Cancelled Yet Unsilenced
“Observing the boldness of Peter and John
and perceiving them to be uneducated, ordinary men,
the leaders, elders, and scribes were amazed,
and they recognized them as the companions of Jesus.
Then when they saw the man who had been cured standing there with them, they could say nothing in reply.”Acts 4:13-14
After curing the crippled man at the gate of the Temple, Peter and John were arrested by the Jewish leaders. They were questioned and asked by what power or name did they perform this miracle. Peter answered them emphatically that the crippled man was healed by the name of “Jesus Christ the Nazorean whom you crucified.” The Jewish leaders were not amused, but they also saw the cured man before them. They were speechless, but instead of acknowledging the saving power of Christ, they instructed Peter and John to not teach in name of Jesus anymore. Peter and John said they could do no such thing because they must obey God and that they could not deny what they had seen and heard. So, the Jewish leaders “cancelled” them and tried to silence them, but they remained unsilenced.
In 33AD the Jewish leaders cancelled Jesus and all those who preached in His name, but their cancellation could not silence the Truth. In 2022AD, the world is still cancelling Jesus. But will we be silenced? To be Christian is to be countercultural because the culture of this world is a culture of death, a culture that strives to do away with objective truth. But as Christians we know that without the Truth, nothing else matters because without Truth, who is Christ, there is no life.
Brothers and sisters, if we are to live out the baptismal promises we renewed just a few days ago and to bear witness to the Truth, we will be cancelled. We will be cancelled because the world does not know Christ, and because they do not know Christ, they do not know the Truth. In being ignorant of the Truth, they search for freedom in every place and in every way, but they will never be satiated because only the Truth can set them free. Our world has confused freedom with bondage and Truth with pleasure. That is why we will be cancelled. But, we do not need to be silenced.
In the face of persecution, Peter and John refused to be silenced. Later on we come to know that the early Church too refused to be silenced even to the point of death. They were cancelled but they could not be silenced. And because of their persistence and fidelity to the Truth, we are here today. Brothers and sisters, we must not submit to being silenced. Jesus was silent as He suffered so that we who now share in His Resurrection no longer need to remain silent! We must go out and tell those who do not know Christ the great things He has done for us and how a relationship with Him has transformed our lives. We must not remain silent. This, however, is not a plea to shove our faith down anyone’s throat or to argue combatively with those who reject Christ. This is rather an invitation to speak loudly and to proclaim boldly the truth of Christ by the way we live, to show others with our lives the love of Christ.
Brothers and sisters, reason and science may change minds, but only faith and encounter can change hearts. Many souls will be lost because of this ignorance of the Truth as a result of this “cancel culture,” and so we must never remain silent. Souls are at stake, brothers and sisters. The enemy may try to cancel us, but He can never, ever silence us, because it is Christ who works and speaks through us. Let us offer up ourselves as that instrument of Christ today.
