Tuesday • 8/9/2022

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 97; Psalm 99; Judges 13:1-15; Acts 5:27-42; John 3:22-36

This morning’s Canticles are: following the OT reading, Canticle 13 (“A Song of Praise,” BCP, p. 90); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 18 (“A Song to the Lamb,” Revelation 4:11; 5:9-10, 13, BCP, p. 93)

An audio or video version of this devotional can be found here: Apple Podcast, Spotify Podcast, YouTube

I’m fascinated by the response to Jesus of Gamaliel in Acts and of John the Baptist in John 3.  

Gamaliel. “We must obey God rather than men…” and …they rejoiced that they were considered worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name. — Acts 5:29, 41. Surprisingly, perhaps, the book of Acts does not portray Peter and John as being filled with missionary zeal. They are not raising funds so they can obey Jesus’s command to go to the nations, baptizing, discipling, and teaching as they go. The mission to the nations begins only after persecution forces Jerusalem believers to leave Jerusalem—and even then, the apostles stay behind (Acts 8:2). What drives the Jerusalem apostles is the imperative they feel simply to tell the truth about what they have seen and heard. They tell their fellow Jews the truth about who Jesus Christ is, and what God has done to make him, as today’s passage puts it, “Leader and Savior that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins” (Acts 5:31). 

The Lord calls some of us to go. He calls some of us to stay. He calls all of us to obey, and to be willing to suffer, if need be, for doing so—in fact, to rejoice at the privilege of suffering. As Paul will put it in one of his letters: “For [God] has graciously granted you the privilege not only of believing in Christ, but of suffering for him as well” (Philippians 1:29). Gulp!

“…but if it is from God, you will not be able to overthrow them—in that case you may even be found fighting against God!” — Acts 5:39. Here is an instance of the truth of Jesus’s saying: “Whoever is not against us is for us” (Luke 9:50). Rabbi Gamaliel, this powerful member of the Sanhedrin, argues for tolerance for the Jerusalem followers of Jesus. Like Nicodemus from John’s Gospel, he is part of a tiny minority of Pharisees in the Sanhedrin. Gamaliel is grandson to Hillel the Great, founder of a school of Torah-interpretation that emphasized love over rigor: “Do not judge your fellow until you are in his place” (Pirke Avot 2.4). Later in Acts, we find out that Paul had been “brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel” (Acts 22:3). That, in particular, is an intriguing fact, because the tolerance that Gamaliel advocates here is opposite to the zealotry that Paul originally adopts against the Christians.  

The current climate in which we live is characterized by anything but Gamaliel’s philosophy of taking the long view. We can choose the specific cable news network that confirms us in views we already have about current events. It’s easy enough to find blogs and podcasts that endorse our fears about just who the “bad guys” are who are bringing disaster on us right now! 

Gamaliel speaks with two kinds of wisdom: 1) historical perspective, and 2) theological humility. 

As to historical perspective, Gamaliel draws upon the precedents of two figures, Theuddas and Judas the Galilean, who promised revolutionary change, and who gathered followers to try to make that transformation happen. Both men, however, perished. Their followers sort of trickled away and any threat dissipated. Gamaliel’s counsel: let’s see if the Christians are a similar type of short-lived “flash in the pan.” 

As to theological humility, Gamaliel has enough faith in and fear of God that he would rather see things play out than risk fighting against God. Of course, it’s not always right or good to let things ride. But wisdom—especially humble wisdom—looks to Ecclesiastes 3, and asks, patiently and before God, whether it’s “a time to break down” or “a time to build up,” “a time to keep silence” or “a time to speak,” “a time to love” or “a time to hate,” or “a time for war” or a “time for peace” (Ecclesiastes 3:3, 7-8). May God grant us more of a spirit of patient discernment in our day.  

“He must increase, but I must decrease.” — John 5:30. Speaking of humility, despite the understandable anxiety John the Baptist later expresses following after his arrest, the basic heartbeat of John the Baptist lies here, in these seven words: “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

John the Baptist. We saw in John 1 that John the Baptist believes that Jesus is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Here in John 5, we see that John the Baptist believes Jesus is the fulfillment of Hosea’s promise: “On that day, says the Lord, you will call me “My husband” (Hosea 2:16), a fact that Jesus prefigures by turning water into wine at the wedding in Cana. In Jesus Christ, God himself has come to take to himself a bride -- the church. And John the Baptist finds his joy in his Master’s joy. In the lovely rendering of the NIV, John explains his own role to his disciples: “The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete.” (John 3:29 NIV). John the Baptist knows Jesus is the Groom, and he is the Best Man. John knows his purpose is to “attend” his Master and make much of him and little of himself. 

The irony is that by becoming less, John becomes more. Accepting a “lesser” role at the appearance of Jesus, John joyfully inhabits the perfect purpose for which he was made. The more our lives become about magnifying the Lord’s glory, the more we become transformed into that same glory (2 Corinthians 3:18). Much joy to you as you become transformed into the glory of the Son. 

Be blessed this day,

Reggie Kidd+

Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons