Annie & Sappy First, read Acts 5:1-11 over here: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=acts %205&version=ESV.

Okay, so a summary: Ananias (Annie) and Sapphira (Sappy) sell some land, claim to donate the profits to the church (which is still just people in houses) and are smitten with death upon the discovery of their lie. My soft thesis: The smiting of Annie and Sappy was a mistake made by Peter and allowed by God, an idea I derive from: A.) Peter was still learning how to follow Jesus well; B.) the whole church was filled with great fear; C.) God humbles himself even when we abuse the power he entrusts us with. Point A... Peter was the hot-headed screw-up that Jesus made the rock (or petra) of the church. He made plenty of mistakes while following Christ, but persevered through them all and Jesus always gave him another chance. The trajectory of Peters journey does not reveal him to be perfect after the ascension of Jesus. Sure, he starts making some better moves, like healing people and getting his preach on, but if this is the guy who denied even knowing Jesus just weeks prior to these good moves, we can assume that he may still stumble from time to time. I think his encounter with Annie and Sappy may be one of those instances. I will get to binding and loosing on Point C, but in Matthew 18--the second time binding and loosing are mentioned)--Jesus is speaking of repentance and forgiveness in the church, particularly about calling out someone on their misdeed. The model he offers is this: talk to the person in private; if that doesnt work, grab a couple friends and do it again; if that doesnt work, grab the whole church (again, people in a house); if that doesnt work, treat the person as a Gentile or tax collector, somebody who may not have been down with all that the church was doing, but the type of person Jesus hung out with ALL the time. Peter did not follow Jesus itinerary. Instead, he called out Annie in front of everybody and smote him on the spot. Then, Peter laid a sort of trap for Sappy, asking her what the price of the land was, seeing if she would lie as her husband did. He could have told Sappy that her husband just died, so she better not lie, but he didnt. Instead, Peter strayed from Jesus itinerary a second time and smites her, too.

Point B... I was taught since I was little that to fear God in the Bible was more to respect him. Further research has led me to understand things otherwise. Fear in the Bible typically just means fear. In this particular passage, we have phobos megas, similar to our modern phobia, which is fear or dread. Now, prior to this occurrence, the church is doing pretty well for itself. People are sharing stuff and healing people. Those following what was called the Way pretty much all agree on how to do so. Mega fear wasnt part of the vocabulary yet. Peter knocks two people dead by the power of God and now everyone around them is struck with great fear. You could try to say this is some fear/respect for God, but is that really Gods intent, that we have a great fear and have to tip-toe around him, afraid that any wrong move might strike us dead? Is that the message of Jesus? Point C... Binding and loosing in Matthew 18, found here http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2018:1520&version=ESV, is a tricky concept to tack down. The word for loosing can also mean destroying. What we can infer is that Jesus is entrusting the disciples--and essentially us--with a power that resonates in both earth and heaven. When Peter healed a man in the beginning of Acts, that miracle brought heavenly power to earth. Miracles are heaven and earth colliding, creating beauty, establishing the kingdom of God. Now, Peter is clearly exercising this supernatural power in Acts, as many do throughout the New Testament. And in reading these passages, we readily assume that if the actions of the disciples are being recorded, then certainly the author would spend time on things that made them look good (i.e. miracles, sermons, persecutions). But looking back upon the gospels, we find a lot of incidents where Peter puts his foot in his mouth or chops off a guys ear. Just because somebody does something in Gods name in scripture doesnt inherently mean its a good example. We all can easily abuse the power of God, committing heinous misdeeds in his name (excommunications and crusades); and God allows for this to happen. Imagine this: a man named Tom Warren shot Abraham Lincoln. He goes to the theater, fires the weapon, screams on stage, and runs away. When the police catch up to him, a bystander named John sees the capture. He recognizes Tom as a man he had seen do good things in their community. Tom wasnt an evil man, he just did an evil thing. Overwhelmed by compassion, John steps into the path of the police and requests to take the place of Tom, not just for his punishment, but for

his past misdeeds and for his future. In the history books, he wanted them to write that Abraham Lincoln was killed by John Wilkes Booth. Of course, I completely made that up, but the point I want to emphasize is that Jesus dies for more than the sins you committed in your past, he died for your future and your whole identity. All the atrocities committed in the Old Testament werent commanded by God, but he took complete credit for them. God entrusts us with his power, giving us a double-edged sword that can be used righteously just as well as it can be used harmfully. We can heal the sick and feed the poor or we can start a crusade and kill a bunch of people we dont like and then build a megachurch and run off with a ton of cash. If Peter is going to smite people, even out of good intentions, God might allow it and work from there. Jesus let Peter cut off the servants ear and then healed the man and rebuked Peter. If Peter cut off the servants ear and Jesus said, Nice slicing, whos next? then there would probably be some great fear growing in the people around them. Sounds like an Annie and Sappy situation. Conclusion... I struggled with this passage for a while because it didnt seem to line up with the message of Jesus or the God that is love. A petty lie that leads to death and the resulting fear appeared contradictory to everything else the church was doing at the time. Maybe it was. Maybe this is an example of what not to do, and justifying the event with the conclusion that claim God might kill you on the spot instead of forgiving you might be inaccurate.