Whodunnit?
The back story. Acts Chapter 2 concludes: Awe came upon
everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All
who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their
possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day
by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at
home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having
the goodwill of all the people. [Acts 2: 43-47a]
Well, not all the people really. Our snippet from Acts
4:5-12 finds Peter and John before some Temple authorities after a night spent
in jail. The offense? One day Peter and John went to pray at the Jerusalem Temple.
A lame man begged them for alms. Peter looks the man directly in the eye and
declares, “I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name
of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.” And he took him by the right
hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. Jumping up, he stood and began to walk, and he
entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. All the people saw him walking and praising
God, and they recognized him as the one who used to sit and ask for alms at the
Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at
what had happened to him.” [Acts 3: 6-10] Peter then gives yet another
rousing speech as he had the Day of Pentecost, 5,000 people, we are told,
convert to The Jesus Movement, and now he stands before the Temple authorities,
priests, rulers, elders, and scribes, whom the narrator tells us, are ‘annoyed,’
and demand to know, “By what power or by what name did you do this?”
Peter, ‘full of the Holy Spirit’ from the Day of Pentecost,
tells them, “Rulers of the people and elders, if we are questioned today
because of a good deed done to someone who was sick and are asked how this man
has been healed, let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of
Israel, that this man is standing before you in good health by the name of
Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead.” These
‘rulers and elders’ are ‘amazed’ that a couple of fishermen who are ‘uneducated
and ordinary men’ could be so articulate and ask them to step out of chambers
while they decide to order them to no longer teach ‘in the Name of Jesus.’ To
which Peter replies, “Whether it is right in God’s sight to listen to you
rather than to God, you must judge; for we cannot keep from speaking about what
we have seen and heard.” [Acts 4:19] Snap! Wisely, the rulers and elders,
seeing how 5,000 people have joined the Jesus Movement, realize there is no way
to punish them, so they go on their way back to there friends and pray. The chapter
telling us of those in the Jesus
Movement selling their homes and possessions to provide for the neediest among
them so no one would be reduced to begging.
There are a few problems with all of this, and at the same
time some instructive moments as well. First the problems. The scriptures of
Israel are devoid of stories of beggars, and in fact there is no word for “beggar”
in Biblical Hebrew! That’s because, for at least 1,300 years before the time of
Jesus all of Israel was required to provide for the needs of the poor, as well
as widows, orphans and resident aliens in the land. To do so is detailed among
the 613 commandments in Torah. This means, of course, the early Jesus Movement
did not create this idea of pooling resources to take care of the needy. Since
most of them at this point in the story are Jews, they have been doing this for
generations. It is not likely there would be a beggar at the gates of the Temple,
but possible somewhere on the streets.
Then there is the condemnation of the ‘rulers and elders’ of
responsibility for the crucifixion of Jesus, a feature of Peter’s speeches in
the book of Acts, despite the fact that under Roman Law the Jewish leaders had
no standing to order the execution of anyone. And the fact that crucifixion was
a distinctive form of state-sponsored execution used by the Romans to maintain law
and order throughout the Empire. These speeches in Acts, among others in the New
Testament, have caused much mischief throughout the history of anti-Semitism
right up to the complicity of some Christians in the Holocaust: the genocide of
some Six Million Jews, and internment and enslavement of millions of other Jews
as well as Romani, homosexuals, and those with physical and mental impairments
as well. The only good news in all of this is that beginning with Vatican II,
Christians of many denominations have accepted responsibility for our
contributions to anti-Semitism and today work to foster positive relations with
the Jewish people around the world.
What, then, are we to make of this remarkable story? I would
suggest two things. First, the core question under examination before the rulers
and elders is, in the vernacular, “Whodunnit?” Everyone appears to have seen
this lame man one time or another, and now he is walking and leaping and
praising God! It is possible that even Peter and John are amazed as Peter
denies having done anything at all, but rather credits “the name of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth” as having the power to change and transform lives. Once Peter
was an ‘uneducated and ordinary’ fisherman, and now he can go toe-to-toe with
the wisest rulers and elders in Israel! It’s not us, he says. And when told to
stop teaching in ‘the name of Jesus’ he brilliantly replies, “Should I
listen to you or to God? We only speak of what we have seen and heard,”
thus silencing the accusers.
Yet, Peter also speaks with the kind of characteristic
humility that once-upon-a-time was a core value of the Jesus Movement. For in
fact, Peter did do something. He reached out and took the man in the street by
the hand. One does not have to stretch one’s imagination to know that this man
had likely not experienced human touch in quite some time. Likely for years.
Peter very well may have been the first and only passerby to reach out and take
him by the hand. This man, who was convinced he needed alms, money, really
needed something far more fundamental to human existence: human touch. “Reach
out and touch, somebody’s hand, make this world a better place if you can,” penned
Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson for Diana Ross’s first solo effort after
leaving the Supremes. It is a gesture that has had a long history of practitioners
ranging all the way back to this moment when Peter and John went to pray.
The truly good news in this story is that it is a reminder
that with this very simplest of gestures, lives can be transformed and changed.
We might well ask ourselves, when was the last time any of us felt, like the
man in the street, to go walking and leaping and praising God? Note that even
he knows who gave him new life. He did not need to ask by whose name or
authority he was now back on his feet. He knew it was by the grace and mercy of
God and God’s people Israel. People like Peter, and John, uneducated by some
accounts, had brilliantly seen and heard Jesus reach out to others all the way
from Galilee to Jerusalem. Peter simply did what he had seen and heard. He
reached out his hand and made this world a better place for at least one man.
And an example for the rest of us of what it means to call ourselves,
Christians: disciples, followers of Jesus Christ of Nazareth! Whodunnit? The Good
News is, we all can! Amen! It is so! It is truth!
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