The Kingdom Of Rejects
May 3, 2009
5 The next day their rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in Jerusalem, 6with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John,* and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. 7When they had made the prisoners* stand in their midst, they inquired, ‘By what power or by what name did you do this?’ 8Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, ‘Rulers of the people and elders, 9if we are questioned today because of a good deed done to someone who was sick and are asked how this man has been healed, 10let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,* whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead. 11This Jesus* is “the stone that was rejected by you, the builders; it has become the cornerstone.”* 12There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.’
Acts 4:5-12
“I was born a poor black child.” So begins one of my favorite movies of all time, The Jerk. Y’all seen that one? In The Jerk, Steve Martin plays Navin R. Johnson, a white boy with no rhythm raised by poor black sharecroppers, who leaves home, finds employment as a gas station attendant and a carnival barker, before falling in love, striking it rich, and then losing it all. If it sounds like a sophisticated Oscar winner to you, you probably don’t get out to the movies very much. No doubt about it--The Jerk is a dumb movie, which probably explains why I love it so much.
But even though The Jerk may be crude, I believe it also contains a universal human truth, and that is that at some point in our lives, all of us will feel like a jerk. All of us in this room at some point will have that Navin R. Johnson experience of being on top and then crashing to the bottom, the feeling of being a left out, no good, worthless bum. In other words, we’ll feel like a reject.
And that’s why the movie is so funny. Because in many ways the story of Navin R. Johnson is also our story; the story of a regular person trying to make their way in the world. The good news is that, in the end, things turn out all right for Navin R. Johnson. But what about us? And what about all the other rejects in our world?
It’s an interesting question, and it may surprise you that I intend to look for an answer here in Acts, Chapter 4. Because on the surface, this passage from the book of Acts seems to have little in common with a movie like The Jerk. This story in Acts, Chapter 4 takes place just a few months after the resurrection. At that point in time, the Christian movement was rapidly gaining followers, but there was still a fairly small group of core disciples. And two of the big names, Peter and John, had been arrested by the temple authorities in Jerusalem for healing a lame man and preaching about Jesus.
So, in Acts Chapter 4, verses 5-12, the elders and scribes are debating what to do with Peter and John. If they throw Peter and John in jail, there will be a public outcry because the healing of the lame man had been witnessed by many people. If, on the other hand, the authorities decide to let Peter and John go, then it seems to legitimatize their preaching, which poses a threat to the establishment.
Those are the basic details of the story. But I think there’s something else going on in this passage that we need to pick up on. In verses 5 and 6, we read that it was the rulers, elders, and scribes who assembled in Jerusalem, along with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. I think that last little detail was included for a reason. I think the author of Acts wanted us to know that the folks mentioned here in Chapter 4 were the Jerusalem VIPs. They were the people who had power and influence and wealth. In the religious, and the political, and the business arenas, these were the people who mattered. They were the model citizens, the Rotarians, the good-old-boys of 1st century Jerusalem.
So, it makes sense that the first question they ask Peter and John has to do with status. They say, “By what power or name did you do this?” You see, it’s hard to argue that healing a lame man is a bad thing. So, the authorities didn’t quibble about the miracle. The problem was not what Peter and John had done; the problem was that they didn’t go through the proper channels to do it. Because everybody knows that the folks with the power and the connections and the money are the ones who are supposed to be calling the shots. And yet, here comes these two upstarts with no proper background, claiming the very same kind of authority.
What we have here in Acts, Chapter 4 is a classic case of the insiders vs. the outsiders. On one side is the old money, the establishment, the people who feel entitled to their position in life. For Annas and Caiphas and all the rest, it was assumed that they were the only ones who could speak for God because they had the right last name. They had the religious pedigree. And as far as God was concerned, they were the experts.
But on the other side stood Peter and John, two individuals with little wealth or influence in the community. And in response to the question of the rulers, Peter and John claim that their authority comes from the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
Now, in the year 2009, we take it for granted that every person in the world has heard about Jesus. Oh, there might be a few pockets of isolated tribes here or there in the remote jungles who have never heard his name, but for the most part, Jesus is a pretty well known figure. When it comes to worldwide name brand recognition, Jesus is right up there with Coke or McDonald’s.
But back in the 1st century when Peter and John were responding to these authorities, Jesus was still relatively unknown. So, we can just imagine all those Jerusalem big-wigs scratching their beards and saying, “Jesus who? Who are you talking about?” And in reply, Peter and John say, “Jesus is the one you crucified, whom God raised from the dead. Jesus was rejected by you, but to us, he has become the cornerstone.”
Did y’all catch that? When asked by the Jerusalem leaders to offer their credentials, Peter and John say, “We’re doing it all in the name of a reject.” That’s a kind of counter-intuitive strategy, isn’t it? Instead of pulling rank or appealing to a title or naming a powerful connection, Peter and John claim that their authority comes from a reject.
It’s no wonder that the temple authorities got all riled up. So do we. Peter and John admit something in this passage that we don’t like to talk about too much in church today, which is that from the perspective of the world, Jesus was pretty much a big loser. He was a reject. Jesus was a guy with no money and no family connections. So, far as we know, Jesus never held a regular job. He wandered around homeless from town to town. He was scorned and ridiculed by his peers. And in the end, he wound up being executed by the state as a traitor.
So, let’s face it--by every standard that we use to measure status in our society, Jesus just doesn’t cut it. He’s a misfit. He’s like that stone that won’t quite fit into place; he’s got all these rough edges that are impossible to smooth out. And so, in our society, just like in 1st century Jerusalem, we throw him out.
Because even though the names and the outfits have changed, things are still pretty much the same today, aren’t they? It’s the people with the money and the power who make all the big decisions in our world. It’s the people with last names like Kennedy or Bush or Clinton who dominate our politics. It’s the churches or the denominations with the most members who set the agenda for religion in our country.
And the worst part of it all is, we’ve bought into it. In fact, most of us in here spend all of our time and effort just trying to keep up. We crave that kind of status. We want to be on the inside. And if somebody calls us a reject, we take umbrage. Because we don’t like being the jerk. We don’t like being the loser.
Somewhere along the way, we’ve forgotten that we worship a loser. We’ve forgotten what Peter and John proclaim here in Acts, Chapter 4, that Jesus of Nazareth was a reject. He was the exact opposite of all those pretentious leaders in Jerusalem who claimed to be in relationship with God, but who derived that status from their wealth or family.
Jesus is a different kind of leader. And I think it’s time that we in the church begin to grapple with what that means. Maybe the best way to measure our success as disciples of Jesus is not by how wealthy or powerful we are by the world’s standards, but by how closely we follow in the footsteps of the one who was rejected. Because if we haven’t identified ourselves as one of the rejects, we haven’t identified ourselves with Christ. Maybe the church is supposed to be different than all those other organizations in our world that are obsessed with popularity and status. And maybe instead of always arguing why we’re so much better than everybody else, we in the church should start celebrating our inferiority.
It’s a stretch, isn’t it? To imagine that we could actually be proud of being rejected. And yet, that seems to be what Peter and John are doing in this passage. They are resisting the trap of the authorities to let the work of God be defined on the world’s terms. And they are proclaiming the good news that the kingdom of God is not just for those are rich or important by the standards of society. The kingdom of God is for all people, especially those who have been rejected and left for dead by everybody else. And the reason is that the one we worship was rejected and left for dead by everybody else.
When I look around our sanctuary this morning, I see lots of friendly people who in many cases have great families, good jobs, and lots of nice stuff. But ultimately, those things are not what define us. We are who we are and we do what we do in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. That is the only name by which we are saved.
So, this morning, we have a choice to make here at Park View Baptist Church. We can side with the wealthy and the influential and the insiders who gauge their worth by the world’s standards. Or we can cast our lot with the rejects, remembering that it is only in the name of a reject that we will find our salvation. I know which side I’m choosing. How about you? AMEN