In our readings for the past few weeks the tension has been building up to this point. Steven has given an impassioned speech recounting the history of the Israelite people leading up to the time of Jesus. He lambasted the religious leaders for their lack of faith and understanding of what God was doing. He called them stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart. Those fighting words led up to the fateful moment when the crowd was overcome with anger and they carried him off and stoned him.
The picture that Acts paints for us is that of a mob so carried away with anger and hatred that they rushed in before the religious authorities could make any pronouncement and put Steven to death. And yet through it all Steven remained true to the Gospel he was preaching, he committed himself to Jesus and asked forgiveness for the sins of those who were putting him to death.
As they were preparing to stone Steven the crowd is said to have covered their ears, not wanting to hear any more of what he said, not wanting to let any of his truths sink into their hearts. How often do we do this same thing? When we hear a hard truth in our lives our impulse is to cover our ears and pretend that we can't hear. Sometimes we are so set in our ways that we can't bring ourselves to hear new truths, but our lives can not stay static. We need to constantly stretch ourselves and allow ourselves to be open enough to hear the words of those around us. God may be revealing something new to us, but if our fingers are stuffed into our ears we won't hear the good news.
No comments:
Post a Comment