Peter’s words pierced their hearts, and they said, “Brothers, what should we do?” (Acts 2:37)
I sliced my finger the other day with a very sharp (in fact, brand new) knife while preparing some food. It hurt badly. Blood flowed. This piercing of skin got my immediate attention. I started washing and wrapping Band-Aids, and I knew it would be a week before it would be healed. There was some damage done.
Turning up the emotive nature of the metaphor just a bit, the word here in our story is also translated stabbed. Stabbed refers to the point of a knife entering the body. Dealing with the penetration means that business as usual will be set aside. In fact, with the stabbing, one of the first thoughts to accompany that action is whether or not this will be a life and death situation. Serious damage is inflicted.
Peter’s listeners were pierced in their hearts. Their hearts, the place where their emotions, thoughts, and desires all meet. That meeting point was forever changed. They heard the preacher, and they were soundly convicted of the fact that the supernatural events around them had been prophetically foretold. They were confronted with the reality of the Messiah-ship of Jesus. They also heard that they had helped to cause his death. They wanted to know if there was some action they should take now to help them go in “the other direction”. The direction they were going in was obviously not productive.
So, in their pierced state, they raised the life-changing question: “Brothers, what should we do?” Instead of waiting for the preacher to issue an invitation to take action, they jumped in and invited him to tell them.
We can take different avenues of response to a heart-piercing message. Rather than asking what we should do in response, we might take one or more of these approaches: “Change? Me, change? I don’t think I have any reason to change! What have I done wrong? I think I’m alright!” Or, we can reject it, and walk the other direction, thinking that we are clearing our minds, hearts, and hands of any action in response. We don’t accept that word, so we justify that our rejection of it is reasonable. Or, we can sulk, and go off to a private place, focusing on ourselves as the problem, thinking “there must be something wrong with me; otherwise, this message wouldn’t be directed at me for change. I really do feel bad.” Or, “I’m too bad, too far gone, too hopeless to change. It would be nice to, but I know for me, there’s no way that’s going to happen. God wouldn’t want me.”
Peter the Preacher makes clear what the response should be. He in fact tells them what they should do. Members of the audience had scoffed at the Galileans speaking languages they hadn’t learned. I notice here that no one is scoffing at Peter’s preaching. They had moved from fascinated and curious inquirers to humble, pliable seekers.
Pierced hearts provided the open door for proper and decisive response to the Holy Spirit at this upended Pentecost Celebration.
“Father, we offer our hearts to you to pierce, whenever necessary, to get our attention for any message you desire us to hear.”
Freddy Boswell 