Clergy/Leaders’ Mail-list No. 3-127

THE SADDUCEES

From ‘Sunrise Sunset’ (HarperCollins/Harper San Francisco), Rowland Croucher’s book of daily meditations. Feel free to use or adapt it.

The Sadducees [were] annoyed because [Peter and John] were proclaiming that in Jesus there is the resurrection of the dead. Acts 4:1,2.

Twice in the early chapters of Acts (4:1, 5:17) Sadducees led the opposition against the apostles. Sadducees were rich, priestly aristocrats who controlled the Jewish Temple and governing body, the Sanhedrin. The high priest in these times – Caiaphas – was one of them. They got a ‘rake-off’ from the bazaar in the Temple precincts which sold sacrificial animals and birds and changed money for foreign Jews. Today they might sit in the House of Lords – and have a monopoly on religious books and artifacts sold in all British cathedrals! So you can understand why, when John the Baptist called them a ‘brood of snakes’ (Matthew 3:7-10), and Jesus drove out the money-changers.

When they became aware of Jesus’ popularity they became alarmed. The last thing they wanted was a popular insurrection against Rome to threaten national order and their security. They wanted peace at any price – even at the expense of justice. Lord Acton’s belief that ‘power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely’ was true of the Sadducees. The worst injustices occur when the same people control both political and religious power – remember the Papal States or John Calvin’s failure to stop the burning of Michael Servetus?

So, Lord, I pray for our political leaders, those in authority over us, that they may not sell their souls as they guide the ‘ship of State’. I pray for our religious leaders: church politics is also not good for one’s spirituality! Power games can happen anywhere… Amen.

Shalom! Rowland Croucher http://jmm.aaa.net.au