A Post-Resurrection Lesson in Truth, Courage
Think about it. Photo by Emma Shappley on Unsplash
It’s Easter Monday and, as it happens, my morning Bible reading today was Acts 4, the passage about Peter and John being arrested by the Jerusalem authorities for preaching that Christ was resurrected.
This scene comes only a few weeks after the resurrection and the authorities were “greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.” In the course of their proclaiming Jesus resurrected, Peter and John had healed a lame beggar who had been begging at the Temple for years and was known to the facility’s regular attenders.
When Peter and John were brought before the Sanhedrin, they were challenged to explain “by what power or in what name have you done this?” Peter responded with a wonderful directness, saying:
“Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead — by him this man is standing before you well.
“This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
Considering that Peter is addressing the same authorities who just recently had Jesus crucified, it is remarkable that here we now see the same man who had thrice denied Christ proclaiming Him resurrected and the only way for any man to be saved in eternity.
It is not lost on the authorities, either that, as Luke tells us in Acts 4, Peter and John are “uneducated, common men.” Even more difficult for the authorities, Luke explains, was the fact everybody could see “the man who was healed standing beside them,” with a result, the authorities “had nothing to say in opposition.”
This is a remarkable passage, but then comes the happening that ought to be of direct interest to every congressional aide, regardless of your position, status, influence or career plans.
The authorities order Peter and John to shut up, to stop saying Jesus was resurrected, and here’s how the two disciples responded: “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”
Truth matters! And each of us is accountable to God for speaking the truth as we know it, regardless of what anybody else, be they rulers or anything else, says or does in response. Truth is the ultimate leveler. Remember that the next time a politician, journalist or “expert” tells you to accept something you know not to be true.