Chapter 4 – An Early Arrest

After the healing of the man who could not walk in Acts 3, a major theme of the book of Acts comes up in chapter 4. Peter and John are arrested. 
For what? 
Apparently for disturbing the peace, for upsetting the status quo, for making a scene. The rest of the book of Acts will run along these lines of the criminalized disciples against the status quo of leadership. 
These are difficult things to understand for those of us who have more often benefitted from the status quo than been victimized by it. The leaders who take up the case of Peter and John are set as judges. They are people in judgment over other people. What have Peter and John done? They have (in Jesus’ name) healed a man who had never walked. 
The judges are there to make sure that things stay the same. Perhaps it would have been better in their minds if the lame man remained lame. At the very least, they cannot abide by something happening, even something good, if it is outside of the way things are, outside of their control. 
They confer. They tell Peter and John not to preach anymore about Jesus. Peter has given an explanation of the way things are in Christ and now Peter and John say that they cannot agree to not speak about Jesus. The leaders do what those protecting status quo always do, they issue more threats. They have done a calculation. The healing and the preaching have not cost much so far. They have not yet occasioned a danger to the way that things are. This will not be the last encounter. 
There are a couple of other notes here. Firstly, there is the boldness with which Peter and John stand and speak. We are told that they are empowered by the Holy Spirit. I think that we know it at heart. We know that true power and boldness does not come from within. True power and boldness come from without. However, this power is for all. We can, by God’s grace, speak and stand and pray and face challenges in the power of the Holy Spirit. Even today. 
Secondly, there is in this chapter a contrast to the status quo. A new community is forming. It is a community where people do not hoard, where there are none in need, where people share, where money is for the common good not for individual power and status. 
The disciples might truly be a threat to the status quo.