Friday in the Octave of Easter

Lectionary: 265

If we are being examined today
about a good deed done to a cripple,
namely, by what means he was saved,
then all of you and all the people of Israel should know
that it was in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean
whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead;
in his name this man stands before you healed.

There is irony in Saint Peter’s opening statement, “If we are being examined today about a good deed….” Ordinarily criminal prosecutions involve bad deeds.

The world outside the Gospel is not governed by principles of right and wrong, or even reason and irrationality. It’s all about power, authority, structure and stability. Peter and John, by their healing of a crippled man and their proclamation of the name of Jesus, threaten to introduce something new into the social order.

This story begins with names that should be familiar to Saint Luke’s readers. Annas and Caiphas were high priests throughout the ministries of John the Baptist and Jesus; they are still ensconced in the temple of Jerusalem as Peter and John set out. In fact, Luke’s use of the names signals the beginnings of both sets of ministries. Annas and Caiphas also sets a tone, for the gospel “will be contradicted.” (Luke 2:32)

Whether we are defending the life of the unborn, the rights of the imprisoned and sick, or the biblical definitions of marriage, we should expect opposition. People and their leaders have great investments in other ways. They want the freedom to abort undesirable babies; they like their weapons, out-sized prisons and understaffed hospitals, and their option of divorce. They pay lip service to principles of right and wrong, but their decisions come from another, darker place.

Power, authority, structure and stability are not bad things. Even a glance at the evening news from Iraq or Afghanistan can remind us of the need for authority and stability. But if authority is not informed and enlightened by the gospel, it cannot adjust to the changing, ever-evolving world around us. It becomes rigid, suspicious and hostile toward crippled men who dance and unlearned preachers who heal. And it really hates anyone who proves by empirical signs it should not have crucified the Son of God.