NOTES for Act 5:33-42

This is how Gamaliel, the most authoritative rabbi, recommended that the Sanhedrin treat the newborn Church of Christ. These words of his are called "Gamaliel's principle"; the evangelist Luke cites them in Acts as a kind of testimony that Old Testament spirituality as such proved open enough to judge the actions of the Spirit of God by their fruits.

This means that the hostility of the Jewish religious authorities toward the Lord Jesus and His Church was dictated by other, purely human causes: envy, political calculation... According to tradition, Gamaliel himself became a Christian at the end of his life. Thus Gamaliel's principle is a generally biblical principle, flowing from both Testaments, for our attitude toward spiritual phenomena unfamiliar to us.

This is very important, because only by being guided by it do we avoid placing our judgment ahead of God's. The actions and views of other people often seem strange to us, and sometimes even outrageous, and it is natural for us at once to show our position and take corresponding measures. Our judgment is quick and unambiguous. But here is what wisdom nourished by the deepest knowledge of Scripture says: "Do not hurry; give God the opportunity to reveal His judgment". The fact that we do not agree with something can become our own condemnation if it is from God. For God Himself says that He makes all things new. New means unfamiliar to us, something with which it is not easy to agree at once. Here patience and a peaceful spirit are needed, without which it is impossible to be a Christian.

What can be the relationship of man to the Christ, and what - to the Church or to some of its members? The encounter with Jesus was always for each an event, obliging to make a decision, whether it is the meeting with Him during His earthly ministry or after the Resurrection. And it is clear: because in His person, man meets with the plenitude of God and with the plenitude of the Kingdom, it is impossible here to stand back, wait and especially to pretend that nothing happened. But is it how it happens, when somebody meets on his way a Christian? Sometimes it is the case, and then the meeting with the witness of Christ and the Kingdom means for him the same thing as the other meeting with the Risen. But sometimes it is different: the meeting touches in no way man, he remains indifferent to the witness, or being interested, he doesn’t hurry to make a decision. It is what happened with Gamaliel, the rabbi scholar and respected member of the Sanhedrin. Why is this happening? One can suppose of course that the problem is in the witness himself and his testimony, which for some reasons does not always affect the heart of the listeners. But one can’t say such a thing of the apostles: their sermon attracted many. Then what is the problem?

Indeed, Gamaliel, according to his words, was a person spiritually honest and sincere. What then disturbed him from accepting the Christ and from entering the Kingdom when he heard the apostles? The answer may seem paradoxical, but it is completely possible: it is in particular the spiritual honesty that stopped Gamaliel. He did not see what those who addressed saw, why - God is truth. And God doesn’t pull anyone into the Kingdom by force. He had nowhere to hurry, and He knows the human heart.

The history with Gamaliel, in essence, is a remarkable illustration of the words of the Savior saying that nobody can come to Him, if the Father does not allow him. Of course, at other moments many come to the Church more easily, without long hesitations and reflections. But such coming means the possibility also to exit so easily. Or what is even worse, the conservation of only the visibility of a Christian life. That often takes place especially where Christianity had become "a traditional religion", or, more exactly, engendered a religion which became traditional. It is easy to accept a religion, especially if it is traditional, but Christ – is not so easy.

And indeed, Gamaliel had to accept not the religion, but Christ. But God has not brought him to Christ yet. And he himself, as somebody spiritually honest, cannot and does not want to depict that which is not, even if to suppose that these people preaching the Messiah and the Kingdom were personally nice to him. And he says: leave them in peace, and let us see, if their work is of God. The choice is postponed. But the way to the Kingdom is not closed.

It would seem familiar to us to understand the Cross and the Resurrection as a sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins. Yes, the author of Acts says this (see Acts 5:31), but right away he also mentions repentance. This is striking. We understand that the Lord came into the world so that we would repent and receive Him and the Father. But the fact that He also rises in order to "give repentance to Israel" (and then to all who live) can escape our attention.

On the other hand, how else could it be? A mission is a mission, and it is carried out by every possible means. Indeed, when we look at the events described in Acts and at the increase of believers in the Church (see, for example, Acts 2:41, 5:14, 17:4), we see that people repent precisely after hearing the message about the crucified and risen Lord. The message that Someone came for your salvation and was killed through your own fault, yet rose in spite of it, strikes a person deeply. And if he listens to this message and truly hears it, acknowledging Jesus as Savior, the Lord does not delay His joy over the hundredth sheep that has been found (see Matt. 18:12-14).

Today's reading shows us the limit that religious consciousness can reach. This limit is marked by Gamaliel's speech (vv. 34-39). Gamaliel belonged to the rabbinic school founded by Hillel, a teacher of the Torah who lived approximately two centuries before the Nativity of Christ. Representatives of this school were never religious formalists, believing that the Torah should be written in the human heart, determining a person's whole life and helping him build a relationship with God. For them the first place belonged not to ritual, but to intimate, mystical communion with God. Hillel is credited with the words: "Where two or three gather in the name of the Torah, there the Shekinah dwells among them" (in Judaism, the Shekinah is the presence of God). It is no surprise that a representative of this very school spoke before the Sanhedrin in support of the apostles.

The situation did not at all seem clear and unambiguous to Gamaliel either, but he was not afraid of what the temple leadership feared: that the new movement that had begun among the people would turn against them (vv. 27-28). His absence of fear and readiness to accept everything that truly comes from God distinguish him from most representatives of the official religious authorities.

Gamaliel cannot say anything definite about the apostles and their preaching, and that is not surprising: he remains a bearer and guardian of a religious tradition, in no way connected either with Jesus or with His disciples. But his spiritual and religious experience tells him that movements of this kind succeed only when they come from God. Therefore he is calm: if the apostles are doing God's work, he has nothing to worry about; if not, then there is no need to be anxious anyway, because in that case it will sooner or later come to nothing.

Such a position appears neutral and watchful, but it could not have been otherwise: Gamaliel remained within religious boundaries, although his faith was sincere and his religiosity consistent. He truly knew nothing either about Jesus or about the apostles, and no religious experience could reveal to him what is revealed only through contact with the Kingdom. At the same time, however, Gamaliel, as we can see, remains absolutely open to God's action and ready to accept everything that comes from God. His position presupposes, above all, absolute honesty before himself and before God. And this is, apparently, the best that religion can give a person. In such a state of spirit a person will neither rush after false prophets and false messiahs, nor grab stones whenever some new religious movement appears. His religion gives him inner peace. That peace, of course, does not replace the Kingdom, but it gives him the possibility of seeing it.