Today’s reading of Acts 5 slayed me. I read. Reread. Then read again. I studied multiple commentaries in an effort to pop the hood on this chapter.
Yet the lineup of stories leaves me undone.
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Ananias and Sapphira hold back profits from the piece of a property and die, die. The way the writer of Luke-Acts tells the story, we find no space for repentance, just judgment. No wonder wet-your-pants fear spread throughout the whole church.
I’m grateful for this gaspy account because the story opens my eyes to the messiness of the beginnings of the church. By telling this story, the writer of Luke and Acts shares the grit, the grime, that not everyone responded to God by living a virtuous life.
The opening chapters of Acts are no fairytale.
The red carpet star of Luke 5:1-11 is neither Ananias, Sapphira, or Peter, but God.
God cares what happens in his church. God triumphs over the enemy’s deceptive ways. And sometimes God’s judgement leads to advancements in his kingdom in ways we struggle to wrap our heads around.
In verse 17, we run smack into the word “But”.
Everything shifts.
The chapter’s focus turns on a time to the religious leaders who imprison the apostles. The scene parallels Luke 4:1-22 in many ways. Some consider this a doublet, or the same story expanded.
Yet here we find an arrest and divine release by an angel. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. Angels play a massive role in Luke-Acts (Luke 1:11, 2:9, Acts 5:19, 8:26, and more).
Note that the angel instructs the apostles to speak to the people in the temple “the whole message of life” (Luke 5:19). They are sent back to temple, to Israel, to God’s people. The hardheartedness of the leadership cannot hinder God’s intention to reach his people. The message they are to proclaim is the message of life—Jesus (who was called the Author of life in Acts 3:15).
Now the writer of Luke-Acts displays his sense of humor, because the prison guards don’t realize they’re gone. Oopsies.
Standing before the counsel, again, a Pharisee named Gamaliel says in that “if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them” (Acts 5:39).
Now I always picture Gamaliel like Gandalf, long beard, wisdom sparkling from his eyes. The religious leaders follow Gandalf, I mean Gamaliel’s advice, beat the tar out of the disciples, and send them on their way to teach the message of life.
Today’s reading reminds me that the hardest part of breaking free is trusting God to do it in his own way, at his own time, with his own results.
I want the prison doors open now.
But they always open on God’s timetable.
Acts 5 reveals that following Jesus is no fairytale. This adventure of a lifetime of being a little Christ is wrought with wins and losses, unexplainable topsy-turvy surprises, disappointments alongside divine appointments, encounters with the miraculous as well as mind-blowing disappointment and pain.
Yet God works through it all.
This is both mystery and grace that I must learn to embrace.
What did you learn or discover most from Luke 5 and what’s the hardest part of breaking free for you?
