Canter Bridge

It is difficult to impede the forward motion of men and women who find their honor in being dishonored for their cause. This is as true of people whose lives have been enobled by an admirable vocation as it is of those perhaps more obvious cases where the most pernicious of campaigns are carried forward by pathetic addicts to the sensation of other people’s hatred.

The early Jesus movement had its roster full of such individuals. When some of them were hauled before the authorities for making audacious claims about the crucified prophet from Galilee, a cooler head prevailed for the moment. The respected scholar Gamaliel had this counsel for his colleagues while the offending followers of Jesus cooled their heels outside in the corridor:

‘So in the present case, I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone; because if this plan or this undertaking is of human origin, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them—in that case you may even be found fighting against God!’ They were convinced by him, and when they had called in the apostles, they had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. As they left the council, they rejoiced that they were considered worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name. And every day in the temple and at home they did not cease to teach and proclaim Jesus as the Messiah.

The reader can anticipate more of what he has already gleaned from the narrative: these men will not be stopped.

Even as the wounds left by the whip still oozed, they smiled and laughed and felt the force of camaraderie push itself even more deeply into their lives.

‘The name’, as the writer of the Acts of the Apostles abbreviates things, had become everything to them. It was the kurios name, the unlikely application to their departed teacher of a name redolent with the claims and glimmer of deity. It would be a long time before the absolute fealty they felt to this name would crystallize in philosophically defensible descriptive clauses.

Yet they knew what the word-crafters would eventually capture in their very different code: the name was everything. Blessed be the name.