Reading: Acts 7-8, Psalm 122

Yesterday we left Stephen, the chosen doer of good things for the needy, accused of blasphemy and threatening to destroy the temple. Today we get to hear his response and how that all goes for him. Before we do that though, I want to remind us of where we are in the story and why Luke is recording all this. We know from history outside the Bible, as well as references within our reading today that there were many believers in Jesus who suffered a great deal, even to the point of dying. Why is Luke telling us this rather depressing story here? After all, this book is written for a patron who is, one would assume, pro-Christian. Luke himself clearly believed that Jesus was both the Jewish Messiah and the rightful ruler of everything that exists. Why tell such a bummer of a story if you are trying to promote the Jesus movement?

I believe it is because the Kingdom Jesus proclaimed was, and is, engaged in a war. A war with a way of life that leads to death. As Luke has pointed out, Stephen was literally a professional do-gooder. The old way of life goes to war against him, as it did against Jesus, and it kills him. Luke wants to paint a very real picture of what happens when someone follows and acts like Jesus. It really is a call to come and die. Which is why the resurrection is the key to the whole business. Dying isn’t so much of a thing if you aren’t going to stay that way.

Ok, now what about Stephen’s speech? Here he is, accused of blasphemy against Moses, God, and the temple. He recounts the story of Moses, God, and the temple. He uses the prophetic tactic of story as argument. Stephen is picking up the storytelling style of the authors of the Hebrew Scriptures. Then he turns to the accusation: you accuse me of blasphemy, but you are the ones who betrayed and murdered the Son of God! Yeesh, no wonder they wanted to take him out.

In what feels like as aside, Luke introduces Saul of Tarsus as the approver and possibly instigator of the martyrdom of Stephen. But as we will see, it is certainly no aside. Saul creates a major problem for the early followers of Jesus, as he begins terrorizing them throughout Jerusalem. So they scatter, and the message that Jesus is Lord goes with them. There is a great deal that t could be said about the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch, but the key I think is this. Before Peter and Paul take the gospel to the gentiles, this court slave believes that Jesus is the Servant of the Lord as foretold in Isaiah. The persecution of the people of God sends them around the world, and the story of Scripture is going to go international.