Christian Counseling Service -- Devotions

It's Jesus again

Friday, April 17, 2009

Acts 4:5-12
The leaders, elders, and scribes were assembled in Jerusalem, with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and the other men of the high priest's family. They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: "By what power or what name did you do this?"

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, answered them, "Leaders of the people and elders: 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 of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead; in his name this man stands before you healed.

"He is the stone rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to men by which we are to be saved."

Just two months ago these same leaders plotted to kill Jesus. They were afraid the people would become united behind him and scare the Romans into further oppression. Caiaphas had the answer: "It is better that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish (John 11:49)". Now Jesus is dead ... or is he? His disciples are convinced that he was raised from the dead, and they are performing the same kind of miracles Jesus performed, and they are preaching with the same authority.

Must they now be killed as well? Would that spark even more miracle-makers and preachers? Our own thinking is getting us nowhere. Maybe we should actually consult God here? (That's so hard for all of us to remember, and maybe especially for God's professional representatives.)

Caiaphas had been a young boy once, a child playing in his father's house. How would the young boy have seen the cripple he'd known all his life suddenly jumping up and running around, laughing and laughing. Young boys smile at such a thing, and they join in. Caiaphas might have leaped and laughed and praised God himself. Maybe some experience like that inspired him to enter the priesthood. Maybe.

Now he gets to choose again. And God is right there with him, loving him, patient with him, ready to help him. Caiaphas is grown up now; his image is important to him, and he has learned to think for himself. Can he be a young boy again, just for a moment?

I shout in your tent, the Lord's right hand has done mighty things! Your right hand is lifted high and you open for me the gates of righteousness. I will enter, Lord, and give thanks and thanks and thanks.

Devotions Archive

It's Jesus again

Friday, April 17, 2009