In September of this year I contributed the following to Alliance Canada's devotional series on Luke and Acts. The passage for this day was Acts 5:17-42.
I’ve always liked Gamaliel. Maybe it’s because he reminds me of the bully in junior high who suddenly decided instead to be my protector. Or the guy on the Skytrain who deflected a drunk from harassing a young woman. Or the elderly woman who seconded a motion at the annual meeting, not because she agreed but because she thought we should hear the poor person out. Or the friends on the rooftop who tore up tiles to get to Jesus.
Gamaliel might have done more, but what he did is not nothing. Standing up to your own team can be the hardest thing to do.
Acts chapter five is as intense as it gets. Pressures are high, fears are raised, and violence is at the door. Not even God is safe. We don’t often think of the New Testament as a place where God smites people, but Ananias and Saphira have just fallen dead at Peter’s feet for hiding their wealth to avoid giving their share. Peter might be a threat, except that he pivots immediately to healing and deliverance. Now the followers of the Disappeared Messiah are gathering a crowd.
The text says the priests and Sadducees are jealous, but this is no petty matter. Even the best of us might feel the same in their shoes. They have been entrusted to protect the people from false messiahs and revolutionaries who not only lead people astray but are liable to bring the sword down on necks already held down by Roman boots.
These aren’t close-minded legalists, it’s just that they’ve seen the people fall for this one before. Theudas famously promised to part the Jordan river, but his movement died as quickly as he did (5:36). Judas the Galilean rallied against oppressive taxation, but his revolt died with him (5:37). Watching Rome snuff out these upstart messiahs before the soldiers came knocking at doors must have become something of a relief. The Jews still yearn for a Messiah – they just needed to stop getting distracted.
The Jewish leaders are not motivated by petty jealousy; they are afraid this stubborn Jesus movement might turn the crowds against them (5:26). Then who will keep the faith and fend off Rome? Pharisees and Sadducees disagree about a final resurrection, but they agree that crazy talk about resurrection only gets people killed. But Peter’s men will not shut up! And putting them in jail only ended up giving them a bigger platform. Now they are doubling down and making this an either/or between God and us (as if God is suddenly in the habit of making house calls rather than speaking through people). These fishermen must have a death wish.
Come to think of it, killing these apostles could even be considered punishment for what happened to Ananias and Saphira, who had been our biggest donors. Peter must know he’s in danger, but he’s calling us out in public. Read the room, Peter! Learn a thing or two about real-world politics. Teeth are gnashing and hands are looking for stones.
Until Gamaliel decides to spend all his social capital on a cause he doesn’t even believe in.
Why would a person do that?
We don’t know much else about Gamaliel except that the murderous Saul was his protégé. Some imagine that Gamaliel was secretly sympathetic to Jesus’ followers, shrewdly protecting their movement without attracting the whistleblowers. Others take his words at face value and hear him saying not to stoke the Jesus freaks’ fires. Whatever the reason for it, now we have what’s known as Gamaliel’s Rule:
If it’s only human it will flame out or fade. But if it’s of God we’ll just find ourselves fighting God.
At best, Gamaliel’s Rule says to hear people out, to seek truth patiently, and watch for the fruit of the Spirit to show itself even in unexpected ways. At worst, Gamaliel’s Rule is the privileged powerplay of those who can afford to not give the question oxygen. Ignore it and it goes away.
At a pragmatic level, Gamaliel makes a decent case. Crucifixion and jail have only backfired so far. Eventually the movement will peter out on its own – especially since Rome is often willing to do our dirty work. The argument is persuasive enough to postpone the killing. Poor Stephen is next, but Peter lives to see another day. And the gospel continues to take off.
So does Gamaliel’s Rule work? Sometimes it does. This year the church lost Gustavo Gutierrez, founder of Liberation Theology, at the age of 96. For most of his life he was enemy #1 in the upper echelons of Roman Catholicism, until he was partially and joyfully vindicated late in life. Somehow Gutierrez hung in there, losing neither his conviction nor his smile. Sadly there were others like Oscar Romero who did not live long enough to see such a thing. Gamaliel’s Rule is not a guarantee. Often it’s the wicked who prosper and the faithful who suffer. If time itself separates sheep from goats we can just sit on the fence until we come down on the right side of history. But it doesn’t work like that. Past or future success is not the barometer of faithfulness.
As the apostles will show us in Acts 15, there is no short cut around sharp dispute (15:2). Snap judgments may prove to be unnecessary stumbling blocks (15:19). Questions require careful consideration in community (15:23). And it takes time to discern the Spirit together (15:28).
Who are the Gamaliels in our churches today? Is there a good-faith trust in God to guide the community? Are we making room to seek truth in love?
Who are the Peters in our churches today? Is it dead-certain whether they are for or against God? Have we made room to hear them out or are we rushing to push them out?
If bystanders on the roof are trying to stop the guys from tearing up the tiles, will any Gamaliels step in and say “we’ll help put the tiles back, but for now let’s not keep this from Jesus?”
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