Acts 13:26-31 (NIV)
“Brothers, children of Abraham, and you God-fearing Gentiles, it is to us that this message of salvation has been sent. The people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize Jesus, yet in condemning him they fulfilled the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath. Though they found no proper ground for a death sentence, they asked Pilate to have him executed. When they had carried out all that was written about him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead, and for many days he was seen by those who had traveled with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses to our people.”
Now that Paul has laid out the history of God’s interactions with mankind, climaxing in His ultimate revelation in Jesus, he relates the amazing climax of Jesus’ life and ministry: the crucifixion and resurrection.
Paul is unyielding in his condemnation of the Jewish leaders, as well as the people of Jerusalem who were part of the drama. Their primary error was that they didn’t recognize Jesus when He came. They claimed to serve God wholeheartedly, but failed to see Him in Jesus’ actions, failed to hear His voice in Jesus’ words. All this showed that their claims to serve and worship and be wholeheartedly devoted to the God of the Bible were at best delusion, and at worst an outright sham.
They were so blind that they couldn’t even recognize that their dastardly actions were confirming and fulfilling Scriptures that they claimed to know so well. They railroaded Jesus into being crucified in direct violation of the impartial justice that God demands of his people. Jesus was, as the creed states, crucified, dead and buried.
Then Paul uses the grandest word in Scripture: “but”. “But” changes everything. Jesus was dead and buried, BUT God raised Him from the dead. After humans had done their worst, God did His best and changed history and mankind’s destiny forever. And this resurrection was not folklore or a tale to placate people or to lure them into signing up to be a Christian. It was a historical reality, attested to by many reliable witnesses, His followers, who saw Him, and ate with Him, and talked with Him for many days (Acts 1:3, 1 Corinthians 15:5-8).
Paul puts himself outside the circle of direct witnesses, consciously using the word “they” not “we.” Though the glorified Jesus had appeared to Saul on the Damascus road, convincing him of the reality of the resurrection and ascension, he had not been a believer at the time of the resurrection itself, and so had not seen Jesus alive again in the flesh.
Father, even though Paul had not experienced the resurrection of Jesus as a physical reality like Peter, John and the others, he did experience a direct encounter with the glorified Jesus (Acts 9:1-22), and his life was changed in a moment by the encounter. Then he could use the first-hand experiences of the apostles as he presented the good news to people, and it was informed and illuminated by his own first-hand experience of transformation. In that way, he is an excellent example for us today. As we share the good news today, we present and rely on the first-hand witness of the apostles recorded in the gospels. But then it is informed and illuminated by our own transformative encounter with Jesus so that it is credible. Thank you for this insight! Amen.
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