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Hi, Father, we read in the Acts of the Apostles that Ananias and his wife Sapphira sold a piece of land and brought the proceeds to the Apostles. However, they lied about how much the land was sold and kept back a portion. Both fell down dead. Apparently they lied not to men but to the Holy Spirit. Why did they have to die? They may have lied but at least they brought a portion of the money to the Church. Without sounding judgmental, that's more than what most of us would have done. Why did they die and that was in the New testament era?
Answer to Question 463 Luke mentions that Barnabas, a Levite Jew born in Cyprus had sold his land and brought the money and laid it at the apostle's feet. At that time many who had lands and houses sold them and brought the money to be used for the common good of the first Christian community. The author of Acts singles out Barnabas by name probably because, among those that offered their lands, Barnabas was the most well known and has a great missionary role to play in later chapters when he joins up with Paul. But another reason for mentioning Barnabas is because Luke wants us to compare Barnabas' charitable and unselfish example with an episode involving the man named Ananias and his wife Sapphira which cast the first satanical shadow over the early church. The episode opens the fifth chapter.
Ananias and his wife Sapphira sold a possession and kept back part of the price secretly for their own use. When Ananias brought the money to the Apostles, Peter, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, knew what he had done and said to him: “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? While it remained, was it not your own? and after it was sold, was it not in your own power? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You hast not lied unto men, but unto God.” For lying to God, Ananias died there and then and they took his body and buried it.
Ananias' sin was not that he kept back part of the money, the land belonged to him and even after the sell the money was still his property and he could do with it whatever he wanted: no one forced him to donate it to the church and no one would have judged him if he kept it all for himself; he had free will to do whatever he wanted. But wanting to mimic what Barnabas had done, he couldn't bring himself to give all of it away. He could have just laid the sum he wanted to give at the apostles feet without saying anything and no one would have been the wiser, no one would have questioned why he didn't give it all, but his actions showed that he hypocritically and deceitfully planned to deceive the Apostles and the Holy Spirit by lying about the total sum of the sell and alleging that the sum he laid down was the full amount.
With Ananias now dead and buried, no one went to tell his wife what had happened because they were all afraid of what they heard. Ananias had left his home to take the money to the Apostles and after three hours hadn't returned. His wife beginning to worry and not knowing that her husband had died decided to go and look for him and went directly to where the apostles were. On seeing her Peter asked her how much they got for the land. She told them the same as did her husband. Peter then said to her: "How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of them which have buried your husband are at the door, and shall carry you out. Then she immediately fell down at his feet, and yielded up the ghost: and the young men came in, and found her dead, and, carrying her forth, buried her by her husband."
Today it might seem to us that the couple's punishment of death was rather harsh for just keeping part of the money for themselves, but at the time it was a necessity to protect the new church which was founded by the Holy Spirit on truth and honesty. These were the virtues that gave life to the church and any deceitfulness had to be wiped out from the beginning so that the stain of evil would not be allowed to grow and infest the rest of the community. The sudden, dramatic deaths of Ananias and Sapphira served to purify and warn the church. “Great fear seized the whole church” (Acts 5:11). Right away, in the church’s infancy, God made it plain that hypocrisy and deception were not going to be tolerated, and His judgment of Ananias and Sapphira helped guard the church against future pretence. God laid the bodies of Ananias and Sapphira in the path of every hypocrite who would seek to enter the church.
The story of Ananias and his wife serves to testify that Luke's historical account of the first century Christian Church is accurate. Luke is writing about the things that happened after Jesus had left this world to communicate to the people the good news of the Gospel of Christ and that God is love: why would he what to include a story that would cause offence and paint a picture of God as judgmental, harsh, cruel? If we think about it, Ananias was not even given a chance to repent before he was struck down. Then the apostles didn’t even have the courtesy to inform his wife about his death and when she came looking for him, she was also struck down for participating in the lie. What kind of a merciful and loving God is this? We see this sort of judgement in the Old Testament, but never think to see it in the New Testament. Luke writes the book of Acts in order to record for us the work of God the Holy Spirit among the community of believers, but he also wants to inform us of a different spirit which is also at work in the world and in the church. Hypocrisy is a destructive force within the community of God’s people. If Satan cannot destroy the church from without, he will attempt to destroy it from within and it is here that the greatest harm is done. The first century Christian Church was not a perfect community; they were still in infancy and had to be taught from the very beginning that the Holy Spirit will not be mocked by human sin! He is holy and he is good, but he will not be trifled with. This God will not be mocked.
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