An Act of Double Transformation--April 29, 2025

 An Act of Double Transformation--April 29, 2025   

[Peter and the apostles said to the authorities:] "The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him." (Acts 5:30-32)

There are two transformations revealed in this short little passage, and you don't want to miss either of them.  This scene, which concludes the reading from Acts that many of us heard in worship this past Sunday, is the end of Peter's response to the authorities who wanted to silence the apostles and keep them from talking about Jesus (or how the religious and political powers had conspired to get rid of Jesus without a fair trial or due process).  And of course, Peter uses this as a moment to do precisely that: this appearance before the authorities becomes another chance to defy their decree, and he reminds everybody about what had been done to Jesus, and what God had done through that grave injustice.

And in that moment, both of the amazing transformations occur.  But it can be easy to miss them, so let's back up.  The first is a rhetorical move: the cross has become a tree.  Okay, this might seem like a bit of inside baseball, but let me unpack it.  In the book of Acts, when followers of Jesus refer to the crucifixion or death of Jesus, they almost never use the word "cross" which did show up back in the Gospel of Luke (part one of the story), but instead use a word that means either "wood" or "tree."  Now, of course, both are fair words to use.  A cross is typically made of wood, or could even have been an actual tree that was used to string someone up (the Romans weren't picky about their brutality), but the connotations are profoundly different.  The word "cross" only suggests death, shame, cruelty, and capital punishment in the first century Roman Empire.  It conveys the horror, the travesty of injustice, and the imperial sentence of death.  But a word that can mean "tree"?  Well, that's different. A tree is alive.  A tree might become a shelter for other creatures in which to find safe refuge.  A tree calls to mind the Genesis story of the Tree of Life.  A tree, in other words, suggests that what the Empire wanted the death of Jesus to mean was not what God ultimately said about the death of Jesus.  What the religious and political powers of the day intended was for the crucifixion of Jesus to be the end of him--to silence him, to snuff out his message, and to make a public example of him, as if to say, "If you step out of line, we're coming for you, too, just like this."  But when Peter and the other early church leaders call the instrument of Jesus' death a "tree," it carries with it the sense of saying, "Look how God transformed an instrument of death into an element of life!"  The cross itself becomes the beginning of God's new creation, and in part it starts with this act of faithful imagination--to see the cross not as a sign of the empire's power or the grip of death, but as the sapling out of which new life arises.  That's the kind of transformation God is up to.

And that very same act--Peter's brave and bold response to the authorities who had tried to silence him--marks the second transformation in this scene.  Peter himself has been transformed in the wake of the cross and resurrection. This is the same Simon Peter who had denied even knowing Jesus back on the night of his arrest.  And this is the same Simon Peter who, along with the other disciples, were all holed up inside a locked room even on the evening of the first Easter Sunday, because they were captive to their fear of what would happen to them if they spoke up. Something has clearly happened to him.  Something has clearly changed these formerly fearful fishermen and made them into audacious apostles.  The resurrection happened.  

That's the thing that the book of Acts wants to show us: on this side of the resurrection and the outpouring of the Spirit, we are transformed.  We, the followers of Jesus, are no longer bound to being chicken-hearts trapped inside our own fear.  We don't have to be silent when the authorities tell us to stop calling them out or when neighbors are being harmed.  We don't have to avoid talking about how Jesus has made the difference in our lives to reorient us away from self-interest and toward the good of all in the Reign of God.  We don't have to stay afraid, because the One who raised Jesus from the dead and turned a dead cross into a Life-giving Tree is the same One who turns fearful deniers of Jesus into fierce witnesses of Jesus.

Could we dare to imagine God doing that with us... today?

What might we gain the courage to do or say?  What might be transformed... in us?

Lord Jesus, transform us in light of your resurrection.