Ananias & Sapphira

A letter from the Pastor on Acts 5:1-11

Hi, Trinity--

Over the past month, we have been studying the book of Acts together.  While we are not able to teach on every single passage, we earnestly try to deal with the passages that help us to understand the practices of the early church and how they are meant to be formative for us today.  

There is one particular passage that I will not be able to teach on, but I did not want to ignore.  More specifically, I didn’t want you to think that we were avoiding culturally unpopular passages.  In Acts 5:1-11, there is a conspicuous story about a husband and wife named Ananias and Sapphira who God judged swiftly causing their immediate death.  (If you haven’t already, give it a quick read now!)  This passage is extremely difficult to swallow for people with modern sensibilities.  Isn’t God being overly harsh?  Shouldn’t this passage be embarrassing for Christians? 

I want to spend just a little time thinking about this passage with you.  My aim is not to make the sting go away.  It should sting.  God is not tame or domesticated.  Nevertheless, I want to take a closer look to ensure that we learn what God has for us. 

It should sting.  God is not tame or domesticated. 

As I have mentioned in my sermons, the book of Acts chronicles the origins of the church.  God was doing really powerful things and the church began to grow in supernatural ways.  As a result, the threats to this fledgling movement began to surface.  The source of these threats were external, as well as internal.  Certainly the various religious establishments were trying to squelch the fervor of the young Christians.  But there were also threats from within the community.  And these internal threats were extremely dangerous.  The story of Ananias and Sapphira is one such story.  

At this point in the story of Acts, the church is enjoying powerful and idyllic conditions.  The church was growing.  There were tons of conversions.  The young church was experiencing the Spirit doing amazing things through them as they served one another with deep generosity.  

In chapter 4, a believer, Barnabas, sold his property in order to donate the proceeds to those in need.  This was not under compulsion.  It was his joy to do so.  Sacrificial generosity was becoming more common among the early believers.  In chapter 5, Ananias and Sapphira elected to do the same thing, but with one difference.  Instead of donating all of the proceeds, they feigned such generosity, and instead kept a portion for themselves.  Did they have to donate it all?  No.  Could they have kept a portion of the proceeds?  Sure.  What went wrong?  Spiritual embezzlement.  They wanted the glory of generosity without being generous.  They became glory thieves. This couple did not want to serve the poor.  They wanted validation from man.  Their money wasn’t offered to help others--it was self-promotion.  Because of their deception, the money became a repurposed strain of cancer that could threaten and poison the young community.    

The Apostle Peter prosecuted this offense immediately.  In short order, both Ananias and Sapphira fell dead.  The risk of the cancer spreading was contained.  

Understandably, this passage seems puzzling.  There appears no opportunity for repentance. There is no “due process”.  The punishment feels excessive.  I get it.  I really do.  Part of the difficulty is that this same type of offense would not even make the headlines of a sultry magazine like the Enquirer.  To be frank--their offense is simply not offensive to us.  It feels excusable to our modern sensibilities.  

He had a sense that through stories like this we are just barely feeling the weightiness of God’s holiness.  This story was included on purpose, precisely because it confronts our vision of God. 

So why is this episode of the early church included?  Shouldn’t Luke (the author) have been really embarrassed that God did this?  Shouldn’t he have conveniently left out this story, and made God more appealing to us?  

Luke was not at all embarrassed by this story.  In fact, he had a sense that through stories like this we are just barely feeling the weightiness of God’s holiness.  This story was included on purpose, precisely because it confronts our vision of God.  On occasion, we mistake God’s infinite mercy with a sense that we are owed such mercy.  Our discomfort is built on the presumption that God owes us forgiveness, or just overlooks the culturally accepted sins.  We relate to God on the supposition that God’s actions must make sense to us, otherwise, we are permitted to reject them...and Him.  Putting God on trial has been normalized.  

But this story doesn’t let us do that, right?  When God begins to act in ways that are holy (and wholly) mysterious to us (and out of sync with our culturally located opinions) then you can be sure that you are really getting to know Him.  Don’t expect God to be just like you.  

This reminds me of the scene in C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe when the young child Susan first hears about the Great Lion, Aslan.  Understandably, she was afraid.  Even a child knows that a lion can effortlessly tear a human apart.  

So, she asks Mr. Beaver the obvious question, “Is he quite safe?”

"Safe?" said Mr Beaver ..."Who said anything about safe?! 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.”  

There is something here that we need to recover about our vision of God.  We are so glib with the Lord.  This story of Ananias and Sapphira pushes up against our flippancy, doesn’t it? 

Please read a little further and let me make a few more observations, that perhaps, still linger.  This story in Acts has a symbolic “echo” to the story of Adam and Eve.  Adam and Eve were living in idyllic conditions.  Generosity was the standard practice in the garden, but God made one request.  “Don’t eat the fruit… for on that day you shall surely die.”  They ate the fruit, and they were immediately excised from the community.  Kicked out.  

Here’s the thing:  their punishment was laced with mercy.  See, God removed Adam and Eve from the garden so that their corrupted selves would die.  In the garden with God, they would have lived forever.  So they had to leave.  Death is awful, but living eternally in their sinful state is worse.  There is a mercy in God’s justice.  Similarly, Ananias and Sapphira sinned and were immediately excised from the community.  The cancer would not spread.  So many people were protected from the horror that could have ensued.  This punishment too was laced with mercy.  

So were Ananias and Sapphira Christians?  Are they with the Lord?  I think so.  Why doubt it?  They were meaningfully a part of the spirit-filled community of God.  Were they an utter and total mess?  Yes, that too.  Perhaps the best evidence that they were Christians is the harsh punishment itself.  In the Bible, God’s most severe judgments are always against his own people--not the “gentiles” and “skeptics.”  

When we fear death above all things, it shrinks our imagination, and we become unable to sit under difficult stories like this one. 

Death is an awful thing.  It has caused me to pause even as I type this short letter.  But, somewhere along the way we have come to believe that there is nothing worse than death.  That death is the worst possible fate for Ananias and Sapphira.  Every soldier knows that there are worse things than death, and for that reason he will jump in front of a bullet.  Have we forgotten this?  What a small life we live when death has become our slave master.  

When we fear death above all things, it shrinks our imagination, and we become unable to sit under difficult stories like this one.  The puzzling part of this story is not the fate given to Ananias and Sapphira.  The puzzling question is why isn’t this even more common?!  Why is this story the exception to the rule?  God has the right and the responsibility to punish all sin and injustice.  Why not strike me dead too?!  He would be justified in doing so. 

It is because our Father in Heaven is slow to anger and abounding in mercy and grace.  The Lion does roar on occasion.  But God’s holiness is never transformed into bald anger.  It is always laced with grace and mercy.  

Let us not be glib with our Holy King.

Let us not see ourselves as morally superior to God (as if we can even see all the angles).  

Let us not be slaves to death.  

Let us not be presumptuous with God’s patience. 

Instead, let us humbly sit under God’s mercy which was secured by his own Son, who was struck dead, so that our death would not last forever.  Amen.  

Do you know the real Jesus?

letter from exile 16

God’s Word: Luke 19:45-48 & 22:1-6

45 And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, 46 saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.”

47 And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, 48 but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words.

…

22 Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called the Passover. 2 And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to put him to death, for they feared the people.

3 Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve. 4 He went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers how he might betray him to them. 5 And they were glad, and agreed to give him money. 6 So he consented and sought an opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of a crowd.

Reflection: 

Our reading takes us squarely into the events of Jesus life that directly precede his trial and crucifixion.  We see that Jesus is really starting to make some noise.  He was so disruptive that really religious people wanted to have him murdered.  That feels extreme, doesn’t it?  Why is it so important that we pay careful attention to these stories?  

Without them, Jesus is not “crucifiable.” I know that is a weird way of saying it, but let me explain with a short “poem” that was published by an unknown author 25 years ago in a major newspaper.   

He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. 

He grew up in still another village where he worked in a carpenter shop until he was 30. 

Then for 3 years he was an itinerant preacher.  

He never wrote a book. 

He never held an office. 

He didn’t go to college. 

He never visited a big city. 

He never traveled 200 miles from the place he was born. 

He did none of the things one usually associates with greatness. 

He had no credentials but himself.

He was only 33 when the tide of public opinion turned against him. 

His friends ran away. 

He was turned over to his enemies and went through the mockery of a trial. 

He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. 

While he was dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing, the only property he had on earth. 

When he was dead, he was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. 

19 centuries have come and gone, and today he is the central figure of the human race and the leader of mankind’s progress. 

All the armies that have ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned put together have not affected the life of man on earth as much as that one solitary life.  

There is not one square inch on this planet that has not been touched by the life of Christ Jesus.

Isn’t that something?  There is not one square inch on this planet that has not been touched by the life of Christ Jesus.  This means that everyone has an opinion about the “real” Jesus.  In our modern, politically correct culture, we have attempted to reimagine Jesus as a nice guru, who went from city to city helping the helpless.  He is a role model, or the “best” of humanity.  And this is most certainly true, but if he is not more than that, then why in the world was he brutally murdered?!  Nobody would have been afraid of him.  Who wants to kill a weak, but nice man, who helps poor people and lepers?  

The version of Jesus that our modern culture imagines doesn’t account for his crucifixion.  Why have him killed?  Here’s why: because Jesus can look kings in the eyes and say, “worship me.” Indeed, he can look you in the eyes and say, “your life, your dreams, your identity ARE MINE.”  

If you prefer the guru Jesus, then you will use him to make you feel “safe” during a pandemic, but you will walk away when your money and recreational options return. 

If your heart is soft, you will bend your knee.  If you are proud, you will have him murdered through disbelief.  If you prefer the guru Jesus, then you will use him to make you feel “safe” during a pandemic, but you will walk away when your money and recreational options return.  

Do you know the real Jesus?  The one who cleaned out temples?  Guess what?  He died on a cross to clean out our hearts too.  Do you know him?  

Prayer:  

Heavenly Father, I confess that my heart is inclined to tame and domesticate Jesus so that he does not force me to change. I am good at employing sophisticated reasoning to ease my conscience and justify my disbelief.  Have mercy on me, Holy God.  Holy Spirit, I invite you to clean out my soul.  Make me fully yours. Exalt Jesus in my life, Amen.  

Praying outside of ourselves:

• Pray for endurance and encouragement for healthcare workers who are working overtime with dire cases in major cities. 

• Pray for Christians to have courage to speak about Christ with their unbelieving friends.

• Pray for God to use this pandemic for non-believers to take a “peak” at an online church service and see the “body of Christ”.