What Do You Feel Threatened By?
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There are two very different types of people in Acts 6:8-15.
Stephen…
A man full of God’s grace and power.
A man who is performing great wonders and signs among the people.
A man whose very face looked like the face of an “angel”.
These are the descriptions that start and end this passage…but in between are the religious people who are members of the synagogue, Jews, elders and the teachers of the law.
They oppose Stephen.
They argue with Stephen.
They cannot stand up against the wisdom the Spirit gave Stephen as he spoke.
They secretly persuade people to lie and slander Stephen.
They stir up other people to an angry reaction as well.
They seize Stephen and bring him before the Sanhedrin.
They produce more false witnesses.
Why are the religious people so threatened, angry and hostile towards Stephen…a man who is full of grace and power, doing good for the people and obviously even looking the part with his “angelic face”?
This is not a one time event. History repeats itself…over and over. We as human beings are prone to this kind of behavior.
Why?
What are we afraid of? What are we jealous of? What causes us to get angry? How do we let the ends justify the means?
People on the outside…all they see is human nature at it’s worst when we act this way.
What if the religious people had embraced Stephen instead of eventually stoning him? How would this story have been different?
Sometimes religion and religious people seem so clearly out of step with Jesus and the message of love He gave His life for.
We can learn to embrace others and set aside our pride and power and think of the common good. We can learn to be open and not let fear make our decisions. We can notice the way our emotional reactions often lead towards negativity and anger, fear and judgement and learn a different way to live. We must…or we are no different than the religious people in this passage of scripture and that would be a tragedy.
Ruth