Acts 5:1-11; Joshua 7; Matthew 9:4, Psalm 94:9/LXX 83:10, 2 Cor 6:14-7:1
Our passage for this week is perhaps one of the most disturbing of the New Testament, except for the judgments of the book of Revelation. In it we see the sterner side of God, and also the importance of unity and truth in the early Church. We also, with the help of several of the Church fathers, can see past the shock of the narrative to discern some important things about the nature of our holy God! Here is the passage:
But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, 2 and with his wife’s knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet. 3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? 4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.” 5 When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. 6 The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him. 7 After an interval of about three hours his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8 And Peter said to her, “Tell me whether yousold the land for so much.” And she said, “Yes, for so much.” 9 But Peter said to her, “How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.” 10 Immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. When the young men came in they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. 11 And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things. (Acts 5:1-11)
The first thing to remember about this passage is that we are at the beginning of the Church’s life, as she is being established. This places the fearful episode as a warning, just as there was a similar warning at the beginning of Israel’s history. Just as Ananias and Sapphira were severely judged for the avaricious behavior, so was Achan condemned in Joshua 7 for using holy things to his own economic advantage. The people of Israel had been doing well in the conquest of Canaan, but their victory has stopped, for some reason. Joshua seeks the LORD, and is told this:
The LORD said to Joshua, “…Israel has sinned; they have … taken some of the consecrated things; they have stolen and lied and put them among their own belongings…. In the morning therefore you shall be brought near by your tribes. And the tribe that [I,] the LORD takes by lot shall come near by clans. And the clan that the LORD takes shall come near by households. And the household that the LORD takes shall come near man by man. And he who is discovered to have the consecrated things shall be burned with fire, he and all that he has… because he has done an outrageous thing in Israel.’”
And that is what happened. From the tribe of Judah, the clan of the Zerahites was taken, and then the family of Zabdi, until finally Achan was discovered to be the thief. *was taken. Among his belongings are found “ a beautiful cloak from Shinar, and 200 shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekel,” all stolen from the battle of Jericho. He confesses this and the booty is recovered from his tent. We pick up the story:
And Joshua said, “Why did you bring trouble on us? The LORD brings trouble on you today.” And all Israel stoned him with stones… And they raised over him a great heap of stones that remains to this day. Then the LORD turned from his burning anger. Therefore, to this day the name of that place is called the Valley of Achor.
Achan, then, took the solemn event of conquering Jericho, under the instructions of God, as an opportunity for personal aggrandisement, not dedicating the riches in Jericho to God, but hiding it to make his own family wealthy. The Israelites had been prepared for this “holy war,” and warned to obey God for the benefit of the entire people. They had been told: “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you” (Joshua 3:5). Such consecration included prayer, ritual purification and sometimes even abstaining from relations with their wives. Moreover, in the chapter just before we hear of Achan’s transgression, the soldiers are ordered to not take any personal plunder or spoils from Jericho: but Achan does it anyway! As a result, the chosen people were no longer granted victory by God, and, led by Joshua, find out who has been disloyal—Achan, all for the sake of his greed. Since God is forging a people who are to worship him, and to be seduced by pagan worship or wealth, this is dealt with promptly, and in no uncertain terms.
The situation in Acts is similar, although each of the pair—both Ananias and Sapphira—is asked about the sin, and each of them lies in order to cover it up. It is not, as Peter explains, that they are compelled to give their goods to the community. But to pretend to be generous like Barnabas, whom we heard about in the previous section, is a great deception when what they want is both accolades and their own stash of wealth. The danger to the community comes from inside it, and not really from without, though Peter and John have previously been threatened by authorities who did not recognize Jesus as Messiah and LORD.
St. John Chrysostom puts it this way: “For things from without do not war against us so much as things within. If we are welded firmly to each other, no war will be difficult to bear; what would be terrible is to be separated and divided.” (Acts Homily 12) We can understand his words in two ways: that greed comes from within and causes difficulty for those who are envious, and that the most dangerous evils come from within the Christian community, when those who are not faithful contaminate others. As for the first instance of “within-ness,” within each human being, we should recognize that the Ten Commandments don’t speak only of outward sins (lying, theft, adultery), but sins of the heart “Do not covet what is your neighbor’s”. Jesus drives this interal aspect of the law home when He tells his followers “Don’t just not murder; don’t even nurture anger!” “Don’t just not commit adultery; don’t even look at a woman with lust!” and so on. Sin comes from the heart, from inside, and defiles the whole person. Then, we can extend this to the Christian community, and remember how Jesus warned that “a little yeast can leaven the whole lump.” And so St. Paul gives great warning to all the Corinthians about how the Christian community should be on its guard against sin, which affects everybody:
What partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? … For we are the temple of the living God; as God said,
“I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
Therefore go out from their midst,
and be separate from them, says the Lord,
and touch no unclean thing;
then I will welcome you,
and I will be a father to you,
and you shall be sons and daughters to me,
|says the Lord Almighty.”
Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God. (2 Cor 6:14-7:1)
So, then, it is the calling of the whole community to work against being damaged by the things of this world, because we are being made into a Temple for the living God. “Fear of God” is a good thing if it drives us to “bring holiness to perfection.” Seeing fear of God as a virtue prevents us from being complacent in our faith, and assuming that we DESERVE God’s forgiveness, when this is a mercy, and a gift. The gospel is God’s great love and mercy for us, and not meant to make us complacent regarding the uncleanness and error of which God intends to heal us. “Cleanse us from every stain, and save our souls, O Good One!”
So it was with this couple’s story, and with the effect that their discipline had upon the community. It does not seem that they were repentant, but each continued to lie and to make excuses. St. John Chryostom explains the corrupting nature of what they agreed to do, that when they lied to the community, they were actually lying to to God:
This money was sacred. For the person who withdraws his possessions after he has chosen to sell them and distribute them would be guilty of sacrilege. And if this person, who is taking from his own possessions, is sacrilegious, much more so is he who takes from what is not his own. And do not think that because the consequence now is not the same, the crime will go unpunished. … See how the devil made his attack from the very beginning, how in the midst of such signs and wonders this man became insensible as a rock! (Acts Homilies 12)
The two had seen all the wonders performed by the apostles, and knew the privilege it was to be a part of this holy community. But in their minds, that did not matter so much as what people thought of them –that they were like Barnabas—(and of what they could keep for themselves and their own comfort. This is a warning to us, says the Goldenmouthed preacher.
Besides this, there is something more to learn. Church fathers looked to this passage in instructing those in the early Church who were being taught by heretics that the Holy Spirit was not God. And so, first Basil the Great argues that to lie to the Spirit meant to lie to God:
He explains, Peter’s question, “How is it that you have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? You did not lie to men, but to God”—show that sins against the Holy Spirit and against God are the same. And thus you might learn that in every operation the Spirit is closely conjoined with, and inseparable from, the Father and the Son. While God works the differences of operations and the Lord the diversities of administrations, the Holy Spirit is present also, administering in his own power the distribution of the gifts according to each recipient’s worth. (Basil, On the Spirit 16.37.)
In the same way, St. Gregory of Nyssa points to Peter’s words about lying to God, and in his tome arguing that we worship not three but One God, speaks about the Holy Spirit as the True Witness, and how Father, Son, and Spirit all share an ability to search the hearts of human beings. He points to Psalm 84:9/LXX 83:10, where David says, “See, O God our defender,” and then says that this shows us how “seeing” within the heart of a person is something that God does, just by being God. We can see the same characteristic, he says, in Jesus, who “knew what was in people,” that is what they were capable of, and what was hidden within them (Mat 9:4). So then, all three Persons –Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—share this ability to look into the depth of a person, and the Holy Spirit passes His insight on to the leaders of the Church. When the couple lied, they each lied to an apostle, but it was the same as lying to Jesus, and the Holy Spirit shone His light so that their treachery could be seen. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all know what is in human beings, and sometimes they give this insight to those who are helping us to grow.
So, as St. John Chrysostom points out, we aren’t all struck dead for being deceptive today. But the lesson should be learned: holding back what belongs to the community, and lying about it is a sin not only against our brothers and sisters, but against God Himself, and will turn us into people who are dying, internally. St. John Cassian also applies this to us. He reasons, “if against those who did not covet other persons’ goods but tried to be sparing of their own, and had no desire to acquire but only the wish to retain, there went forth so severe a sentence, what should we think of those who desire to amass wealth… and, making a show of poverty before people, are before God convicted of being rich, through the passion of avarice? (Institutes 7.25). Yes, those of us who are comfortable need to be careful that we are not consumed with things and with greed, nor should we pretend to have less than we do in order to look better to others. Our knowledge that God is love, and does not want anyone to perish should not take away our knowledge that we indeed have to power reject God’s ways and to turn to idols. May this never happen!
May this difficult passage, then, teach us about honesty, about our true life with each other, and about what we should really value. May it also lead us to understand the nature of our one God, who sees us, and knows us as we really are. May it help us to be generous, and truthful, and grow into the nature that God has in mind for us all –to be perfect, as He Himself is perfect.
Edith M. Humphrey 