Tag Archives: High Council

THE BOOK OF ACTS – SAME OLD STORY

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CHAPTER 23

SAME OLD STORY

“The next day, determined to get to the root of the trouble and to know for sure what was behind the Jewish accusation, the captain released Paul and ordered a meeting of the high priests and the High Council to see what they could make of it. Paul was led in and took his place before them.

“Paul surveyed the members of the council with a steady gaze, and then said his piece. ‘Friends, I have lived with a clear conscience before God all my life, up to this very moment.’ That set the chief priest Ananias off. He ordered the aides to slap Paul in the face. Paul shot back, ‘God will slap you down! What a fake you are! You sit there and judge me by the Law and then break the Law by ordering me slapped around!'” Acts 22:30-23:3 (The Message).

Paul was in the same position as his Master had been some three decades before, standing before the Jewish Sanhedrin to answer for his life. Unlike Jesus, he at least had the protection of the Roman government as a Roman citizen.

It was obvious that the men of the Sanhedrin were tarred with the same brush as the religious zealots they represented. He had hardly opened his mouth to speak before the high priest, as the highest religious authority in the country, began his physical abuse of Paul. It seems that he was exactly the same as his predecessor, Caiaphas, unreasonable and a bully. He was not prepared to give Paul a fair hearing to satisfy the captain. He was using his position to vent his own spleen on him.

The church had begun in Jerusalem and flourished for more than thirty years in spite of the Sanhedrin’s efforts to stamp it out. Caiaphas had led the charge against Jesus, fully believing that His death would put an end to the movement that was growing up around Him, but instead showing up the character of the men to whom the people looked for spiritual guidance.

Paul had been their most successful partner in this enterprise. He was a Pharisee like many of them, fanatically zealous for the Law they were supposedly upholding. Unfortunately for them, he had turned traitor and was just as zealously proclaiming the very One he had been opposing. It was a golden opportunity to get rid of him and Ananias lost no time in demonstrating his intention. Humiliate him first and then kill him!

Jesus had taught His disciples not to be doormats to anyone. It’s one thing to have an attitude of meekness, choosing to submit to authority even if you don’t like it, but it’s another thing to submit to bullying just because you are a Christian. ‘Turn the other cheek’, Jesus said. What does that mean?

We think it means, ‘Accept abuse because you are a believer,’ but in the culture of Jesus’ day, to be slapped on the right cheek was an insult because the hitter would have to use his left hand which was considered “unclean” because the left had was used for toilet purposes. To offer the other cheek meant that you were insisting that you were an equal and should be treated with dignity.

Was Paul being rude or disrespectful? I don’t think so. Jesus protested when He was slapped in the face during His trial. If the trial was intended to find out what lay behind Paul’s arrest, then the way to find out was to give him an opportunity to speak for himself, not to use him as an object of contempt to be abused at will.

What does this incident say to us? It clearly teaches us that everyone has the right to be treated with human dignity no matter who they are.  Colour, culture, social standing, financial position, language or even accent does not disqualify anyone from being treated fairly because everyone has been created in the image of God.

THE BOOK OF ACTS – WHO SAID LIFE IS FAIR?

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WHO SAID LIFE IS FAIR?

“That stirred up the people, the religious leaders and religion scholars. They grabbed Stephen and took him before the High Council. They put forward their bribed witnesses to testify. ‘This man talks nonstop against this Holy Place and God’s Law. We even heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth would tear this place down and throw out all the customs Moses gave us.’

“As all those who sat on the High Council looked at Stephen, they found they couldn’t take their eyes off him — his face was like the face of an angel.” Acts 6:12-15 (The Message).

Talk about bribery and corruption! The gloves were off and from now on the fight was on, not only against the leaders of the church, but also against anyone who claimed allegiance to Jesus.

Because of his godly life and powerful witness, backed up by the miracles God was doing through him as a testimony to the truth about Jesus, Stephen got the unwelcome attention of a group of freed Jewish slaves who were members of the synagogue of Freed Men, according to Luke. With lies and bribery they cooked up a story about him and dragged him before the Sanhedrin — the same group of men who had it in for Jesus and His followers.

Was there any hope of justice from these prejudiced leaders who had already shown their true colours in their dealings with Jesus and with the apostles? Their agenda was not about what was right but about who was right, and they thought they were right and they used their clout to prove it, or so they thought.

They were willing to give their ear to anyone who told stories to their advantage. At least these men who had arrested Stephen had the good sense to bribe more than one witness! Jewish law demanded the testimony of two or three witnesses to find a man guilty of the charge. Interesting that their charge was the same one that was thrown at Jesus; a twisted version of His statement, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up again.” John 2:10 (NIV)

The first question we are tempted to ask in this terrible situation is: ‘Where was God in all this?’ How can God allow this kind of thing to happen to His own followers? It’s the same question we ask when we are treated unfairly. Why does God sit on His hands when life throws us a curved ball.

God is sovereign. He has the power to intervene in any situation but He doesn’t. Why? Firstly, He gave man the gift of choice and He will not override that even to prevent people from destroying themselves or others but…every person will have to give an account of the choices they made.

Secondly, in a way beyond our understanding, He turns even the worst that humans can do to His children to our good and to His glory. What they did to Jesus is a case in point. Even taking our lives is not the worst that God-haters can do to us. Our lives are secure in Him, but His kingdom grows on the testimony of those whose love and loyalty cannot be destroyed by the threat of death.

The story of Stephen is an illustration of the miracle of God’s ways. Every seed sown in the ground produces a multiplicity of seeds. It was so with the life of Jesus and it so with every person who lays down his life for the Master.

Does that mean we have to die to be of any value in God’s kingdom? Yes, but not necessarily in the literal sense. A true disciple of Jesus is one who denies himself, takes up the cross daily and follows Him. Perhaps the daily inward dying is more difficult than the once-off physical dying for Him.

A dead person is beyond resenting the unfairness that life dishes up to us. Dying to ourselves frees us from the emotional storms we experience at the choices other people make that affect us. Our times are in God’s hands and He is able to make all things work for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose, because He is shaping us into sons like Jesus.