It doesn’t matter how many times I read it, or in how many places in the Bible (and there are a lot), I am flabbergasted at the reaction of the religious elite to Good News. Here’s another case in point:

“Some priests, the officer in charge of the temple guards, and some Sadducees approached Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. These religious authorities were greatly annoyed. Peter and John were teaching the people and spreading the message that the dead will come back to life through Jesus. So the temple guards arrested them. Since it was already evening, they put Peter and John in jail until the next day” (Acts 4:1-3 God’s Word).

Crucifixion of St. Peter by Caravaggio. The ea...

Crucifixion of St. Peter by Caravaggio. The early Christians were persecuted by the Roman Empire (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Now religious people, and their stooges, will explain this away in many ways. The fact remains that Peter and John were teaching Good News, about eternal life through the Messiah, and the Sadducees, a sect which denied resurrection and life after this one, abused their power and connections and threw those two apostles in jail for teaching what Jesus had taught and proven. One of the reasons this “annoyed” them so much is that people were being changed and finding joy in serving God, but not in the right way. It wasn’t happening in the church building under the supervision of a bishop or presbytery or council. Their teaching had not been approved by the higher echelons of religion.

People (missionaries, prophets, people born from above) have persistently been persecuted for bringing Good News.

Well, the spiritual life is not easy to live, provokes religious people to illegal use of power and anti-Christians to mock and humiliate those who live so closely to Jesus.

So why do it?

Because the spiritual person cannot NOT do it. Because when you have Good News it is worth sharing it. And because Jesus told us to do so and Paraclete inspires us to speak out.

“Tell in the daylight what I say to you in the dark. Shout from the housetops what you hear whispered. Don’t be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Instead, fear the one who can destroy both body and soul in hell” (Matthew 10:27-28 God’s Word).