“Blessed with an ever present, ever faithful God”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Monday, August 21, 2023
Acts 22:30-23:11 (Forward, p. 23) CEV p. 1164
So, what are we to make of this passage? Or, more to the point, what are we to ‘take away’ from it? Experts in Biblical interpretation counsel us quite firmly that we should not try to find a contemporary meaning or application in every passage of Scripture, especially if the context and situation is vastly different than ours. In fact, they suggest that we should first look carefully at the immediate context of the passage before trying to connect it in some way to us in our present situation.
So, what is the situation that presents itself in today’s passage. The apostle Paul has returned to Jerusalem from one of his missionary journeys and has gone into the Temple to worship and to pay his vows. However, some Jewish people from Asia—what is now Turkey—jumped to the conclusion that Paul had brought a Gentile into the sacred and off-limits Temple precincts. They imagined this because they had previously seen Paul together with Trophimus of Ephesus. These Jews stirred up the crowd, such that Paul was attacked and needed to be protected by the local Roman guard.
Paul was about to be taken into the fortress, the Antonia, when he asked whether he might address the crowd. This he did in their native Aramaic and the crowd quietly listened. All was well for a while, as he rehearsed how zealous he had previously been and how he became a Christian in the first place. All went well until he ‘happened’ to mention his mission to the Gentles. At this, the crowd went wild once again.
Here, once again, the Roman authorities intervened, but this time not so much for his protection, but to try to ascertain what all the fuss was about. So, to do so, they ordered Paul to be scourged. But here, Paul plays his trump card: he asks the officer overseeing it whether it was lawful to whip a Roman citizen who had not even faced trial yet. Of course, it wasn’t, and the Roman centurion was scared to his boots over what he had just done.
In keeping with Roman law, therefore, the centurion ordered a trial where Paul could face his accusers, a trial before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish High Court. But here, once again, Paul plays a trump card. He recognizes, from
their dress perhaps, that some of those in the Council are Pharisees (who believe in the resurrection) and Sadducees (who don’t). Paul therefore mentions his belief in the resurrection, thereby splitting the Court and rendering any further discussion impossible. And, at the very night, the Lord speaks to Paul, tells him not to worry and assures him that as he has told others about Him in Jerusalem, so too he must do so in Rome. This divine prompting paves the way for Paul’s appeal to be tried before Caesar, which guarantees that this would happen.
So, what are we to make of this passage? We might conclude that we are to use whatever privileges or rights we possess for the furtherance of the Gospel. Okay. And we might conclude that we should keep our eyes and ears open to how our audience is constructed, with the strategy then of focusing our appeal to specific people or groups. Okay. We could even conclude—wrongfully, I think—that we should shy away from contentious or divisive topics or stances. Often the gospel is exactly that kind of thing. The one thing I think that it is entirely safe to ‘take’ from this passage is that God is with us and directing us in the way we should go—if only we will listen to Him and be faithful in following and obeying Him. Yes, we are blessed by having an ever present, ever faithful God. Thanks be to God.
Forward notes: “That night the Lord stood near him and said, ‘Keep up your courage” (verse 11a).
“In front of a council of elders, Paul says he is on trial concerning the resurrection of the dead. At his words, the people lash out at each other, and the debate turns violent. The tribune brings Paul to the barracks for his safety.
“I can relate to Paul at this moment. When I was shepherding a parish through an interim time, COVID-19 struck, protests roiled over George Floyd’s death, and political brawling ran amuck. I stood in the middle, but anything I said incited rebuke from one side or the other. That parish had not prayed for presidents and governors by name. I suggested we do so. Some threatened to leave the parish if we prayed for ‘that man’. Others said they would leave if we did not pray for ‘that man.’ My life was not in danger, but I felt besieged. I welcomed God’s strengthening word, ‘Keep up your courage.’ It is the reassurance Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. received after his house was bombed. In the quiet of his kitchen, he heard the voice of Jesus say, ‘Martin, I am with you. Do not be afraid.’”
Moving Forward: “Hear God’s words, ‘Keep up your courage.’