Change is so hard. Paul and Barnabas are putting forth changes that are difficult for the Jewish communities where they are preaching. If we think about that setting, it is understandable. They are still in the Galatian region where Jews would be a minority that suffered all of the things that would be standard for a religious minority in the first century.
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| There can be a lot of emotion in a crowd. Sometimes it can become dangerous. |
The push against your religion from outside forces would be constant. You would have Gentiles either making fun of you, ignoring you or outright persecuting you. What's fascinating (if you can distance yourself to the pain the apostles were facing) is that Jews and Gentiles were stirred up against them. Is this the case that some Gentiles felt like, "We're the only ones that can mess with the Jews" or were they God-fearers who had already adopted the Jewish faith?
Whatever the case, this didn't stop Paul and Barnabas from preaching the life-altering story of Jesus.
Later in Lystra, Paul heals a man crippled from birth. Ironically, Paul who was Saul was named after the first king of Israel. The original Saul had a grandson, Mephibosheth, who was crippled in his feet since he was five. He was shown mercy by King David who might have seen Mephibosheth as a political threat (he would have had his own claim to the throne).
Following this miraculous healing, Paul and Barnabas are mistaken for the Greek gods, Hermes and Zeus. This would not be surprising for a Gentile crowd since they would relate miracles to their own faith experience. How else would we make sense of something supernatural than to relate it to what we know?
Paul and Barnabas have the appropriate apprehension to this misnaming. Earlier in Acts when Herod Agrippa is mistaken for a god, he lets people assume what they want and we see a different outcome:
On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat on the platform, and delivered a public address to them. The people kept shouting, “The voice of a god, and not of a mortal!” And immediately, because he had not given the glory to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died. Acts 12:21-23 (NRSV)We see the fickleness of the crowd as people like a good stoning as much as adoration. Paul miraculously lives through people throwing rocks at him with the intent to kill after the crowd assumed him dead.
It is out of persecution that the church actually grows. The apostles are beginning to appoint elders in each church to oversee the local work there. If you were putting together a marketing plan to attract leadership, I would not put "likelihood of getting strung up" as a selling point.
When we see something true that moves us beyond ourselves, we are willing to die for it. This is a part of the spirituality of humanity. We are called to connect beyond ourselves. To do so when we can see it provides deeper meaning for people's lives is worth the risk. We say, "Sign me up."
Where do you encounter deeper meaning in your life? What would an effective witness to this meaning from you look like in the world today? Who might be opposed to it?
Prayer for the day:
O Lord, who seest that all hearts
are empty except Thou fill them,
and all desires balked except they crave after Thee;
give us light and grace to seek and find Thee,
that we may be Thine and Thou mayest be ours forever. Amen.
Prayer by Christina G. Rossetti, England, 19th Century
Photo by Mike Lowe via Flickr.com. Used under the Creative Commons license.
All scripture quoted is from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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