Daily Archives: August 19, 2013

Same Old Story

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SAME OLD STORY

“The next day, determined to get to the root of the trouble and to know for sure what was behind the Jewish accusation, the captain released Paul and ordered a meeting of the high priests and the High Council to see what they could make of it. Paul was led in and took his place before them.

“Paul surveyed the members of the council with a steady gaze, and then said his piece. ‘Friends, I have lived with a clear conscience before God all my life, up to this very moment.’ That set the chief priest Ananias off. He ordered the aides to slap Paul in the face. Paul shot back, ‘God will slap you down! What a fake you are! You sit there and judge me by the Law and then break the Law by ordering me slapped around!'” Acts 22:30-23:3 (The Message).

Paul was in the same position as his Master had been some three decades before, standing before the Jewish Sanhedrin to answer for his life. Unlike Jesus, he at least had the protection of the Roman government as a Roman citizen.

It was obvious that the men of the Sanhedrin were tarred with the same brush as the religious zealots they represented. He had hardly opened his mouth to speak before the high priest, as the highest religious authority in the country, began his physical abuse of Paul. It seems that he was exactly the same as his predecessor, Caiaphas, unreasonable and a bully. He was not prepared to give Paul a fair hearing to satisfy the captain. He was using his position to vent his own spleen on him.

The church had begun in Jerusalem and flourished for more than thirty years in spite of the Sanhedrin’s efforts to stamp it out. Caiaphas had led the charge against Jesus, fully believing that His death would put an end to the movement that was growing up around Him, but instead showing up the character of the men to whom the people looked for spiritual guidance.

Paul had been their most successful partner in this enterprise. He was a Pharisee like many of them, fanatically zealous for the Law they were supposedly upholding. Unfortunately for them, he had turned traitor and was just as zealously proclaiming the very One he had been opposing. It was a golden opportunity to get rid of him and Ananias lost no time in demonstrating his intention. Humiliate him first and then kill him!

Jesus had taught His disciples not to be doormats to anyone. It’s one thing to have an attitude of meekness, choosing to submit to authority even if you don’t like it, but it’s another thing to submit to bullying just because you are a Christian. ‘Turn the other cheek’, Jesus said. What does that mean?

We think it means, ‘Accept abuse because you are a believer,’ but in the culture of Jesus’ day, to be slapped on the right cheek was an insult because the hitter would have to use his left hand which was considered “unclean” because the left had was used for toilet purposes. To offer the other cheek meant that you were insisting that you were an equal and should be treated with dignity.

Was Paul being rude or disrespectful? I don’t think so. Jesus protested when He was slapped in the face during His trial. If the trial was intended to find out what lay behind Paul’s arrest, then the way to find out was to give him an opportunity to speak for himself, not to use him as an object of contempt to be abused at will.

What does this incident say to us? It clearly teaches us that everyone has the right to be treated with human dignity no matter who they are. Colour, culture, social standing, financial position, language or even accent does not disqualify anyone from being treated fairly because everyone has been created in the image of God.

Eye For An Eye

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EYE FOR AN EYE

“The people in the crowd had listened attentively up to this point, but now they broke loose, shouting out, ‘Kill him! He’s an insect! Stomp on him!’ They shook their fists. They filled the air with curses. That’s when the captain intervened and ordered Paul taken into the barracks. By now the captain was thoroughly exasperated. He decided to interrogate Paul under torture in order to get to the bottom of this, to find out what he had done that provoked this outraged violence. As they spread-eagled him with thongs, getting him ready for the whip, Paul said to the centurion standing there, ‘Is this legal: torturing a Roman citizen without a fair trial?'” Acts 22:22-25 (The Message).

What set the crowd off again? They had been listening to Paul’s story without any reaction up to this point, but at the mention of “Gentiles” they went crazy, demanding his annihilation as though he were a bug. This puzzled the Roman captain. What was it with these people? Why this pathological hatred of Paul?

He thought that there was something more sinister to this man, Paul, that he was not letting on about; he would wring it out of him under torture. Flogging him would do the trick, so he thought.

Paul was not looking forward to yet another beating, Roman style. He had one card up his sleeve to put a stop to it which he quickly pulled out while he had the chance — Roman citizenship. He did not whine to God about this unfair treatment. He used the system of the world he was in to protect himself from unnecessary suffering. There was enough of that ahead for him over which he had no power.

What should our response be to the injustices we, as believers, have to suffer at the hands of religious bigots? Jesus had an answer that befits citizens of the kingdom of God whose task it is to bring heaven down to earth.

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Matthew 5:11-12 (NIV).

Strange as it may seem, Jesus maintained that persecution was a reason to rejoice, firstly because there is a great reward for those who are unashamedly loyal to Him and follow Him with no qualms; and secondly, because you are in good company since their own prophets received the same treatment as you are receiving.

James also wrote about the benefits of various trials and tests. “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” James1:2-4 (NIV).

Peter had this to say about the trials the believers were undergoing in his day: “In this (all the benefits of salvation) you greatly rejoice, though now, for a little while you may have to suffer grief in all kinds of trials, These have come so that your faith — of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire — may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.” 1 Peter 1:7 (NIV).

Paul also recognised the benefits of suffering: “Therefore we do not lost heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NIV).

What is God’s take in this? Will those who inflict pain on His people simply because they belong to Jesus and bear witness to His grace, never receive the justice they deserve for the injustice they have done against other human beings?

“You’re suffering now, but justice is on the way. When the Master Jesus appears out of heaven in a blaze of fire with His strong angels, He’ll even up the score by settling accounts with those who gave you such a bad time. His coming will be the break we are waiting for. Those who refuse to know God and refuse to obey the Message will pay for what they’ve done.” 2 Thessalonians 2:6-8 (The Message).

The Fear Of God

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THE FEAR OF GOD

“When the centurion heard that, he went directly to the captain. ‘Do you realise what you’ve done? This man is a Roman citizen!’
“The captain came back and took charge. ‘Is what I hear right? You’re a Roman citizen?’
“Paul said, ‘I certainly am.’
“The captain was impressed. ‘I paid a huge sum for my citizenship. How much did it cost you?’
“‘Nothing,’ said Paul. ‘It cost me nothing. I was free from the day of my birth.’
“That put a stop to the interrogation. And it put the fear of God into the captain. He had put a Roman citizen in chains and come within a whisker of putting him under torture.” Acts 22:26-29 (The Message).

It is obvious, from this conversation, that Roman citizenship carried with it many privileges; a fair trial and protection by the state, for example. Not everyone in the Roman Empire was automatically a citizen. Some paid a high price for it, like the captain, while others were automatically Roman citizens by privileged birth. Paul was one of the latter, but he did not explain how he was born into it.

The discovery was enough to make the captain change his plan of action! He would have been in serious hot water had he, even in ignorance, acted outside the protection of Paul’s Roman citizenship.

If citizenship of an earthly kingdom carried with it such privileges, how much more does belonging to God’s kingdom offer blessings and protection for those who are born into it.

The Kingdom of God is both all-exclusive and all-inclusive. It is wide open to all who believe that Jesus is the Son of God and receive Him as unrivalled Master of their lives. It is only for those who acknowledge Him as Lord, to the exclusion of all other gods, and submit to His absolute authority. According to those who follow other religions, that makes believers intolerant, but according to God’s Word, this is the truth.

Jesus Himself said, “‘I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'” John 14:6 (NIV).

“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ….Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone. In Him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in Him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.” Ephesians 2:13; 19-22 (NIV)

The Roman captain was quick to realise his error when he was close to subjecting Paul to an unlawful flogging. He acknowledged his accountability to higher authority and did not act in a way that jeopardised his own position. Unlike Pilate who acted unlawfully towards Jesus and paid dearly for it, this man was not so arrogant that he ignored Roman law.

What of the many millions of citizens of God’s kingdom who have been imprisoned, tortured and even murdered simply because they believe in Jesus and are loyal to Him? Does God offer any protection or justice for them? It may not seem like it if we only take this life into consideration. However, God always takes the long look.

“When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the Word of God and the testimony they had maintained. They called out in a loud voice, ‘How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?'” Revelation 6:9-10 (NIV).

“God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire, with His powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of His power…” 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9 (NIV).