22:18 and I saw Him
saying to me, ‘Make haste, and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will
not accept your testimony about Me.’ 19 And I said, ‘Lord, they themselves
understand that in one synagogue after another I used to imprison and beat
those who believed in You. 20 And when the blood of Your witness Stephen was
being shed, I also was standing by approving, and watching out for the coats of
those who were slaying him.’ 21 And He said to me, ‘Go! For I will send you far
away to the Gentiles.’”
22 They listened to him
up to this statement, and then they raised their voices and said, “Away with
such a fellow from the earth, for he should not be allowed to live!” 23 And as
they were crying out and throwing off their cloaks and tossing dust into the air,
24 the commander ordered him to be brought into the barracks, stating that he
should be examined by scourging so that he might find out the reason why they
were shouting against him that way.
Do you know what is most depressing about this scene? These are
not Jesus rejecting Jews that are behaving like this. When Stephen was stoned
it was more understandable. They didn't believe Jesus was their Messiah. It was
bad but understandable. Now Paul has returned to Jerusalem to find his greatest
enemies are not the unbelieving Jews but the believing ones. The same murderous
hatred that he participated in when Stephen was stoned by the Jesus rejecting
Jews is now being leveled at him by those who love Jesus?
Wait. Stop the tape. Hit the pause button. They love Jesus
but hate Paul enough to kill him, a man they only know through gossip? What is
happening? How can that even be possible?
That is a messy question to answer. Do you remember Acts 10
when God gave Peter the same dream three times in a row? Do you remember what
Peter learned from that dream? That it was OK for him to go to the home of a
"Gentile dog". When he arrived and spoke to them about Jesus what
happened? Cornelius and his household received the Holy Spirit in the same way
Peter had. It didn't happen in response to anything Peter did either. He did
not pray for them to receive this Gift. In fact he was kind of stunned. His
response was "Well if God has given them His Spirit who are we to deny
them baptism?" and they baptized them with water.
Why the hesitancy from Peter. Why the need for dreams and for
God to take matters into His own hands and basically push Peter into realizing
He was more than ok with these "Gentile dogs" joining His family?
Why? Because Peter was conditioned from birth that to be a non-Jew was to be
hopeless. It was practically written into his DNA from generations of
conditioning. Remember Jonah the prophet? He was infuriated that God had the
nerve to be merciful to worthless Ninevite dogs. God actually had to appeal to
Jonah's love of animals to try and calm him down.
Ingrained deep in the minds of every human being through
cultural and/or religious conditioning are ideas that run entirely contrary to
the heart of God. Just two days ago a young man I respect deeply had to defy his
parents and his future in-laws to marry their daughter. All of them belong to
the same religion but different tribes and tradition demands that those two
tribes never mix. They have all come from tribalism to Jesus yet the tribalism
has not died.
That my friends is the messy answer to the messy question of
how Jesus following people could form a mob and pick up stones to murder a
fellow Jew and a fellow believer in Jesus. They had ideas deeply ingrained in
their hearts that even the Good News had not been able to extinguish yet.
Why do you think Jesus prayed "Forgive them Father for
they know not what they do" as His fellow countrymen murdered Him? Because
Jesus understood. He knew how deeply blinded they were. He knew because of our
blindness we are capable of horrific crimes all the while honestly believing we
are doing right.
"They will hate you because they hated Me first" -
Jesus
To say a person is following Jesus is a complex statement.
Following which parts of Him? Remember when Saul became Paul? It was a miracle
described as scales falling from His eyes. His blindness was cured. He became
able to see the world and the people in it from a whole new perspective; from
Jesus' perspective. Not everyone has that experience. Some of grow into seeing
gradually. Peter was still struggling with racism in Galatia years after his
dreams and his encounter with Cornelius. Paul actually had to confront him
publicly.
It's messy. Don't judge a person by their blindness. We all
have blind spots. God is working on all of us but He can only do what we grant
Him permission to do.
The world right now is in turmoil. America is the most
powerful nation on earth and is in a mess. Riots, protests, anger, hatred,
racism, sex ism etc... and what does their money say? In God we trust. The same
God who declares that in Him there are no walls of division, no ranks of
importance, and He has no favourites. Why isn’t that fully reflected in His
children? Why do white Christians burn the churches of black Christians? Why do
black Christians fear we whites are all the same? Why do natives get treated as
though they shouldn't even exist? Why do Christian men blame women for the
destructive lusts that burn inside them? Why do lazy Christians blame
immigrants for stealing jobs they would never do anyway? Why do 'straight'
Christians look down on those who are not as if they are somehow free of the
brokenness that plagues us all? Why do those who claim to love the God who created us all have no issues with killing unborn babies? Why are some Christians convinced Trump is
God's man for this time and other Christians are convinced he is the devil in a
suit?
Why? Because we are all incredibly flawed, broken, and blind
and Jesus, who lives to pray for us day after day is still praying the same
prayer: "Forgive them Father, they have no idea what they are
doing..."
If you are like Paul and can see the priceless value in
others dare to love them even as the stones fly.
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