Surrendered Life Itself

~~~ Acts of the Apostles7:51—8:1a ~~~ Psalm 31  ~~~ John 6:30-35 ~~~

 

Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.

 

The elders and the scribes were closed to anything contrary

to what they had always held to be truth.

We are often no different; we want to continue to believe

 and act according to how we have in the past.

 

They literally covered their ears.

Indicating that they could not even risk the chance of being changed by

the power of the words of God.

They were scared that their whole world was about to cave in on them.

Then what would they do? How would they be able to defend their position?

The risk was too great. They had to much to lose.

Their pride was in jeopardy.

 

So they chose, to respond as the class does when the teacher

speaks in the Peanuts shows...

"Waa, Waa, Waa, Waa, Waa"

 

Instead of hearing and being moved for good;

 they picked up rocks and stoned Stephen to death.

 

We do this too, maybe not with rocks but often

with our condescending words and hurtful actions.

 

When was the last time you did hurl a rock towards someone else?

 

Stephen is a vivid reminder that even in the rejoicing

of the Resurrection there are those who must carry their cross.

 

 

Stephen surrendered himself to the fate of stoning

 because he was filled with the Holy Spirit.

He was so aligned with the true spirit of Jesus

 that he asks for God to forgive each person raising their hand

 to throw their stone.

 

As they were stoning Stephen, he called out,
“Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
Then he fell to his knees and cried out in a loud voice,
“Lord, do not hold this sin against them”;
and when he said this, he fell asleep.

While we do not experience anything close to being stoned

 there are times when we need to make this same plea to God for forgiveness.

 

Finally we can learn from Stephen to completely

surrender our spirit...

to turn all that we are over to God.

 

It is not necessary to wait until we are on your deathbed

to release your spirit to God.

Daily we can surrender to God in small ways so that

when we are presented with something of greater magnitude

we will be in the habit of laying down our will to God.

 

It feels like your heart is opening up from inside and literally turning inside out. 

 

God will give us what we need when we need it.

 

"When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak

or what you are to say. You will be given

at that moment what you are to say."

(Matthew 10: 19)

 

The Blessings of Easter

 emerge from the darkness of the Death.