The book of Acts presents an informative view of the Church, as well as an informative view of the way in which the Church read the Scriptures. As they saw that all things spoke of Jesus Christ, they also went on to apply those things to themselves. They lived the life of Christ.
This can be seen in Acts 4. Peter and John get in trouble for healing a lame man and preaching on the resurrection at Solomon’s portico, and so they are hauled before the Sanhedrin. When they return to the fellowship of the believers and relay their story, the group begins to pray Psalm 2 (vs. 23-31). They explicitly connect the characters in Psalm 2 to the characters at Jesus’ crucifixion. Jesus is the Annointed. Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Jews, and the Gentiles are the heathens, nations, and kings and rulers. This much is clear.
What is often missed, however, is that the actual application of this Psalm is not simply to the death of Christ, but to the events that just occurred. The ones gathered against were Peter and John. The “threats” which the Church calls for the Lord to look on in vs. 29 are those threats of vs. 21.
Thus it is quite appropriate for this incident to be followed with the description of the believers holding all things in common. They are of one heart and one soul precisely because they are the one Body of Christ. The giving of the land is the inheritance of the nations, and that they are laid at the apostles’ feet is Christological imagery (Gen. 3:15, Psalm 110).
So the anointed who was conspired against by the rulers and the nations was indeed Jesus, but it is also the Church. We, as the baptized, are all anointed ones, and as we dwell together, we are the one Body of Christ. Our life is Christ’s life, and what is done to us, and in turn what we do to one another, is done to Jesus.
Jsesus saw it that way too…
(Acts 9:1) Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples….
(4) He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
Good point. And very helpful comment, Sam. The more I look, the more I see this organic head-and-body theme. Jesus quotes Psalm 2 in Revelation:
“The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father.” Rev 2:26-28
The hand that holds the seven stars is the same hand that holds the rod of iron, with which He will smash the nations. The Christian church is God’s tool of dominion. The body will follow the head in making a shameful public spectacle of the powers-that-be (Colossians 2:15; 1 Corinthians 4:9; Hebrews 10:33).
I think part of our inability to see the organic connection between Christ and our communities is twofold. The first reason is obvious, in the fact in since the Enlightenment, our first recourse is to read passages as pertaining to individuals and only thereafter to move to the corporate. In the first century and for very many centuries after that, the interpretation of a passage moved in the opposite direction: first applied corporately and then to the individual.
Second, we don’t fully grasp the Old Covenant parallel with the New. Israelites were people who were in “Israel.” This did not just refer to the Land of Israel but also to their ancestor Israel/Jacob. They were “in Jacob” when they were residing in the promises to their ancestor, Jacob. Words to him were words to them; promises to him were promises to them. His glory was their glory.
In a similar (though more glorious) way, we are “in Christ” like they were “in Israel.” In that way, what was promised to Christ is promised to us; what is accomplished in Christ is accomplished in us. And it works in reverse; what is done to us is done to Christ, etc.
What do you guys think about the Catholic contention that the institutional aspect of the Church, specifically, its offices, are also, indeed, chiefly, a part of this organic unity between Christ and His Bride?
” … the anointed who was conspired against by the rulers ”
CHRIST THE SAVIOR AND THE JEWISH REVOLUTION
https://diakrisislogismon.wordpress.com/metropolitan-anthony/
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