Reading: Luke 11-12, Psalm 124

We have read over and over that the message of the new people of God really is for everyone, everywhere. Luke’s telling of the story of the early Christians has reemphasized the point over and over. Along with it, he has emphasized the opposition to this wild and crazy idea that Jesus actually fulfilled that ancient promise to Abraham to bless all the families of the Earth through his offspring. Surely that blessing isn’t for “those people” or “that person”‘- anyone but the enemy, the foreigner, the invader, the slave. But the story we are reading doesn’t leave room for any exceptions. God systematically demolishes such ideas by specific calls to Saul of Tarsus, the Ethiopian eunuch, and the Roman centurion Cornelius. When God said he would pour out his Spirit on all flesh, he meant it.

Not everyone gets it, though. Today’s reading has two stories of people opposed to this gospel for all people thing. The first is resolved peacefully, though conversation. The other involves some people dying. Once again, I do not believe any of this is told to us by accident. The early history of the church of Jesus Christ is a lesson in the shape of the story we are living in.

The first incident of opposition is in regards to Peter’s visit to Cornelius’ house. He comes back to Jerusalem, having hung out with a Roman centurion, and some people are upset with him. This is hardly surprising, considering the situation. The Jewish people were under occupation. The Romans were invaders, and tenacious ones. Once they grabbed a province, they did not let it go. There had been revolts and revolutions aplenty in Judea, and the Romans just kept bashing them down. The worst came later, in 70 and 151, but the Romans were already not very popular. On top of that is the problem of eating in a gentile home. Peter makes a big deal of his own cleanliness when God tells him to eat all sorts of unclean animals, but then accepts God’s correction: I define what is common and what is holy. Don’t you worry about that which I have called holy. Peter receives the same challenge he himself gave to God, and uses the same lines God used. Look, God called the gentiles holy, who are we to say they are not?

Now, let’s think about possible responses. This is not an easy ask for the Jewish people. By this point they have spent well over a thousand years separating themselves from the common in order to be holy. God has just opened the floodgates allowing anyone who believes to be holy. The distinctiveness of their culture is under threat. Everything about them is tied to being the holy people of the God of Israel. Moses’ declaration of dependence way back in Exodus was built on the assumption that the people of Israel were nothing without their God. He is their definition. Now he is inviting the nations into the house. This is a hard thing to accept, if you have been living in the house under strict rules for many years. But that is what God has asked them to accept. Jesus was the end of that era and the beginning of the new one. And they are able to accept it. They praise the God of Israel for letting the gentiles in the door. I have to imagine it was with a lump in their throats and at least some confusion that they did so.

Next we have stories about persecution. We learn that the persecution that killed Stephen has not stopped, and that the believers continue to scatter. A large number of them end up in Antioch, and the apostles send a guy named Barnabas to make sure things are good there, and he finds that they are actually great. So he goes and grabs Saul of Tarsus from his home and they hang out together in Antioch for the next year. This will play a big role in the next step for Saul, but that is for tomorrow.

Back in Jerusalem, things are not going so great. Herod, representing again the old authority, has imprisoned Peter after having James executed. Herod is desperate for local approval, as he also knows that the Romans look poorly on the failure of local officials to keep their provinces in line. The local power structure- the same people who wanted Jesus put to death- are quite happy to see James killed, and of course would love to see Peter, who publicly accused them of murdering the Messiah, follow him. But God has other plans for Peter, and he is let out of prison by angels. Pretty cool jailbreak. Of course this did not happen for James, and I think there is a lesson here about how God works. He will act when he desires to do so and his plans require it. He had more for Peter to do. James’ job was done. It is interesting that we see no doubts expressed by the other disciples following the death of James. They continue with the message of the gospel of Jesus. These guys witnessed the resurrection of the dead. Death isn’t much of a threat to them.

Herod, though, feels very threatened. The disappearance of Peter causes him to have the witnesses put to death. Then he flees the city. I suppose there could have been other reasons he left, but I think he was frightened to be in a city where angels were showing up letting his prisoners free. Who knows what they might do? So he heads north to Caesarea. While there he gets in a row with some Phoenician cities, Tyre and Sidon. There had apparently been a conflict of some sort, and Herod decides to make the most of it. He forces them to concede power to him through control of their food supply, and then shows up dressed all fancy and makes a speech. This goes well, because apparently starving people will say all kinds of good things about the person with food. Unfortunately for Herod, God is not amused by his manipulation and acceptance of divine title, and strikes him dead.

These stories are about the conflict between the old world and the new one. In the old world, manipulation for gain was the order of the day. Herod appears to have been quite adept at it. In the new world, power is not given to those who threaten death. Herod could put James to death, but he could not stop his message. When Herod died, his kingdom died with him. When Jesus died, his kingdom had just begun.