The Only Christian Ethic?
Something to think about.
Luke 5:1-11 | Acts 4:36-5:11
The gospel passage today is likely familiar enough. Don’t miss it though. The call to follow Jesus is everything.
…which brings us to our passage in Acts. We’ve read a couple of beautiful descriptions now about the early Christians selling their stuff and joining together to eliminate need amongst themselves.1
But what comes next is perhaps one of the most difficult passages in all of the New Testament.
Let’s be clear: Jesus never killed anyone. He never made sure anyone would die. And the closest he ever got to predicting anyone’s death might be his woe-ing about Jerusalem or his walk-on-the-beach with Peter. But no one ever dropped dead right after he pronounced it would happen.
Man…Peter is really powerful in Acts.
We must read this passage really carefully. And we should take from it the seriousness of dishonesty, and perhaps when it relates to money and resources in particular.
Perhaps you’ve never seen someone drop dead in such a way, lying about money. But perhaps just as much you have seen the destruction that money and dishonesty can do upon a life, or a marriage, or a family.
Someone has proposed that the only Christian ethic, one that encompasses all that is needed to understand the Christian approach to living in this world is this: “Don’t lie.”
Think about it.
Luke 5:1-11
One day Jesus was standing beside Lake Gennesaret when the crowd pressed in around him to hear God’s word. Jesus saw two boats sitting by the lake. The fishermen had gone ashore and were washing their nets. Jesus boarded one of the boats, the one that belonged to Simon, then asked him to row out a little distance from the shore. Jesus sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he finished speaking to the crowds, he said to Simon, “Row out farther, into the deep water, and drop your nets for a catch.”
Simon replied, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and caught nothing. But because you say so, I’ll drop the nets.”
So they dropped the nets and their catch was so huge that their nets were splitting. They signaled for their partners in the other boat to come and help them. They filled both boats so full that they were about to sink. When Simon Peter saw the catch, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Leave me, Lord, for I’m a sinner!” Peter and those with him were overcome with amazement because of the number of fish they caught. James and John, Zebedee’s sons, were Simon’s partners and they were amazed too.
Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid. From now on, you will be fishing for people.” As soon as they brought the boats to the shore, they left everything and followed Jesus.
Acts 4:36-5:11
Joseph, whom the apostles nicknamed Barnabas (that is, “one who encourages”), was a Levite from Cyprus. He owned a field, sold it, brought the money, and placed it in the care and under the authority of the apostles.
However, a man named Ananias, along with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property. With his wife’s knowledge, he withheld some of the proceeds from the sale. He brought the rest and placed it in the care and under the authority of the apostles. Peter asked, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has influenced you to lie to the Holy Spirit by withholding some of the proceeds from the sale of your land? Wasn’t that property yours to keep? After you sold it, wasn’t the money yours to do with whatever you wanted? What made you think of such a thing? You haven’t lied to other people but to God!” When Ananias heard these words, he dropped dead. Everyone who heard this conversation was terrified. Some young men stood up, wrapped up his body, carried him out, and buried him.
About three hours later, his wife entered, but she didn’t know what had happened to her husband. Peter asked her, “Tell me, did you and your husband receive this price for the field?”
She responded, “Yes, that’s the amount.”
He replied, “How could you scheme with each other to challenge the Lord’s Spirit? Look! The feet of those who buried your husband are at the door. They will carry you out too.” At that very moment, she dropped dead at his feet. When the young men entered and found her dead, they carried her out and buried her with her husband. Trepidation and dread seized the whole church and all who heard what had happened.
Prayer
God,
Goodness…that Ananias & Sapphira story is tough, Lord. Did you really kill them? What happened to grace? How are we to understand time and forgiveness and all that in light of such a story? Why did Saul/Paul and others get to see to the atrocity of Stephen’s murder and live many more days, even to the point of forgiveness for Paul, and yet A&S die with no such opportunity? It’s hard for me to understand, let alone accept.
I truly hope that this isn’t me just trying to make wiggle room for dishonesty. For real: I can’t stand dishonesty. It’s at the helm of so many problems today. Add to it its siblings: fakery, passive aggression, and shadiness and you can describe all sorts of societal ills. I truly believe that both the truth (actual honesty) and the Truth (the person, your son) will set us free in so many ways.
So in the end for now, I guess my prayer is this: Help me to be an honest person.
(But dear Lord, if it’s at all possible, I pray to you for forgiveness for Ananias and Sapphira.)
By your spirit & in Christ,
Amen.
Not to knock the compassionate efforts of churches today, but it may be of note that this practice of the early Christians to sell all their stuff and pool it together to eliminate need occurred within the Church itself and doesn’t seem to go beyond the limits of the ecclesial circle. Couple this with the passage we read the other day in which Peter & John do not respond to the beggar’s request for money, but instead miraculously heal him, and it really challenges some of our popularly-held notions of compassionate ministry today. This is not to say that the Church *shouldn’t* take care of those outside the boundaries of the Church. Jesus certainly did (for instance, no one took demographic attendance on those grassy hillsides where he fed thousands, and his encounter with the Syrophoenician woman has something to say about it, and also Luke 4:14-30 which we just read). Anyway, this is a bit of an aside, hence the footnote, but too many draw erroneously from the example of the Church in Acts in numerous ways, and this is one of them. The early Church might look “socialistic,” but even if you want to use that word, you must note that it’s exclusive to the Christians themselves.