Is an Apology Necessary?

March 13, 2009

Today's Reading: Numbers 27-28 and Acts 23

There was an odd passage today in the reading of the Book of Acts. The Sanhedrin was questioning Paul about his newfound faith, and the high priest Ananias was getting so ticked off with Paul that he strikes him.

Actually, he doesn’t do it himself, he says: “Okay, that does it. Somebody smack him, please?”

As it were, someone did smack him, and Paul responded in the same way that I probably would: “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall!”. Okay, I probably wouldn’t have said that. I probably would have said something to the extent of: “What, you don’t have the courage to hit me yourself?” or “Oh, I’m sorry, did I offend you by breaking the law? So now you will break the law again by smacking me? Who’s the frickin’ hypocrite here?”

Well, as it turns out, the guy who hit Paul wasn’t just some flunky, which would be my first assumption. No, this guy was a high priest too.

The weirdest thing is that Paul replies with “Brothers, I did not realize that he was the high priest; for it is written: ‘Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people’”

This is not the response I would have given, I would have said: “I don’t care who the frick he is. Nobody is going to be slappin’ me like that.”

In other words, Paul seems rather apologetic, when it doesn’t seem like he has done a single thing wrong. This would seem to be contrary to how a lot of people would behave, including Christians.

However, isn’t this true humility? The idea that we would apologize when we have been struck is just really sick to me. In fact, I can’t even stand the idea, so much so, that I would never apologize when I was wronged.

This is the problem when Christians try to stand out, make a difference. Inevitably, they will face hostile resistance, and so they will resist in turn. I would imagine that we live in the horrendous product of this dichotomy.

What if we, as Christians, just let ourselves be stifled, executed, or all out wiped out? I suppose that would we the end of us. Or would it? They killed Jesus, and he came back. Perhaps we could survive some other way.

Note my use of the word “perhaps”. It really takes faith to know that something about us will survive even after we die. Worst Case Scenerio, this is what would happen if we resisted resistance.