An apostle's education

kw: spiritual musings, scriptures

I decided at the beginning to avoid discussing Bible studies in this blog. Today I will make a rare exception.

Acts chapters 13 and 14 narrate the first apostolic journey of Paul and Barnabas. Traveling quickly to the seacoast west of Antioch, the two plus John Mark sailed first to Cyprus, Barnabas's home country. Very little is recorded there; only the miraculous blinding of a sorcerer named Elymas and subsequent conversion of Sergius Paulus the Roman consul. They soon found themselves in Asia Minor, where in Pisidia, in another Antioch, Paul spoke in a synagogue, the first message of his that we have in any detail. Some disciples were made, but also some enemies.

Along the way it had become clear that, while both Paul and Barnabas had miraculous gifts, Paul's was much more active, or that he was much more prone to use it. He performed many healings. As it happened, he may have been just a bit too eager to use his gift. It seems to have got him into trouble in Lystra.

The first thing recorded about the apostles' visit to Lystra is that Paul, speaking to the crowd, saw a crippled man who evidently believed what he was hearing. Paul called out to him loudly to get up and walk, which he did. The people, who were pagans with only a thin veneer of Greek and Roman culture, naturally thought that they'd been visited by gods. Speaking their own language, which the apostles didn't understand, they began to arrange a sacrifice honor Paul and Barnabas. When they understood what was happening, the apostles, horrified, rather roughly restrained the crowd, refusing the honor.

It is clear that they two made some serious mistakes here. They were on the fringe of the Empire, among people whose culture and history were opaque to them. Being brought up in Judaism, they didn't understand how serious an insult they committed in refusing the sacrifice, nor were they clearly aware how serious their enemies from Pisidia were. These enemies had followed them and now stirred up the people against them. Paul was stoned, though the job was fortunately botched. He lived through it.

But what was the original mistake? Not understanding how superstitious the people were, compared to those in their 'home towns', Paul didn't realize that he could not simply do a healing here or there to convince people of the gospel of Christ. While Jews and cultured Romans responded to miracles as Paul might expect, the Lystrans did not. Paul had misused his gift. He survived the experience, barely, and learned from it.

We find that the apostles' success was greater after they left Lystra. There is no record of raising up any churches in Cyprus. There is a hint that churches arose in Pisidian Antioch and Lystra, but Iconium and Derbe were clear successes, and the apostles spent some time in that region.

God engages in on-the-job training, and a strong-willed Pharisee like Saul/Paul needs strong teaching. As many apostles (missionaries) since have discovered, the devil uses real bullets, and we do well to learn our lessons early and clearly. A few years later, Paul drove out a demon in Philippi, which got him in a bit of trouble once again. It is another instance in which he'd have done better to make less of a public show. Thankfully, we see no other instances of this error being repeated. When Paul got in trouble later on, it was for his virtues, not his faults.