We Cannot Help but Speak: Courage Before the Sanhedrin, Acts 4:13-21
6th Commentary: Acts 4:13-21
In this reading we clearly see the both the enemy’s attack and the Christian defense. The enemy’s attack has two characteristics. First, there is an attitude of contempt. The 71 members of the Sanhedrin, which comprised of a mixture of Sadducees, Pharisees and elders, regarded Peter and John as unlearned and ignorant men with no kind of religious education, especially in the intricate regulations of the law. The Sanhedrin regarded them as uneducated, ignorant men with no professional status. It is often difficult for ordinary people to deal with what might be called academic and professional snobbery. But those who have Christ in their hearts possess a real dignity and insight which neither academic attainment nor professional status can give. As Ps 119:100 says, “I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts.” In this connection I’d like to quote something that St Vincent de Paul said to Daughters of Charity, May 31st 1648, “A theologian who has only his own special theological knowledge speaks of God in the way his subject has taught him; but a person of prayer speaks of him in quite a different way. And the difference between the two arises from this, that the one speaks of him through acquired knowledge, and the other through infused knowledge, full of love, so that the theologian in this respect, is not the most learned, and he or she should be silent when a person of prayer is present.”
Speaking on another occasion St Vincent said, “It is into hearts without worldly knowledge, who seek God in himself, that he is pleased to pour forth the most excellent lights and the greatest graces. He manifests to those hearts what all that the academic schools have not discovered and develops in them mysteries that the most learned fail to have the least sight of.” At another time Vincent added: “How comes it that you find illiterate people speaking so well of God, unfolding the mysteries with more knowledge than a theologian?” Second, there were threats. Christians know, however, that anything the world does to them is only for a moment, whereas the things of God last forever.
Faced with this attack, Peter and John had reliable supports. First, they had the obstinate evidence of an unanswerable fact, namely the healing of the man at the gate called beautiful. The fact that the man had been cured, was impossible to deny. Second, they had the support of utter loyalty to God. If it was a question of choosing between obeying other people and obeying God, Peter and John were in no doubt as to what course to take. As the writer H. G. Wells once said, ‘The trouble with so many people is that the voice of their neighbours sounds louder in their ears than the voice of God.’ The third thing that emboldened the apostles, and it was greatest of all – was their personal experience of Jesus Christ. Their message was not something that they had simply heard from others. They knew at first hand that it was true, and they were so sure of it that they were willing to stake their lives upon it. In marked contrast the religious authorities were more motivated by political expediency than religious conviction. Whereas Peter and John acted in a courageous way, the members of the Sanhedrin made their decision out of fear of the crowd rather than fear of God. But as St Paul explained in 2 Tim 1:7, “The Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, (The members of the Sanhedrin) but gives us power, love and self-discipline (The Apostles Peter and John).”
The council had before it men whose lives had been transformed by association with Jesus, by God's having raised Jesus from the dead, and by the coming of the Holy Spirit. As with the prophets of old, God's word was in Peter's and John's hearts like a burning fire; and they could neither contain it nor be restrained from speaking it (cf. Jer 20:9). They had been witnesses of Jesus' earthly ministry and resurrection (cf. 10:39-41). They had been commanded by their risen Lord to proclaim his name to the people (cf. 1:8; 10:42). When faced with a ban, their response was never in doubt: "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard."
