2022_01_24 Insight Post- Kim Feld
This week’s reading- Acts 7-8
Luke tells us in the book of Acts that it didn’t take long before the early church began to experience intense persecution. Acts 7 opens with a lengthy discourse from Stephen, retelling Israel’s history. Stephen struck a nerve with the members of the Sanhedrin, and their response is chilling. Acts 7:54 (NIV) said they gnashed their teeth at him; the NLT says they shook their fist at him in rage. His fate is sealed when he proclaims he can see Jesus standing at God’s right hand. At that point, they rush him, drag him out of the city, and stone him to death. The brutality of the scene is hard for me to imagine. The first line of chapter 8 is chilling: “And Saul approved of their killing him” (NIV).
The Bible is full of stories of redemption, including how Saul became Paul, an apostle to the Gentiles and author of much of the New Testament. At church, we talk a lot about God’s ability to redeem and make new, and I believe that with all my heart. But in my darkest moments, the enemy tries to remind me of things from my past, something that God has forgiven me of, that can produce feelings of guilt and shame. I’ve never stoned anyone or approved of the murder of anyone. However, sin has left areas of damage and brokenness in my life and the lives of others around me that have needed Jesus’ healing touch. Knowing that this process is ongoing in my life, I have often wondered about the transformation of Saul to Paul. Did the enemy whisper words like “murderer” in his ear in moments of exhaustion and darkness?
It’s striking to me that as Stephen was being stoned, he didn’t hurl insults or beg to be avenged. Instead, he, just like Jesus, asked God not to hold this sin against his murderers. What a powerful picture. What does God want us as Christ-followers today to see and emulate in this? We are not currently facing this kind of persecution in the United States, but how do we respond when verbal stones are thrown our way or when others try to “murder” us with their efforts to discredit, gossip, and slander us? Is the answer to avenge ourselves by throwing verbal stones back on social media? What “rights” does God say we have? These are things that I believe God is calling us as the church to wrestle with.
Kim Feld
Executive Director of Education and Outreach