Who Said You Could?

Have you ever done something that wasn’t your job, your responsibility, but it was kind, a nice thing to do, so you did it. And then, you got blind-sided by someone, completely unexpectedly, objecting, “Who told you to do that? Who said you could?”

I have. It hasn’t happened in a while, but I once reorganized the staff mailboxes at a previous church. They were in the work room, four across, just bigger than the width of a piece of paper, a couple of inches tall, probably 5 rows of them. It had been bothering me for a while that every time a staff person left, their replacement got their slot. So, over time, there really was no rhyme or reason to the organization of who had what slot…you either had to just know where everyone’s slot was or stand there looking at the names across the bottom of the slots. So, I decided I arrange, REarrange them, in alphabetical order. The outrage was immense. First, from the person who normally sorted the daily mail – how in the world was she supposed to find people’s slots? She liked it the way it had been. She knew where everyone’s slot was and there was nothing wrong with it. Then there were the staff people who claimed that they were now unable to locate their mail. I’m not kidding. I literally showed people that the slots were labeled under the slot and not over and where their new slot, with their name, was. I don’t think they really couldn’t figure it out…but I don’t doubt that they were upset. Finally, the office manager came to my office. She was furious. She had not asked for the mail slots to be reorganized. “Who said you could?” she asked.

What in the world!?!?! Why was she so mad? It was a good thing, right? We humans are strange creatures when it comes to our territory – especially when we feel threatened – especially when we are under scrutiny and someone seems to do what we have not done but maybe should have – especially when our control, our authority, is not honored.

So, it is no surprise that the temple authorities were riled by Peter and John healing the lame man who begged at the temple gate on their way to the temple. We don’t know which of the 12 gates to the Temple was called the beautiful gate. What we do know is that this man was born with a condition that meant that he had never been able to walk, so day in and day out, he had been at that gate. Because of his infirmity he was allowed no closer to the temple. Everyone knew him, recognized him, knew he needed their charity on their way to temple. And as Peter and John were on their way to the temple for afternoon prayer, they passed him and made eye contact. The man was excited. People who make eye contact usually give you something. Peter says, “I don’t have any silver or gold, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” Then he reached out and took his right hand, helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

Then, when everyone was crowding around, wanting to see for themselves, Peter said to the crowd, “By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see. Now, fellow Israelites, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders, when you killed him. But it was all part of God’s plan. This is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer. Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord. For now, heaven must receive him until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.”

Shouldn’t it be great news to these faithful priests and leaders that God is restoring the world, establishing the justice and peace that God promised? Healing what is broken? Righting what is wrong? Reorganizing what has been dis-organized?

Well, that might be where the problem is. See, the current organization has these faithful priests and leaders in a pretty good spot. They are working pretty comfortably with the Roman authorities. If they have any troubles with the people, they just turn over the protestors to the Romans and they make an example of their leader, crucify him. Things have rarely been more predictable. Things are stable with a steady flow of money from the money changers’ fees and the sale of the sacrifices that have been pre-certified ready for sacrifice.

New Testament scholar N.T. Wright asks, “Wouldn’t it be simply great news to know God was alive and well and was providing a wonderful rescue operation through his chosen Messiah? Answer: Not it you were already in power.” He goes on to say, “Peter was saying not only that Jesus himself had been raised, but that this was the start and the sign of God’s eventual restoration of everything.” The resurrection of Jesus was more than him no longer being dead. It was a radical declaration that the status quo, the powers of earth and on earth, are under God’s power and God is going to put everything right once and for all.

It isn’t that they were bad people. They just didn’t want to give up their way of life – being in control, deciding what was right and wrong for themselves and for everybody else – it worked for them. Tom Long, a Presbyterian pastor and professor of preaching at Emory, points out that “Whenever political or religious authorities set themselves up as the only legitimate broker of what people need and defend that authority, inevitably, the Holy Spirit breaks down those structures.”

The good news of the resurrection of Jesus was more than that Jesus was no longer in the tomb. The resurrection of Jesus completely changed life. United Methodist Bishop and scholar, William Willimon suggests that “The most eloquent testimony to the reality of the resurrection is not an empty tomb or a well-orchestrated pageant on Easter Sunday but rather a group of people whose life together is so radically different, so completely changed from the way the world builds community, that there can be no explanation other than that something decisive has happened in history.”

The call to discipleship is a call to live a radically different life from the way the world works. To radically not just reach across barriers, but to take them down, and the place to start is with ourselves. I invite you this week to take some time to be quiet and really reflect on whether your life is more like an apostle or a temple authority. Both mean to be faithful to God, to honor God. One, though, reaches out to the outcast, the one who is not to come into the temple and says, “In the name of Jesus Christ, these barriers are gone.” And the other asks, “Who said you could do that?”