One of the striking facts about those very first days of the Church’s existence, immediately after the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, is the supreme assurance of the Twelve in the teeth of opposition from the leaders of Israel. For the leaders, the threat posed by Jesus had passed with his death, and life could get on as usual. Yes, the followers of Jesus, with their claim that He had risen from the dead, were annoying, but they were, so the leaders of Israel thought, a small and powerless group, insignificant and easily dealt with.
But for the Twelve, everything had changed; creation had spun about, and sinful mankind, which had been rushing away from God, was now rushing back towards Him. All the Twelve’s timidity and fear; all their lack of understanding and perception, which seemed so to frustrate even Jesus at times; all of these had been transformed, and from Peter’s first sermon on Pentecost Sunday, they were assured and confident, all their fear of the authorities having evaporated. They were “rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonour for The Name.” (That is, the name of Jesus – which meant receiving the 39 lashes which were allowed according to the Jewish Law.)
What had brought about the enormous change? It was the Resurrection of Jesus. They had seen Him die, and they had seen him after he had risen from the dead. They knew that he was alive, and that He was therefore Lord over both life and death, and consequently Lord of all Creation. This Risen Lord had instructed them to “Go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News.” They were doing just that when they proclaimed: “He is risen…He is Lord…He has ascended…He will come again…repent and be baptised.” When the religious leaders of Israel, its highest authority, told them to stop proclaiming this, they responded by saying, “We must obey God rather than man.”
Any human authority that contradicted the message that Jesus had revealed to them, especially those who conspired to kill him, was simply not to be obeyed. Jesus was the Sovereign Lord, and nothing on earth was more important than whom He was and what He had said and done. He was the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,” and as today’s Second Reading tells us, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive blessing and honour and glory and might for ever and ever.”
The Twelve were without doubt that the presence of the Risen Lord overshadowed everything, changed everything. Are we as convinced of this today? Do we believe that there is no-one more important that the Risen Lord Jesus? Do we believe that when there is a conflict, it is He who is to be obeyed rather than any earthly power? He still towers over the world, even if the world increasingly does not acknowledge his Lordship. And how is the world to recognise Him, to acknowledge Him, if we do not bear witness to Him? Like those first Apostles, we need to show the world that we “obey God rather than man.” Perhaps, if the world saw that we really believed in something, or rather Someone, it might be convinced to believe in Him, too. The early Apostles regarded it as an honour to suffer for Jesus’ name. If we could see this, too, and live it, how different the world might be!
Fr Phillip.
