new government that would establish Israel as a Kingdom independent from Rome.
The disciples of Jesus were the grass root leaders of the revolution, leading the fight against the established power base of Priests, Lawyers and Politicians.
In episode 4, I described how Luke uses the healing of a disabled beggar by Peter and John as a metaphor for their manifesto of levelling up.
In the new Kingdom of Israel, the last will be first! No one will be able to hoard wealth in such a way that causes the poor to suffer. In the new Kingdom of Israel everyone will be able to share in the land.
The use of the land for the benefit of everyone was more important back then, than it appears to be now here in the UK.
Back then, if you had no access to land to grow crops, or feed your livestock, then you would starve to death. The problem was made worse by being part of the Roman Empire, because the land was controlled by the Romans in order to produce food for the growing city populations across the empire.
For a more recent example, consider the way that 17th century plantations used all the available fertile land in the Caribbean to produce sugar and tobacco for European markets. This led to poverty and economic hardship for the indigenous peoples whose land was stolen by the plantation owners.
So at the time of Jesus, much of the fertile land would have been used to produce food for the cities of the Roman Empire and this would have caused huge suffering and economic hardship for the indigenous poor population of Palestine.
Jesus spent most of his public life campaigning against the corrupt Jewish Priests, Lawyers and Politicians who were complicit with the Roman authorities in allowing the systematic exploitation of the majority poor.
Following his death and resurrection, his team of disciples continued this movement for equality, inclusion and justice. But like all revolutions the conflict was heading in a bloody and violent direction.
In chapter 4, the disciples have already been interrogated and received threats of violence, but in chapters 5 through 7 things get out of hand - there’s violence, murder and tensions boil over within the movement itself.
I want to suggest that lasting revolutions are always bloody and violent, because authorities will not willingly give up power and revolutionaries are completely committed to their cause.
Just think for the moment about the mindset of a political revolutionary. They are someone who supports rapid and drastic change to replace the status quo, they are not a reformer who supports more gradual and incremental change of the present system of government.
These are not people like you and me. We are not revolutionaries. Revolutionaries are like Alex Navalny who wanted a Russian revolution to overturn Putin’s regime, but who met an untimely death. Revolutionaries are like Malala Yousaf who campaigned for the rights of women to an education in a Taliban controlled area of Pakistan and was struck in the head with a bullet in an attempted assassination. Revolutionaries are people like Martin Luther King and Malcom X whose whole lives were devoted to human rights and who both were assassinated. Jesus of Nazareth was a revolutionary to devoted his whole life to the restoration of Israel and paid for it with his life.
The people around Jesus that we are reading about in Acts were revolutionaries just like their leader Jesus and they were completely committed to their cause. They found courage and support from one another, Acts 4:32 says that they were:
“One in heart and mind”
They were zealously committed to overturning the present system and establishing the Kingdom of Jesus. There was no room for half heartedness, no room for doubters who sap the courage and the emotional energy of the revolution.
It’s like a successful sports team cannot win if the whole team is not 100% committed. There’s no room for doubters, no room for the half hearted, no room for passengers. It’s all or nothing.
In Acts 1-4, we see the team of disciples building up momentum - building up a head of steam, it’s exciting to be part of a team that is going to make a difference. We all know how that feels right?
But then this revolutionary movement with all it’s momentum and emotional energy hits some reality, it collides with some internal division and then they get arrested, interrogated, flogged and then one of them is murdered.
Acts 4:32 - 5:6
32 All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. 33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all 34 that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35 and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.
36 Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means “son of encouragement”), 37 sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet.
1 Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. 2 With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet.
3 Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? 4 Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.”
5 When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. 6 Then some young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him.
Remember this band of revolutionaries are fundamentally committed to the restoration of Israel under the Kingship of Jesus.
And at the centre of their political campaign is the return of the land to ordinary people so that everyone can enjoy this land flowing with milk and honey [which is a metaphor for fertile and productive land]. It’s all about inclusion, equality and justice for everyone, not just the corrupt elite.
Land is at the centre of the revolution and so Luke includes this story contrasting the loyal commitment of Barnabus with the disloyal half heartedness of a couple called Ananias and Sapphira.
You can decide for yourself whether this really happened or not - scholars aren’t agreed whether this really happened or not. You can build a whole theology on whether the Holy Spirit kills liars or not (if you want to) - some scholars have done just that and others haven’t.
But what we see here is an example of what damage dissenters, doubters and half hearted passengers can do to a revolutionary movement. The disloyal half heartedness of this couple disrupts the very heart of their revolution to restore inclusion, equality and justice for everyone. The lead revolutionary Peter recognises the damage that people like Ananias and Sapphira can do to the momentum of this revolution and he sets out to challenge it head on!
We see this in contemporary politics, for example the racist comments of the conservative politician Lee Anderson towards the mayor of London Sadiq Khan undermined the commitment of the conservative government to eradicate racism. So he was suspended from the Conservative Party when he refused to apologise.
The emotional pressure on these revolutionaries must have been unbelievably intense and perhaps Luke it trying to convey the extraordinary emotional tension that existed within this group by telling this story. He says in Acts 5:13, that
13 No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people.
The stakes were high and division was dealt with swiftly and everyone else could see that. The integrity of the revolution could not be undermined by corruption and injustice.
But the internal emotional pressure of this revolution was high and about to get higher.
The core team of “revolutionaries” were arrested and put in jail, but they are immediately broken out of jail by an angel. The febrile, tense aura around this group of revolutionaries was compounded by weird and powerful phenomenon of healings, deliverances and jail breaks!
They are dragged back into the Sanhedrin to explain their revolution, but what they said enraged the priests to the extent that they wanted to kill them there and then. One of the Pharisees Gamaliel urges restraint saying, Acts 5:35-37
“Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. 36 Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. 37 After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered.
We can see from these words, that Jesus’ followers were clearly understood to be revolutionaries and that Gamaliel expected their mini revolution to come to the same end as all previous, that is the death of the leaders.
Nevertheless, the priests had the revolutionaries flogged with a whip made from several pieces of leather with fragments of bone and lead embedded near the ends.
No one wants to be flogged and even Jesus didn’t celebrate being flogged himself, but these crazy revolutionaries, Acts 5:41
41…..left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.
There was a growing visceral sense that their revolution was starting to unsettle the corrupt authorities and they were rejoicing despite their personal pain. They were making progress!
But there is still internal pressure to deal with; this time Jews from Greece were complaining that Jews from Palestine were not distributing the food fairly. Again, another example of the integrity of the revolution being undermined by corruption and injustice.
The leadership act swiftly to enlarge the group of leaders to include Jews who are not from Palestine. Luke is reminding us of the political nous of the revolutionaries and the expansive and inclusive nature of the gospel of Jesus.
One of these new Greek Jewish leaders - Stephen encounters significant opposition, Acts 6:9
9 Opposition arose, however, from members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called)—Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia—who began to argue with Stephen. 10 But they could not stand up against the wisdom the Spirit gave him as he spoke. 11 Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, “We have heard Stephen speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.”
I think this is significant, because they play the race card. It seems that they accuse him of blasphemy on the basis that he is not a real Jew, just one from Greece rather than Jerusalem.
So Stephen does something that demonstrates that this revolution of Jesus is for all Jews, not just the ones who live in Palestine.
He makes the best summary of the history of Israel from the time of Abraham to his present day that you will find anywhere in the Bible. And he does it to accuse the Sanhedrin of hypocrisy, Acts 7:51-53
51 “You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit! 52 Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him— 53 you who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it.”
They accused this revolutionary of blasphemy and he threw it right back at them.
The revolution was at boiling point and Stephen’s provocation ignited a wave of violence that started with his murder and continued with a great persecution of these revolutionaries. Acts 8:1-3
On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. 2 Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. 3 But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.
This was a turning point in the revolution, up to this point events had just happened in Jerusalem, from here on - the revolution spreads like a wildfire across Judea and Samaria, with unexpected consequences.
For our reflection:
How does the revolutionary context change the way you think about this familiar story?
Is it right to try and apply aspects of this story to our own lives and if so, how?
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