Acts 5 is significant in Luke’s narrative because it marks the first time the early Church faced persecution. This would be the case, off and on, until Constantine legalized Christianity as the religion of the Roman Empire.
As I read this earlier, I think what my eyes drifted toward immediately were the clear marching orders in the face of persecution… go, stand up, speak, teach, preach. But one thing stood out to me in my reading today. It was the word “leader” in v.31. The word archegos is translated here as “leader” or “prince”. In other places it’s translated as “pioneer” or “initiator”, “captain“, and “author”. It’s not an easy word to translate from the Greek because the meaning is so broad. What I discovered is that the word is used quite a bit in Greek mythology to describe a hero or champion (it’s mostly used to describe Hercules).
This shocked me a bit. I think when I read Acts 5 my initial temptation is to go to the commands quickly and insert myself in the Acts narrative; I’m the hero of the story! I’m the one who is going to boldly speak about Jesus. Yet, what sunk into my head (and needs to sink in over and over again) is that Jesus is the hero of the story. In what way? He is the one who led the way for us by suffering as the way to receive glory. He is the one who conquered death and initiated new life and credited us with all the benefits. He is the pioneer of the new covenant. He is the author of Life.
He’s the hero of God’s story! But he’s not like the heroes of Greek mythology. They are one-dimensional and while they at times characterize virtue, no one really says, “I want to be just like Zeus when I grow up.” Jesus is the hero of the story, not because he patterns for us how to be moral. As the ultimate hero, he has come to rescue people from their dire and broken situation. We draw near to the one who rescued us as leader and Savior (v.31). As I sit here reflecting, that’s a story to tell not only others, but myself day after day…
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