ignorance

There's a thing I've seen little kids do, where they cover their ears if they don't want to hear bad news. As adults, we might still sometimes plug our ears and chant "lalalala" to signal, in a teasing way, that we'd rather not know something.

Those actions are either juvenile or joking, though. It just seemed irrational when I read this morning of the Jewish religious leaders doing the same thing.

The event was the trial of Stephen, an early church deacon accused of blasphemy. Stephen gave a rousing defense, explaining throughout the history of the Old Testament God's salvation plan, and pointing out the conspicuous role these same leader had in killing God's own son, the promised Messiah. 

But look at their reaction in Acts 7:57-58: "At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, dragged him out of the city and began to stone him."

That's some serious denial. Their refusal to even hear truth, much less accept it, led to the death of Stephen and the dispersion of the early church leaders. In short order would come the Samaritan Pentecost, Philip's encounter with the eunuch, and Peter's call to witness to the Gentiles. The great Good News would travel in every direction.

It's an amazing sequence. These irrational, truth-denying haters not only martyred Stephen, they accelerated the spread of the gospel beyond the Jews, starting a process that one day would result in Christian churches all around the globe – a universal church in which Jews would be just a small part.

I'm reminded again of all the ways God works evil intentions for good results. I'm reminded that not even political authority or the power to kill is enough to stop the Good News. And I'm reminded that truth is truth, no matter how we might hate it or try to twist it. 

But I'm also challenged to find those truths that make me plug my ears. Is there grace for marginalized people who I would rather just call sinners? Are there good and right ideas that should be defended? Does truth call me to stand with the unpopular, to challenge the powerful, maybe even give of my time and my money and myself?

Jesus identified himself as the Truth. In the end, it's his voice the world tries to silence, his commands that enrages the wicked. It is that capital-T Truth that I must take great care never to filter out of my life.