4. Arrest and Release

 

“I have neither silver nor gold, but what I do have I give you,” said Peter to the disabled person he found at the beautiful door of the temple. And he added: “In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, rise and walk.” He has a disabled person and made him able to walk and walk well. In chapter 3 of the Acts of the Apostles, Luke narrates this particularly significant episode, which alludes to the effectiveness of the apostolic preaching. The apostles have the grace of Christ, and the gospel is therapeutic, makes people healthy, makes people able to walk well.

Remember that walking is synonymous with morality in biblical language: behaving well and living well. The disabled person cannot walk; metaphorically, he is the man unable to live well. Through the proclamation of the word, the apostles, with the power of Christ, make humanity capable of walking well. That prodigious episode attracts the attention of the crowd. Luke narrates a speech by Peter and the authorities’ reaction of the heads of the Sanhedrin who arrest Peter and John, keep them in jail, interrogate them the next day, and Peter has the opportunity for a new, courageous speech. Peter, who was afraid when Jesus was arrested and disowned him, is now another man.

It is important to note: How has such a change occurred? This is the miracle of the resurrection. How would this change be explained if Christ had not risen if Peter had not met the Risen One? It is inexplicable. If while Jesus was alive, he was so afraid, once it was all over if nothing had happened, Peter would have retired, returned home, retaken the nets, continued the work as before.

Why promote something unfounded? And for what purpose? To get arrested – to get beaten up? It is impossible to imagine such a profound change in Peter’s personality if something extraordinary had not happened, as the encounter with the Risen One. Peter, therefore, announces to the Sanhedrin, to Caiaphas, to Annas himself, that Jesus is God’s messenger, He is the Savior, the only one who can save. They do not know what to do; they are amazed; they see the parrhesia of Peter and John. We are in chapter 4, beginning with verse 13.

The word ‘boldness,’ in Greek parrhesia, is a technical term of the Acts of the Apostles; it is repeated several times and is always very important. It is the ability to say everything, is the freedom of expression with which their fears no longer block the apostles but find the courage to tell the whole truth. The Sadducee’s authorities “Observing the boldness of Peter and John and perceiving them to be uneducated, ordinary men, they were amazed,” of how they knew the Scriptures, of how they were able to argue theological issues well.

“They ordered them to leave the Sanhedrin and conferred with one another, saying, “What are we to do with these men? Everyone living in Jerusalem knows that a great sign was done through them, and we cannot deny it.” The healing of this disabled person could not be hidden; he was a public man; in Jerusalem, everyone knew him. He was more than 40 years old, and therefore, since he was born, he had been taken there to arouse pity in people and raise some money. He was well known in Jerusalem. Now that man was running healthy and walking normally. It cannot be denied that they did something extraordinary, but if Peter and John are right in the theological argument, they do not even think about it; they must simply save their structure and their situation, and therefore, they want that preaching not to be spread. They call them and threaten them; they use arguments of terror, threaten them with punishment, and order Peter and John “not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.”

With frankness and enormous courage, the apostles respond: ‘we must obey God rather than men. Jesus, whom we recognize as God, has instructed us to say these things and obey him, and we disobey you, even though you are the supreme authority of the people of Israel.’

“After threatening them further, they released them, finding no way to punish them, on account of the people who were all praising God for what had happened.” Once free, the apostles return to the community and are welcomed enthusiastically by the brothers and sisters. They spent a night in jail, and the community was baffled by this problem; they feared that the situation would take a wrong turn… also, Jesus was arrested and did not come out of that arrest alive… Now they took Peter and John away, and when they return free, a prayer of thanksgiving arises in the community. A fundamental text because it offers the Christological interpretation of a psalm.

It is Psalm 2, a psalm that spoke of the Messiah expressly mentions him: “Why did the Gentiles rage and the peoples entertain folly? The kings of the earth took their stand, and the princes gathered together against the Lord and his anointed.” The ancient text spoke of a possible rebellion by the king against the rule of the son of David. The apostles read this ancient text as applied to the high priests, King Herod, and the governor Pilate who have conspired against the Lord and his Christ. Still, he who sits in the heavens cancels them and breaks the plots of these overbearing dominators.

The kingdom of Christ has indeed been fulfilled, the psalm said, and the apostles pray by reciting the psalms. When they thank God for the deliverance of the apostles, they recite Psalm 2 and apply it to Christ and Christians; they read it by applying it to their historical, current, concrete situation. They had gathered in a conspiracy against the leaders, against Christ, and now against his disciples, but the Lord has frustrated their plots, and therefore they ask God to continue to guide their work.

“As they prayed, the place where they were gathered shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness,” with parrhesia. Do you recognize the typical phenomena of Pentecost? It is another manifestation of the genre. After the prayer, the place trembles, a kind of earthquake, and a new outpouring of the Spirit. The Church is in difficulty; they have begun to persecute the leaders of that group, but the Spirit manifests powerfully, invades them, encourages them, opens new perspectives, gives the apostles the ability to announce to the whole word freely.

Now Luke inserts another summary. We had found one at the end of chapter 2, and now we see another at the end of chapter 4. It presents an ideal image that says that “The community of believers was of one heart and mind.” It is a perfect expression that has become a formula. A single heart means that they agreed, and a single mind expresses what we call unanimity. They got along well, had a common intention, and had not only ideas in common but also money.

“No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common.” I had already mentioned in the first summary the theme of ‘koinonia,’ the fraternal communion of goods; now Luke underlines it more explicitly and describes what they were doing: “There was no needy person among them, for those who owned property or houses would sell them, bring the proceeds of the sale, and put them at the feet of the apostles, and they were distributed to each according to need.” And, therefore, nobody was poor and needy; it was a concrete work of charity, and this solidary co-responsibility of the first Christian community attracted the attention and admiration of all Jerusalem.

Luke emphasizes this aspect because he is interested in the economic discourse and wants to present this model to the readers of his book. The ideal of a Christian community that becomes sensitive to social and economic matters and intervenes with an operational charity. And now Luke presents two examples, one positive and one negative.

“Thus Joseph, also named by the apostles Barnabas a Levite, a Cypriot by birth…” is an important person that we will find in the course of history. “He sold a piece of property that he owned, then brought the money and put it at the feet of the apostles.” Barnabas is a priest, so some of the priests have become Christians. Barnabas, originally from Cyprus, is a Hellenist. He speaks Greek; he accepted the preaching of Jesus through the mediation of the apostles, and being rich, he made available to the community the sale of his goods.

This is a positive example. Immediately afterward, in chapter 5, a negative image is proposed. It is what we could call the original sin of the Christian community; it is a couple, a bit like Adam and Eve, a man and a woman, husband and wife, Ananias and Sapphira, who pretend to adhere to this ecclesial option, and they also sell a field, but they do not want to give everything to the apostles; they keep something for themselves, but they pretend to give everything. This original sin is hypocrisy; it is fiction, falsehood. Within the Church, not all people are transparent, capable of letting themselves be guided by the Spirit of Christ.

Some pretend and deceive; it is a mortal sin, that is, a sin that kills. And the narrative correctly tells of the death, first of the husband and then of the wife; they were in connivance, they deceived the Church, that is, have tried to deceive the Spirit. They fall to the ground first, one and then the other as if electrocuted. It is an attempt at deception; they were not obliged to do it; they could have chosen not to sell or agreed to give only a part. It is the attempt to appear without being, it is a tragic matter that makes one die, and it is at the beginning of the ecclesial history, a painful story of a couple who enters the Church but with bad intentions. The story serves precisely to intimidate and create great fear in all those who came to know this. Like saying ‘don’t take these important things lightly; be careful with your life choices.’

We find, therefore, the third summary that Luke proposes as an ideal picture of the life of the Church. Luke presents us with this initial story as ideally positive, but he did not keep silent about this sin, and that’s why he is aware that even at the beginning, not everything went well; there were problems, crises, tensions from the start, sins that harm the life of the Church and the history of sin highlight the damage that can be done. The third summary emphasizes above all the prodigious aspects.

“Many signs and wonders were done among the people at the hands of the apostles. They were all together in Solomon’s portico” and created an identifiable group; not just anyone could come along. To be with that group of people, they had to become part of the community. They brought the sick so that Peter could heal them; his shadow was enough to heal the sick. “A large number of people from the towns in the vicinity of Jerusalem also gathered, bringing the sick and those disturbed by unclean spirits, and they were all cured.” What Jesus had done is now being reproduced; we are again in an initial phase where the power of the Spirit is at work, and through concrete miracles of healing, shows the therapeutic intention of the gospel; the mercy of God wants to heal humanity from sin but to make it clear that this healing is effective, and many miracles and wonders must occur through the apostles. At this moment, the situation has worsened.

Luke narrates the hostile reaction of the priestly class, who becomes aware of a problem, perhaps even a huge one. “Then the high priest rose up and all his companions, that is, the party of the Sadducees, and, filled with jealousy, laid hands upon the apostles and put them in the public jail. But during the night, the angel of the Lord opened the doors of the prison.” When they were ready for trial in the morning and sent for the prisoners, the cells were empty. The soldier returns, saying that he found everything rigorously closed, but no prisoners were inside the cells. At this moment, someone else arrives to report that the detainees are in the temple and preach as if nothing had happened.

Luke emphasizes this open-door aspect. The Acts of the Apostles tell stories of doors opening, prison doors opening; people try to block out the word, but they can’t. They arrest them again; they summon them to the Sanhedrin, they threaten them, they scold them…. “We gave you strict orders to stop teaching in that name.”… Why did you not listen? ‘Because we cannot be silent,’ they courageously reiterate. You can beat us; you can put us in prison, you can even kill us, but we will not be silent. We cannot keep silent about these facts that we are witnesses to, we and the Holy Spirit.’

They wanted to kill them, but a certain Gamaliel intervened. He was St. Paul’s teacher, and Luke must have known about this wise old rabbi by the testimony of Paul himself. Gamaliel proposes a solution and Luke reports this secret meeting held among the members of the Sanhedrin. Gamaliel says: “Fellow Israelites, be careful what you are about to do to these men….” If they have invented these things, it will end up with nothing, and he mentions some recent cases of alleged messiahs…: “Some time ago, Theudas appeared… After he came Judas the Galilean at the time of the census.” What did they do? They created a movement that lasted a few years… a little noise, and it all ended up there… It will be the same in this case… it is a frying pan fire… they are poor people who have invented this story and other poor people follow them and will end up in nothing’. But Gamaliel speculates: “But if it comes from God, you will not be able to destroy them; you may even find yourselves fighting against God.” Let’s leave them alone; we don’t deserve to get our hands dirty with these people. If they are correct, it is not suitable for us to fight against God.’ The Sanhedrin accepted this wise counsel, had the apostles flogged and released.

“They left the presence of the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they had been found worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name.” The threats had been useless. “And all day long, both at the temple and in their homes, they did not stop teaching and proclaiming the Messiah, Jesus.” Luke reports this wise judgment of Gamaliel as an argument in defense of his thesis. At the end of the Acts of the Apostles, we will recognize that this preaching was not a flash in the pan, it has reverberated throughout the world, has converted many people, and the more time passes, the stronger it becomes, and therefore it is not a human invention; it was a divine work.

With the end of chapter 5 also ends the first part of the Acts of the Apostles, where we have not been given accurate, chronological data. Still, we have been told the story of the first years of the apostolic community in Jerusalem, made of crisis and courage. Chapter 6 begins a new stage when the Greek-speaking Christians appear, but we will discuss this in the next meeting.