LIMITING THE FALLOUT
The big news story of
the week around here centers on the Rutgers University men’s basketball
coach
being shown on videotape verbally and physically “abusing” his players during
practice. We all know that in such circumstances the first thing that Rutgers
must do is engage in “damage control,” trying to minimize the effect of the negative
publicity in any way possible. Fairly or not, “damage control” seems to imply
covering up the ugly truth -- the idea of dealing in a straightforward manner
with the issue seldom seems to occur to anyone in power.
One passage from the
Acts of the Apostles that we read this week sounded a familiar note – we see
the people in power engaging in “damage control.” Peter and John were arrested
and brought before a council of priests, scribes and elders, accused of the
crime of preaching the gospel of Christ and curing a crippled man. The apostles
were both eloquent and courageous in speaking in their own defense. Watch the
reaction of the council members in the following passage.

The leaders are upset
because the apostles are proclaiming “in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.”
But they have a problem: By their own admission “it is obvious” that something
miraculous has happened it. They cannot deny that resurrection power is at work
through the apostles -- the man who has been cured is standing there in front of
them. They admit that the whole city knows about it. Yet when they ask “what
power or name” had healed him, they don’t believe Peter when he says that it
was the power of the resurrected Jesus.
YOU TAKE THE HIGH ROAD...
So the apostles take
the high road and say that they must obey God rather than man, and that they
“cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard.” In contrast to
the apostles' burning simplicity, however, the leaders deny what they themselves have seen (the
healing of the crippled man) and heard (that the power of the risen Lord is at
work here.). They are not interested in truth – in fact they seem afraid of it.
Instead they resort to
political maneuvering: Since they cannot deny the reality of the healing, they
engage in “damage control” to limit the spread of the true story (because the
truth would cause them to lose all sorts of power and prestige and position).
They put a gag order on the apostles, and try to keep the story from spreading
among the people. Interestingly, in our day the healing would have been on You
Tube for all the world to see, and the history of Christianity would probably
have unfolded much differently.
I'LL TAKE THE LOW ROAD

May the risen
Lord give you and me the courage that he gave Peter and John so that we
may follow Him as faithfully and fearlessly as they did, and like them preach
by our lives “what we have seen and heard.”
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