Breaking the Rules

Our reading from Acts for today tells of the second time the Apostles appeared before the Jewish authorities. The first time (which is referred to in the text) was when the Sadducees brought them in because they were teaching resurrection from the dead. Sadducees did not believe in resurrection. At that time they ordered them to stop teaching and preaching in the name of Jesus and released them. The Jewish council did not do more because, Acts tells us, all of Jerusalem knew the Apostles had healed a man who had been lame from birth and they were afraid of them. The Apostles, contrary to the ruling of the council, continued their proclamation. This time the council arrested them and put them in jail. That did not stop them. An angel of the Lord released them from prison and the Apostles were found teaching in the temple the next day. That is where our text for today begins. They are being questioned by the council why they had broken their command to cease proclaiming Jesus. But they were following a different set of rules. Commanded by Jesus and filled with the Holy Spirit they were obeying God instead of men. 

While it still may be illegal in some parts of the world to proclaim Jesus, it is not so here. Yet why do we spend so little time on telling others about Jesus? I would guess the answer is that we are following a different set of rules for our lives than the Apostles followed. While in seminary I spent a year in Denver where myself and a small group of students shared a house together. The director of the house, Dr. Kjeseth, would ask anyone who came into the house – from the yard crew to the city representatives – if they went to church and, if they said,”no,” he would invite them to come to church. I can remember my first reaction to this as well as most of my classmates – embarrassed by his breaking that norm about not talking religion with others (never mind politics; he did that too).  

Talking about Jesus will not land us into trouble with the authorities. It will not put us in jail. But it just might turn off some whom we would like to be friends with. It might make others think we are crazy. Yet, like the Apostles, that is our task. We who, despite our sinful nature, have been healed by Jesus, washed clean of sin, and filled by the Holy Spirit, are now called to proclaim Jesus in all that we do and say. Answer that call. Tell everyone that Christ is risen in word and deed.