Status quo

I love this story. The Pharisees are often seen as the bad guys in the bible, and they often are. But here we see a pharisee with the wisdom to see God doing something. He also knew the power of God as opposed to the power of a flamboyant personality. 

He gives accounts of other leaders who rallied people and the people all disbanded after the personality was killed. But here the personality, Jesus was killed and seen risen and ascended to heaven. Yet the people were still rallying and bringing in new believers. So they listen to Gamaliel and instead of killing the apostles they flog them. Which only encourages them more. Imagine if they had killed the apostles then and there, Christianity would have blow up more.

I wonder where Gamaliel stood in his faith? He obviously saw that God was doing something. There must have been something in him that wanted to believe or did believe. 

But we don't hear of an account of this man becoming one of the apostles or a follower for example, Paul. Gamaliel was a good man but he was not willing or at least we do not know if he crosses over to the side of Christ.  How easy it is to be a voice of reason and do the right thing but still be playing it safe? He does a really good job walking the fence. Was Gamaliel a good man?  Probably. Was he a believer? He may have become one later.  Did he really make a stand for Christ in this story? No; he was looking out for continuance of the Sanhedrin  and his organization.  Was Gamaliel wise or was he afraid of losing what he was apart of?

How often do we make choices to continue our own status quo. If Gamaliel had gone in a different direction it would have rocked his status quo.  Gamaliel: Kill the apostles. Which would probably resulted in a mass surge in the Church and could have led to end of the Sanhedrin just by the mere numbers of people joining the movement of Christ.  

He could have stepped out and joined the apostles and sided with them.  Which might have led to the death of the apostles and Gamaliel and again would have led to an explosion of the Church and then again could have resulted with the Sanhedrin's way of life being rocked.

But he sways the Sanhedrin to essentially do nothing which allows for the continuance of Gamaliel's way of life for a bit longer. 

So was Gamaliel wise or was he afraid of losing his status quo?       

Created 7 months ago