By Earle Roberts
With the continued activity, and rising? popularity, of the apostles, the high priest and the Sadducees “took action.” They had the apostles (not just Peter and John this time) put in prison for the night. But the Lord freed the apostles during the night, and they were told to return to the Temple courts and to “tell the people the whole message.”
The next morning, the high priest and his colleagues called together the full council for examination of the apostles. But the apostles were not in the prison. They were in the Temple, teaching the people. So the Temple police escorted them to the assembled council.
The high priest had two charges: You have disobeyed our orders that you no longer “teach in this name” and you strive to bring guilt upon us for this man’s crucifixion.
To the first, the apostles responded that obedience to God always has priority. The second part of the response stated the core of the conflict: God raised up Jesus and exalted him as Leader and Savior to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. We apostles and the Holy Spirit are witnesses to this.
At the clarity of this short response by Peter, most members of the council were ready to kill the apostles. But an honored man named Gamaliel, a highly regarded teacher of the law and a Pharisee, reminded the members of the council that movements such as the present one, if purely of human inspiration and motivation, would come to naught. But if God should be the origin, the council could not stop it and could end up on the wrong side!
So the apostles were set free, after being flogged. And every day they were busy teaching and preaching that Jesus was the Christ.
- For the apostles there was clear contradiction between God’s instruction [5:20] and the order of the high priest [4:18; 5:25]. For us it is seldom so clear. Are there instances where you have the same sort of conflict between divine and human instructions?
- The clear, succinct reply of Peter and the apostles in 5:30-31 shines a spotlight on the faith we profess. How does your faith compare?
- What other details do you notice in today’s reading?
Prayer: Keep our minds and wills attuned to your word, O God. Strengthen us with your Holy Spirit. Amen.
