Sure there was a pernicious and damaging rumor making its
rounds that Jesus had been raised from the dead; and though this was of some concern
to the council in Jerusalem (which is demonstrated by the fact that Stephen was
brought before the council in the first place), the leaders of the people remained
quite confident that Jesus had not been the “Righteous One” of whom Stephen
spoke. This position was reinforced by
the fact that He had been crucified by the Romans (rather than overthrowing and
driving out the Romans), with things in Israel continuing as they had for quite
some time.
Now, one such as Stephen could
have certainly argued that Jesus did not have the opportunity to drive out the
Romans (though this had clearly not been His goal) because He had been sent to
His death by the very men who would now claim that He could not have been the messiah
because He was crucified by the Romans, dying at their hands rather than
driving them out. Such an argument, however, would be viewed as somewhat beside
the point of the proceedings, and rejected out of hand.
Had this Jesus truly been the messiah---the long awaited
Righteous One and embodiment of Israel’s God---He would not have allowed
Himself to be crucified, so the fact that He was, regardless of who instigated
the proceedings that resulted in crucifixion, clearly demonstrated that He was
not the messiah. Even if He had been raised from the dead, the thinking
would go, His death by crucifixion and the fact that Rome was still in power
over the land and people of the Creator God would trump that fact, and thus
readily continuing to prove that He was, in fact, not the messiah. Yes,
such thinking could very well have been much self-delusion, as an ongoing
attempt to justify themselves and excuse their having brought about the death
of the man that might very well have been the messiah, but at this point, there
could be no back-tracking.
Yet with all that under
consideration, the anger was there and it was real and it resulted in Stephen’s
death. Indeed, this was not the first time that somebody had spoken to
the council in such a way, and it was not the first time that such speaking had
resulted in the speaker’s death, as shall be seen.
Who was that other
person to have spoken words to the council that resulted in death? Well it
was Jesus, of course. In the Gospel of Matthew, when Jesus is placed
before the Sanhedrin and there was an attempt “to find false testimony against
Jesus so that they could put Him to death” (26:59b), Jesus was instructed to
“under oath by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God”
(26:63b). Jesus replied by saying, “You have said it yourself. But
I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand
of the Power and coming on the clouds of heaven” (26:64). When pressed by
the council, Stephen, echoing the words of Jesus, said “I see the heavens
opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” (Acts
7:56)
Upon hearing the
words from Jesus, it is said that “the high priest tore his clothes and
declared, ‘He has blasphemed!... Now you have heard His blasphemy! What
is your verdict?’” (26:65a,c,66a) The council answered with “He is guilty
and deserves death” (26:66b). Mark and Luke both provide a similar
record, though Luke omits the high priest’s tearing of his clothes. The
beastly response that Stephen’s words received has already been noted, so it
does not need to be rehearsed here, but it will suffice to say that it was also
determined that he had blasphemed and was deserving of death. Both Jesus
and Stephen, according to the record of Scripture, were ultimately driven
outside of the city, whereupon the prescribed sentence was set upon them.
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