25 April 2014 - blocking the path

25 April 2014 - blocking the path

What is it with these builders?  The structure that is at the center of God's plan throughout history needs a cornerstone.  Until the resurrection it waits for the central weight-bearing piece.  The resurrection reveals the one piece that will fit.  It reveals the one piece that will make the whole structure stand and endure even beyond death.

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 the human race by which we are to be saved.”

What is it with us?  Why are we so ready to cling to the way things have always been?  If we don't recognize ourselves in the Sadducees and discover that we share a motivation with them we will not repent of it.  If we don't repent we continue to subvert, consciously or unconsciously, the truth of the resurrection.

There is something within us which struggles with this truth. Something within rebels.  But what?  The disciples proclaim "in Jesus the resurrection of the dead" and suddenly we look uncomfortable.  We begin shifting in our seats.  We want to qualify this statement, explain it, and give it context.  Why?  Well, doesn't it seem like overkill that the resurrection of the dead should be embodied in one person?  Doesn't it seem unfair that there is only one name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved?  We don't want to impose this truth on others.  We don't want to believe in a truth that is true enough that it makes demands not just on us but on the whole world.

Yet this is what the Scriptures say.  To the degree that we try to qualify it and explain it away we detract from its transformative power.  We weaken the ability of this truth to change things for the better.  Worse, we ourselves risk working against this change. 

If we are being examined today
about a good deed done to a cripple,
namely, by what means he was saved,

The truth which frees is the only source of this transformation and healing.  It is not necessarily the easy truth.  It is not the truth which is the easiest to speak.  But it is the true truth.  Ultimately, that is what matters.  So how should we proclaim it?  We should be bold.  We should be straightforward.

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.

But even more than this there is one other element which should characterize our proclamation.  With it bold truths cut to the heart and convert.  Without it this truth is merely divisive.

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, answered them,

Filled with the Holy Spirit we see how good it is that Jesus is the cornerstone.  We are so filled with this truth that it becomes infectious and fills those who hear our words.  They can see the joy with which it fills us.  Before we even begin to explain why all this is fair after all peoples hearts will begin to change. 

By the LORD has this been done;
it is wonderful in our eyes.
This is the day the LORD has made;
let us be glad and rejoice in it.

We have experienced Easter.  Let us not return to our previous lives.  Let us not return to our boats and to fishing.  In some ways this feels right because the truth of the resurrection, if it is really true, demands a response so great that it makes us nervous.  But we see today, by the power of the Holy Spirit, that this response is entirely worth it.