04.08 | The Story We Tell
Acts 7:30-8:3
“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”
Acts 7:51-53
It is quite possible to tell yourself an untrue story, so many times, that you begin to believe it to be true.
Much pastoral work and much counselling happens in this place—where an individual has got stuck in a false narrative about the world and their situation. It doesn’t normally happen to us because we’ve ignored actual facts and events; it’s more often that our reading of those facts has led to a skewed vision of what is real.
You can be the most beautiful person on earth, and believe that you are ugly.
You can be talented and able at your job, and believe that you are failing.
You can be a parent of love and wisdom and care, and believe that you are getting it all wrong, and ruining your children.
And, on the flip side, you can believe that you are successful and winning at life, when all the while you are forfeiting your soul.
The story we tell is not always the story that is.
Today we read through Stephen’s defence in the face of the Jewish council.
Remember what he’s been accused of: Speaking “against Moses and God”1 and “against this holy place and the law.”2
Moses. God. Temple. Law.
It’s a serious allegation. To speak against Moses was to speak against all that Moses said and wrote—the entirety of the Jewish Torah (or ‘Law’).3 To speak against God was blasphemy. To speak against ‘this holy place’ was to speak against the temple itself.
Stephen’s defence is remarkable. It is remarkable in its courage; it is remarkable in his spectacular understanding and insight into the Old Testament story.
And it is remarkable, because he uses the very same Scriptures by which his accusers would condemn him, to expose something in these very accusers.
The story they are telling is not the story that is.
He speaks of Abraham, chosen by God, and yet not yet receiving the promised inheritance. He speaks of Joseph, righteous and good, and yet rejected by his brothers. He speaks of the Israelites in Egypt, inhabiting the promises of God, and yet enslaved by the Pharaohs. He speaks of the temple, the visible manifestation of God’s presence on the earth, and yet unable to contain this God who fills the heavens. He speaks of the prophets, who spoke the oracles of God and yet were often killed by the people for doing so.
And he speaks about Moses—who led them out of Egypt and gave them the Torah and showed them the design for the tabernacle (which came before the temple). And he tells how this Moses was not celebrated and welcomed, but rejected, ignored, and often despised.
History, Stephen is telling them, has repeated.
Why?
Because the story that the council has told themselves is not the story that is.
They thought that knowing the Law was the same as keeping it. They thought that legalism was greater than love and tradition greater than transformation. They thought that their tidy lives validated their claim to be righteous, without realising how empty the very depths of their souls were. They had all the same facts, and yet were telling themselves the wrong story.
Stephen tells them the true story. The story where prophets are rejected and Messiahs are killed. And yet, it is also the story in which those who withstand the many pressures of the world, to conform and hide and deny and compromise, are established in the heavens and truly see into glory.
Reflect:
What moves me about Stephen? What would learning from him look like today?
Pray:
Father,
I’m a teller of stories—
Believing and framing things in my mind,
About how you, I, and the world works.
But, Father,
Sometimes the story that I’m telling
Comes from my pain,
Or my fear,
Or those critical words that scarred my heart.
Sometimes the story I’m telling
Is of self-righteousness and pride,
Inflamed in the critique of others
And the elevation of me.
Father, I turn:
Renew my mind.
Spirit of God,
Fill me:
Establishing in my thoughts and ways
The story that is true.
For this story is rooted in your goodness,
And most clearly sees
The glory ahead.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen
Old Testament:
For those also reading the Old Testament this year, your additional readings are here:
Jeremiah 32-33 | Psalm 94:1-11
Acts 6:11
Acts 6:13
The Torah was the first five books of the Old Testament. These books were the foundation of Jewish identity, understanding, and morality, and so to speak against Moses was about as deeply heretical as you could be.