More on Paul in Philippi
Acts 16:16-34, Revelation 22:12-21, Matthew 28:16-20
Last week we met Lydia and took Paul to Europe to minister in Philippi in Macedonia. He gathered with new believers in Lydia's home and continued to take his ministry to the streets. In this reading, he and his companions get in trouble for placing a higher value on a young slave girl's spiritual and mental freedom than on the commerce she generated for the men who owned her.
The men who were marketing this girl's fortune telling abilities (which apparently came from a spirit that was possessing her) got angry at Paul who freed her from this spirit (apparently because the spirit so annoyed Paul, see verse 18). When they dragged Paul and Silas before the magistrates, the crimes they accuse them of are interesting:
Disturbing our city: how is Paul's preaching disturbing the city? Does our preaching and proclamation of the gospel here in any way disturb our city?
Being Jews. Well, yes. Not actually illegal in Roman lands. But interesting that they are accused of being Jews and not Christians. Up to this period of time, the folk in Roman Europe had no experience of Christians!
Advocating customs that are not lawful for us Romans to adopt. What does that mean? They are not practicing religion like Romans do? What exactly were they encouraging people to do that was illegal?
Notice in all these accusations, nowhere do they note the economic impact that Paul and Silas had on them. William Willimon's commentary has this note: "No, we do not come right out and say that our financial self-interest is threatened; we say that our nation is threatened....Nation, race, tradition all stepping into line behind the dollar." HMMMMM.
What follows cannot help but bring up pictures of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Birmingham jail. Here are Paul and Silas in jail, singing hymns and praying and being listened to by all the folk already in jail for who knows what crimes. The presence and spirit of Paul and company clearly had a strong impact not only on those other prisoners, but on the jailer off sitting in the corner.
That jailer, like Paul himself, was given a strong jolt toward the faith, this time in the form of an earthquake. But God spoke here not so much in the earthquake as in Paul's willingness to remain in the jail in order to save the life of the jailer! Extraordinary! Would we do this if we were unjustly imprisoned? That witness prompts the jailer to want to find out what faith could result in such actions. Upon hearing the gospel, he treats the prisoners' wounds, is baptized, then feeds them at his own home.
Seeing a life witness, hearing the word of the gospel, practicing the service the faith teaches, baptism, holy supper. The whole cycle of coming to faith is here, condensed in a few hours. And I think that jailer must have gone through some considerable change in behavior/attitude, because it says his whole household rejoiced in his baptism!
Last week we met Lydia and took Paul to Europe to minister in Philippi in Macedonia. He gathered with new believers in Lydia's home and continued to take his ministry to the streets. In this reading, he and his companions get in trouble for placing a higher value on a young slave girl's spiritual and mental freedom than on the commerce she generated for the men who owned her.
The men who were marketing this girl's fortune telling abilities (which apparently came from a spirit that was possessing her) got angry at Paul who freed her from this spirit (apparently because the spirit so annoyed Paul, see verse 18). When they dragged Paul and Silas before the magistrates, the crimes they accuse them of are interesting:
Disturbing our city: how is Paul's preaching disturbing the city? Does our preaching and proclamation of the gospel here in any way disturb our city?
Being Jews. Well, yes. Not actually illegal in Roman lands. But interesting that they are accused of being Jews and not Christians. Up to this period of time, the folk in Roman Europe had no experience of Christians!
Advocating customs that are not lawful for us Romans to adopt. What does that mean? They are not practicing religion like Romans do? What exactly were they encouraging people to do that was illegal?
Notice in all these accusations, nowhere do they note the economic impact that Paul and Silas had on them. William Willimon's commentary has this note: "No, we do not come right out and say that our financial self-interest is threatened; we say that our nation is threatened....Nation, race, tradition all stepping into line behind the dollar." HMMMMM.
What follows cannot help but bring up pictures of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Birmingham jail. Here are Paul and Silas in jail, singing hymns and praying and being listened to by all the folk already in jail for who knows what crimes. The presence and spirit of Paul and company clearly had a strong impact not only on those other prisoners, but on the jailer off sitting in the corner.
That jailer, like Paul himself, was given a strong jolt toward the faith, this time in the form of an earthquake. But God spoke here not so much in the earthquake as in Paul's willingness to remain in the jail in order to save the life of the jailer! Extraordinary! Would we do this if we were unjustly imprisoned? That witness prompts the jailer to want to find out what faith could result in such actions. Upon hearing the gospel, he treats the prisoners' wounds, is baptized, then feeds them at his own home.
Seeing a life witness, hearing the word of the gospel, practicing the service the faith teaches, baptism, holy supper. The whole cycle of coming to faith is here, condensed in a few hours. And I think that jailer must have gone through some considerable change in behavior/attitude, because it says his whole household rejoiced in his baptism!
Labels: Acts 16 continued
posted by shelly @ 9:38 AM
2 Comments:
At 1:10 PM,
Anonymous said…
I'm glad to see this in the blog because it confirms that I'm understanding this passage more or less the same way you are. But since I'm actually going to be reading this aloud on Sunday to the folks in the pews, I figured I'd better speak up now with a question that's been hanging me up a bit.
Acts mentions that Paul got annoyed at the spirit possessing the slave girl, but just from the face of it, it doesn't seem clear why. What the spirit is saying seems innocuous enough: “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.” Why would Paul take issue with that?
Here's what I think (based on extremely limited research)... in Philippian culture, weren't they still worshipping Zeus, even at that late date? (Or perhaps it was some other local god-- I think it was Zeus though, due to Macedon's proximity to Greece.) And if anyone was listening to the slave girl following Paul and Silas around in that cultural and spatial context, would they not think the two of them were talking about Zeus-- not Jesus?
That would certainly have gotten Paul's goat. So I understand the spirit possessing the slave girl as operating out of sarcasm, which finally got under Paul's skin. Am I close?
Off topic, I like this passage from the gospel reading:
"Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they can see my glory that you gave me because you loved me before the creation of the world."
It wouldn't surprise me if Lord Buckley was thinking of this verse in his rap about The Nazz... "And The Nazz talkin' about how pretty the hour, how pretty the flower, how pretty you, how pretty me, how pretty the tree. Nazz had them pretty eyes. He wanted everybody to see with his eyes and see how pretty it was."
See you Wednesday, or Sunday at the latest -- Rick
At 2:09 PM,
shelly said…
The remark about Paul being annoyed is interesting. Your take on why he is annoyed is certainly possible. Others think he was annoyed at the spirit which was possessing her; and who would not be annoyed at someone following them around and raving. He did not heal her until he'd had enough probably because he knew it would be trouble with her owners, or because she did not ask (healings in the New Testament almost always come from a request first). shelly
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