Seventeenth Tuesday after Pentecost

Today we return to our Bible study of Acts. Please read Acts 5:17-26.

After the Apostles have an undefined period of free speaking and healing in the outer courts of the Jerusalem Temple, the Temple authorities, that is, the priests and their political party, the Sadducees, have a crackdown and imprison the Apostles. Although Luke does not at this point give us precise reasons for their opposition to the Apostles, the nature of the conflict is clear. Here are the major points of contention:

• The Sadducees co-operate with the Roman authorities, who keep them in power over the rest of the Jerusalem Jews. The Apostles are preaching about Jesus, who was convicted by the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, of plotting insurrection and claiming to be "The King of the Jews." Although the Apostles are behaving peacefully at this point, the Sadducees fear that the Apostles' growing following could lead to insurrection. 
• The Apostles are preaching that Jesus rose from the dead. The Sadducees firmly believe that there neither is nor ever will be a resurrection of any dead.
• The Apostles movement of healing in the name of Jesus and preaching about Jesus is growing. If the movement grows too much, it could get out of control. 

The priests have the ringleaders arrested and imprisoned. That night an angel miraculously has the Apostles released from the prison, without any of the prison doors being opened and none of the other prisoners escaping. When the high priest and the trial council sent for the Apostles to be brought out for trial, they found them gone. The council launches an investigation. Then someone tells the council that the Apostles are back preaching in the same area of the Temple courtyard where they had been preaching before. The Temple police then go and non-violently bring the Apostles before the council. 

The Apostles are definitely a problem but an ill-defined problem. They are non-violent and are not advocating violence. They are Jewish and thus have a right to be in the Temple precincts. They are not preaching or doing anything that goes against either Jewish or Roman law. Yet they are (rightly) perceived as a threat.

Certainly the miracle of their displacement (escape would not really be the right word) from prison gives them the appearance of being powerful and uncontrollable, even though they are non-violent and their displacement from prison was non-violent. They are growing in popularity. The Sadducees are beginning to fear that any action against the Apostles could prompt the Apostles' growing following to become violent. 

Luke is now posing the question that will trouble both the Jewish authorities and the Roman authorities throughout the rest of Acts, "What do you do with the Christians?" Indeed it's a problem that will trouble the Romans for the next three centuries. The Christians are definitely a threat, but why are they perceived as threatening? They are consistently and totally non-violent, so they pose no threat in that regard. Their threat will be gradually and subtly revealed over the course of Acts.

Christians are still seen as a threat in many countries today, most notably China and Muslim countries, especially Egypt, where Coptic Christians are 10% of the population, and in sub-Saharan African countries with Muslim governments. New Hindu persecution of Christians is going on in India, although the Hindu persecution is primarily directed against Muslims. No countries that are in any way definably Christian are persecuting any other religions at this point, though anti-Semitism and racism underlie violent right wing nationalist movements in a number of countries, including the U.S. 

Is Christianity the same threat now that it was in the first four centuries?

Faithfully,

Christian