Fifth Sunday of Easter
Preaching
Preaching and Reading the Old Testament Lessons
With an Eye to the New
Object:
I got in a religious dispute one time with a relative over particular truths in the Christian gospel, and at one point in the argument, as she became more and more defensive, she blurted out, "Don't quote scripture to me!"
We don't like it very much when the very faith that we profess is used against us to show us that we are wrong. After all, faith is a good thing, and our piety is sincere, and we don't want anyone telling us, by means of the faith, that we're on the wrong track in what we believe and how we act. Indeed, nothing is quite so enraging as to have our beliefs turned against us.
That's exactly why Stephen, a second generation Christian in Jerusalem, is stoned to death, however. He uses the beliefs of his fellow Jews to convict them. When his compatriots can't best him in religious arguments (Acts 6:10) or put down the wonders and signs that he does among the people (6:8), they get a bunch of thugs to accuse Stephen falsely of speaking blasphemy against Moses and the law, and against God and the temple (6:11-14). As a result, Stephen is hauled before the council of the Sanhedrin that was made up in Jerusalem of priests, rulers, elders, and scribes, and he is queried as to whether or not the charges are true (7:1).
In answer, Stephen's face is like the face of an angel -- Luke's indication that Stephen is speaking in the power of the Holy Spirit (6:15) -- and the address that Stephen gives is the longest speech to be found in Acts -- an indication of its importance. What Stephen does is to recount the Old Testament's traditions concerning the patriarchs, Joseph, Moses, the law, and Solomon's construction of the temple. And some of the words in the account quote portions of the Old Testament rather closely. But as he recites the tradition of God's acts of salvation, Stephen uses that very tradition to accuse his fellow Jews of faithlessness.
Stephen's opponents are very concerned about Moses and the law, but their forbears refused to obey Moses and broke the law by worshiping the golden calf (7:35-43, 53). They are deeply attached to their temple, but the temple cannot house the God who has heaven for his throne and earth for his footstool (7:47-50). And they continued to be apostate by persecuting the prophets who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, Jesus Christ, God's intended Messiah. More than that, the present listeners have murdered that promised Son of God (7:51-53).
In making those charges, Stephen employs the very heart of the Jewish faith -- the law by which every Jew is supposed to live; the cult through which the Jews have communion with their God, and the prophets who pronounce God's Word to the people. You Jews, Stephen preaches, have been faithless toward all three. Your religion is phony, you stand condemned in the sight of your God, and your execution of God's Son has revealed the final extent of your sin.
If someone made the same accusation against us, we too would be enraged. Imagine someone saying to us, "You're practice of your faith is as phony as a three dollar bill." But it is when Stephen makes his final statement that the lynch mob hauls him out of the city to be stoned. I saw the glory of God, he says, and the Son of Man, Jesus, standing at his right hand of power. In short, Stephen states that Jesus Christ has been raised and has been exalted by God to rule over all (7:56). Jesus Christ now reigns supreme over law and cult and prophets. Jesus Christ is now Lord. That is the last blasphemous straw, the message to which the mob shuts its ears and rushes to do away with the messenger.
The witnesses who have made the accusation against Stephen join in his stoning, shedding their cloaks at the feet of a Pharisee named Saul -- the first mention of that figure who is to dominate Acts' story from here on.
As the stones strike Stephen, knocking him to the ground, he does not cry out against his executioners, but instead prays to Jesus, whom he has testified to be the Lord. The words that he prays imitate his Lord's words on the cross. Quoting Psalm 31, Jesus had prayed, "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit" (Luke 23:46). Stephen too delivers his life into the hands of his Lord, in the sure knowledge of his resurrection (Acts 7:59). Jesus had prayed as he was nailed to the wood, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). Stephen, too, asks Jesus' forgiveness of the mob that is killing him. "Lord, do not hold this sin against them" (Acts 7:60). In life and in death, the pattern for Stephen's life is Jesus Christ. He dies, faithful to his Lord.
Luke uses this story of the martyrdom of Stephen to show, in the Roman empire, that the Christian faith is an extension of Judaism and therefore not subversive to Roman rule. It is from the law and the prophets and writings of old that Jesus Christ may be understood (cf. Luke 24:44-45). The history of salvation that Stephen recounts in his long testimony finds its final fulfillment in the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord. That is a good indication to us that we cannot truly know Jesus Christ except we know also the history of the Old Testament that has preceded him. He is the final fulfillment and interpretation of that sacred history.
But the question that is directed pointedly to us on this fifth Sunday of the Easter season is: Have we been faithful to the religion that we profess as Christians? We confess that Jesus Christ is our Lord. Do we then act as if he is our Lord? Do we take our directions for life from his commandments to us? Do we try to follow his will, or is our own self-will the guide and director of our daily lives? We worship and praise him in our cult, that is, in our church services. But does our living point to his glory or to our own reputation and status? And is gratitude to God the tenor of our daily round or is it full of complaint and dissatisfaction and yearning after ever more goods and things? We believe that our Lord holds our future in his hands, as he proclaims in his prophetic words. But do we trust that future and lay aside our anxieties and fear of death in the faith that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord?
This account of the disciple Stephen is a call to examine our lives, and an opportunity in the power of the Spirit to cleanse our faith of falsity and phoniness.
We don't like it very much when the very faith that we profess is used against us to show us that we are wrong. After all, faith is a good thing, and our piety is sincere, and we don't want anyone telling us, by means of the faith, that we're on the wrong track in what we believe and how we act. Indeed, nothing is quite so enraging as to have our beliefs turned against us.
That's exactly why Stephen, a second generation Christian in Jerusalem, is stoned to death, however. He uses the beliefs of his fellow Jews to convict them. When his compatriots can't best him in religious arguments (Acts 6:10) or put down the wonders and signs that he does among the people (6:8), they get a bunch of thugs to accuse Stephen falsely of speaking blasphemy against Moses and the law, and against God and the temple (6:11-14). As a result, Stephen is hauled before the council of the Sanhedrin that was made up in Jerusalem of priests, rulers, elders, and scribes, and he is queried as to whether or not the charges are true (7:1).
In answer, Stephen's face is like the face of an angel -- Luke's indication that Stephen is speaking in the power of the Holy Spirit (6:15) -- and the address that Stephen gives is the longest speech to be found in Acts -- an indication of its importance. What Stephen does is to recount the Old Testament's traditions concerning the patriarchs, Joseph, Moses, the law, and Solomon's construction of the temple. And some of the words in the account quote portions of the Old Testament rather closely. But as he recites the tradition of God's acts of salvation, Stephen uses that very tradition to accuse his fellow Jews of faithlessness.
Stephen's opponents are very concerned about Moses and the law, but their forbears refused to obey Moses and broke the law by worshiping the golden calf (7:35-43, 53). They are deeply attached to their temple, but the temple cannot house the God who has heaven for his throne and earth for his footstool (7:47-50). And they continued to be apostate by persecuting the prophets who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, Jesus Christ, God's intended Messiah. More than that, the present listeners have murdered that promised Son of God (7:51-53).
In making those charges, Stephen employs the very heart of the Jewish faith -- the law by which every Jew is supposed to live; the cult through which the Jews have communion with their God, and the prophets who pronounce God's Word to the people. You Jews, Stephen preaches, have been faithless toward all three. Your religion is phony, you stand condemned in the sight of your God, and your execution of God's Son has revealed the final extent of your sin.
If someone made the same accusation against us, we too would be enraged. Imagine someone saying to us, "You're practice of your faith is as phony as a three dollar bill." But it is when Stephen makes his final statement that the lynch mob hauls him out of the city to be stoned. I saw the glory of God, he says, and the Son of Man, Jesus, standing at his right hand of power. In short, Stephen states that Jesus Christ has been raised and has been exalted by God to rule over all (7:56). Jesus Christ now reigns supreme over law and cult and prophets. Jesus Christ is now Lord. That is the last blasphemous straw, the message to which the mob shuts its ears and rushes to do away with the messenger.
The witnesses who have made the accusation against Stephen join in his stoning, shedding their cloaks at the feet of a Pharisee named Saul -- the first mention of that figure who is to dominate Acts' story from here on.
As the stones strike Stephen, knocking him to the ground, he does not cry out against his executioners, but instead prays to Jesus, whom he has testified to be the Lord. The words that he prays imitate his Lord's words on the cross. Quoting Psalm 31, Jesus had prayed, "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit" (Luke 23:46). Stephen too delivers his life into the hands of his Lord, in the sure knowledge of his resurrection (Acts 7:59). Jesus had prayed as he was nailed to the wood, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). Stephen, too, asks Jesus' forgiveness of the mob that is killing him. "Lord, do not hold this sin against them" (Acts 7:60). In life and in death, the pattern for Stephen's life is Jesus Christ. He dies, faithful to his Lord.
Luke uses this story of the martyrdom of Stephen to show, in the Roman empire, that the Christian faith is an extension of Judaism and therefore not subversive to Roman rule. It is from the law and the prophets and writings of old that Jesus Christ may be understood (cf. Luke 24:44-45). The history of salvation that Stephen recounts in his long testimony finds its final fulfillment in the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord. That is a good indication to us that we cannot truly know Jesus Christ except we know also the history of the Old Testament that has preceded him. He is the final fulfillment and interpretation of that sacred history.
But the question that is directed pointedly to us on this fifth Sunday of the Easter season is: Have we been faithful to the religion that we profess as Christians? We confess that Jesus Christ is our Lord. Do we then act as if he is our Lord? Do we take our directions for life from his commandments to us? Do we try to follow his will, or is our own self-will the guide and director of our daily lives? We worship and praise him in our cult, that is, in our church services. But does our living point to his glory or to our own reputation and status? And is gratitude to God the tenor of our daily round or is it full of complaint and dissatisfaction and yearning after ever more goods and things? We believe that our Lord holds our future in his hands, as he proclaims in his prophetic words. But do we trust that future and lay aside our anxieties and fear of death in the faith that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord?
This account of the disciple Stephen is a call to examine our lives, and an opportunity in the power of the Spirit to cleanse our faith of falsity and phoniness.
