When you read the earliest commentaries on the Book of Acts, the odd detail of Ananias the High Priest ordering Paul to be struck, and Paul's subsequent apology to the High Priest, is the focus of much of the writing. It seems an odd thing to fix your attention on, but it seemed to the early writers to be very much out of character for the general arc of the narrative in Acts. Luke seems to be working on showing that Christianity is the legitimate successor of what we now call Judaism. (Modern Judaism is, for the most part, a descendent of the writings and thoughts of the Pharisees.) In this story Paul, rather than confounding the leaders of the Jewish people seems to be apologizing.
Much of the analysis of the passage tries to explain away Paul's words. (That they are so troubled by this incident is a reminder of how much the early Church struggled to come to terms with the fact that many Jews would not accept Jesus at the Messiah.) The commentators argue that Paul is tired and overwrought by the experience of being nearly flogged. Some point out that Paul has been gone from Jerusalem for a long time and he simply doesn't know that Ananias was once again the High Priest. Some such as Chrysostom see Paul attempting to deflect the loss of honor that he has suffered as a result of being struck across the mouth. Some, the Venerable Bede in particular, argue that Paul was prophesying in what he said - that the High Priesthood was about to come to an end. (Which did actually happened in the following decades after the destruction of Herod's temple by the Roman legions.) But it is the commentary of Augustine of Hippo that makes the most interesting point for us as we read this during Holy Week.
Augustine highlights the actual words that Paul speaks; "I did not know […] that he was the High Priest. For it is written, You shall not speak ill of the leader of your people". Paul was a follower of Jesus, whom the Church proclaims as the great High Priest. Once Jesus is revealed at the Messiah, our need for priests to serve as mediators between God and humankind has ended. The whole of the Church, as the Body of Christ, now serves the World in that way. Augustine writes "in the reply, “I did not know that he was the high priest,” he spoke the truth to those who understand him. It is as though he were saying, “I have come to know another high priest, for whose name’s sake I am suffering these injuries—a high priest whom it is not lawful to revile but whom you are reviling, because in me you hate nothing else than his name.” (De serm. Dom. in mont. 1.19.58) Augustine's point is that Paul is speaking the truth when he says what he says. And he is condemning those who are persecuting him for the offense of following the Truth.
I think that recognition that Jesus is the Truth is especially poignant in these days of Holy Week. On Sunday and on Friday this week we will hear an entire account of the Passion read aloud. On Friday, in John's version of the Passion, we hear Pilate ask "What is truth?" (John 18:38) while the Truth of God stands incarnate before him in the court of Roman Law. Pilate misses the deep meaning of the moment. Augustine argues that High Priest and the rest of the court miss the deep meaning of Paul's words as they try him in the Temple Court. They are both so intent on doing what they intend to do that they can't see that, in their action, they are doing the wrong thing.
Being so intent on doing what I want to do, and thus missing what God wants me to do, is something I can certainly identify with in my own life. I struggle with questions like this all the time. At my best I will stop in the middle of a particularly difficult set of decisions to ask myself, "Who is going to gain if I follow my present course, me or God?" I'd like to tell you that I've gotten very good at recognizing God's will in most things. But that wouldn't be true since I don't think that I have been consistently good at recognizing God's will. But God seems to be able to work things out in the end. God is like that. Thanks be to God.
How about you? How have you missed the deep truth that surrounds us all the time? How have you imagined that you were doing the right thing and later discovered that you weren't? And what did God do with that?
What would have to change in you so that you that this sort of thing wouldn't happen?
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