Acts 5:12-21, Isaiah 2:2-3, Micah 4:1-2, Isaiah 6: 1-2 Malachi 4:2, Mark 6:53-54, Luke 2:30-32, Rev 12:10-12.
Acts 5:12-21 shows us the great power that seven short verses can have! The community of new Christians has just faced its first great hurdle—a husband and wife who pretended to put Christ and His people first, but who instead were seeking wealth and prestige. But the story of the Acts continues. We go on in this passage to hear about the vitality of the early Church, the dangers that it encountered, and how it followed Jesus in its actions and life:
Now many signs and wonders were taking place among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were of one accord in Solomon’s Portico. None of the rest dared to attach themselves to them, but the people held them in high esteem. But all the more believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, so that when Peter came by even his shadow might fall on some of them. The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed. But the high priest rose up, and all who were with him (that is, the party of the Sadducees), and they were filled with jealousy. They laid hands on the apostles and put them in the public prison. But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said, “Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life.” And when they heard this, they entered the Temple at daybreak and began to teach.
As soon as we begin this passage, the loving power of the newborn Christian community impresses itself on us. Many signs and wonders by the apostles are showing their connection with Jesus, and these miracles include the healing of “all the sick,” and those who were demon-possessed, just as Luke reported concerning the early days of Jesus’ own ministry: “Now when the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to him, and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them” (Luke 4:40). The mention of “mats” and “cots” also brings to our memory the various healings that Jesus performed—the one let down through the roof, the one by the pool of Bethesda, and the crowd in Gennesaret mentioned in Mark’s Gospel:
The people immediately recognized Him and . . . began to bring the sick people on their mats to wherever they heard He was. And . . . they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of His garment. And as many as touched it were made well. (Mark 6:53-54)
Besides these outward signs, the community itself was recognized for its significant unity, as they all were “of one accord” with each other, and gathered in the outside section of the Temple in order to be able to reach any—whether Jewish man or woman, or those who were attracted to Judaism. They showed their solidarity with the Apostles and each other, but also their solidarity with the witness of the Law and the Prophets, by making the outer court of the Temple their center of operations. They were taking seriously that poignant prophecy found in both Isaiah and Micah:
In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains… and all the Gentiles will stream to it. Many peoples will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the temple of the God of Jacob…'” (Isa 2:2-3; Micah 4:1-2).
In positioning themselves at the Temple, but at the point where even Gentiles had access, they were following a Messiah who had come for the Jewish people, but also for those far away who sought the truth. As Simeon had prophesied over Jesus, he was the “salvation. . . prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to [God’s] people Israel” (Luke 2:30-32). The dual action of the early Christians— gathering around the 12 chosen disciples, and making themselves available to all near the Temple—demonstrated their identity with Jesus, just as surely as the miracles did. As St. John Chrysostom describes the scene:
Earth was becoming like heaven, for their way of life, boldness of speech, wonders, and for everything else. Like angels they were looked upon with wonder. They were unconcerned about ridicule, threats, perils. They were compassionate and beneficent. Some of them they helped with money, and some with words, and some with healing of their bodies and of their souls; they accomplished every kind of healing. (Chrysostom, Hom Acts 12)
And what miracles they were! Just as the crowds had clamored for Jesus, so they bring out their ill, hoping for the grace of God to be shown. Strangely, even those upon whom Peter’s shadow fell were healed. It is as though God is making it clear that the power of the disciples, imbued in them by the Holy Spirit given through Jesus, has made a radical change on the believers so that even the shadow of an illumined body causes healing. We can think, perhaps, of what happens when metal pieces are magnetized by a powerful magnet, causing a chain reaction that attracts others to that first energy. As St. John Chrysostom remarks, “had they not borne a king’s image and their radiance been unapproachable, their garments and shadows had not wrought so mightily” (Hom 2 Cor 7:6).
Here is, it would seem, the first glimmer of the power of icons: Peter’s body is an icon of Christ, so that even his shadow has healing properties, through Jesus Himself. Jesus had said to His disciples that they would do more dramatic deeds: the fringe of Jesus’ cloak had healed; Peter’s very shadow does it now! As the ancient English theologian Bede puts it, the dramatic healing done through Peter shows all those who saw it how Jesus uses His people:
And because Peter is a type of the church, it is beautifully appropriate that he himself walked upright, but by his accompanying shadow he raised up those who were lying down. So the church, concentrating its mind and love on heavenly things, passes like a shadow on the land, and here, with sacramental signs and temporal figures of heavenly things, it renews those whom there [in heaven are rewarded] with everlasting gifts. (Bede, Comm Acts 5:15)
We may, perhaps, think of the LORD Himself, whom Isaiah saw “high and lifted up” while His train filled the Temple (Isa 6:1-2). God is both transcendent, but also with His people, and shows that here through the Apostles. Jesus has been high and lifted up in His Ascension, yet remains, through the Holy Spirit, and in His followers, among people, healing them.
But St. John Chrysostom also notes that part of the grandeur of the Church is its willingness and ability to brave danger. In his homily on this section, he speaks about how the life of the early Christians was “woven” out of dejection and joy: dejection when Jesus dies, joy when He arises; dejection when He leaves them, joy when the Spirit descends; dejection with Ananias and Sapphira, joy with these signs performed by the Apostles (Hom Acts 12). Weaving through this present joy, though, is the knowledge that there is danger: some dare not to join them, while many are courageous and do convert. And the danger bites! The Sadducees, that is, the priestly leaders of the Temple, are jealous of the Apostles’ success, and arrest the,. This only, of course, makes the early followers more determined to do God’s will! We can think of the dynamic visible in Revelation 12, where the angelic choir declares that God has won over Satan, with the result of joy in heaven, but woe (for a time) on earth. That woe is accompanied by the brave deeds of those who follow Jesus wherever He has gone, even to death. Though the apostles are released for service at this point, we know from the rest of the Acts that death will come their way, beginning first with their deacon Stephen, but then with James and the general persecution that followed.
For now, though, they follow in Jesus’ healing footsteps. As on the morning of Jesus’ resurrection, no one but the angel sees their release. And at daybreak, a time that also reminds us of the resurrection (Luke 24) they return to the Temple, commissioned by the angel, just as the women were commissioned to tell the good news. The apostles are not simply telling the news of Jesus’ resurrection, though, but all that it implies. As the angel says, they are to tell the people “all the words of this Life.” What did those words entail? Surely, that what Jesus has done fulfills all the Law and the Prophets, and the Writings. Surely that Jesus Himself is the Lord of Life, and promises new life, both spiritual and physical. Surely, that He has called them into communion with Himself and each other. Surely, that the division between Jew and Gentile is now finished, with the veil of the Temple torn in two, and a new community of believers created to join people with people, and God with humanity! Surely, that this new Life involves listening to everything that Jesus said, and doing everything that Jesus has done, including loving one’s enemies. To tell “all the words of this Life” will require everything that they know, everything that they are, everything that they will become. As Malachi the prophet had said, “the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in His wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall” (Mal 4:2).
In this story, we see that early Church doing that leaping, released from a stall to the freedom of Jesus Himself, healing, demonstrating amazing unity, showing boldness in the face of enemies, and spreading the compassion of Jesus to all. It is, as St. John Chrysostom put it, the unleashing of Heaven upon earth.
