Remember the television show, “Who’s the Boss”? Growing up in a military family, I learned early the importance of the chain of command. On the base, people had bosses. They did what their bosses told them to do. As the third-born son of an enlisted airman, I had many bosses and bossed no one. Only when my younger brother was born did I finally have someone to boss (or so I wrongly assumed). I remember him as a small child looking at me and the other two brothers as he said defiantly, “You are not the boss of me.”
In political matters, Rome exercised authority as the boss in ancient Judea. But in spiritual matters, the high priest and the Sanhedrin acted as a sort of supreme court. When they called the escaped prisoner apostles back into court, they accused them of filling Jerusalem with their teaching. Just think how effective the apostles were. They filled the city with the teachings of Jesus. How are we doing in Houston? Is our city filled with the teaching about Jesus?
Not stopping there, the high priest accused the apostles of making the religious leaders guilty of Jesus’ blood. Others may accuse us of guilt, but can they make us guilty. The high priest and the Sanhedrin were complicit in Jesus’ death. They turned him over to Pilate to seek the death penalty.
Peter and the other apostles knew the Boss. Faced with a conflict between the Sanhedrin and God, Peter concluded: “We must obey God rather than human beings.” To be clear: Jesus is the Boss. Of whom? Of everyone. So he must be our Boss. We should definitely obey him today. Hopefully, we will not have to choose between the authority of worldly leaders and God today. But if we do, we find our marching orders in the words of Peter. Whatever else we do today, we must obey God.
