Read Acts 14:8-13
8 In Lystra there sat a man who was lame.
He had been that way from birth and had never walked. 9 He listened to Paul as
he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be
healed 10 and called out, “Stand up on your feet!” At that, the man jumped up
and began to walk. 11 When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in
the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in human form!” 12
Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief
speaker. 13 The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought
bulls and wreaths to the city gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer
sacrifices to them.
I can get very concerned about being properly
understood. That is why, for example, on a few of the questions I ask or
comments I make you will find a few extra clarifying comments: “Please
note:…” Or, “I
am not saying…” Or, “Just
to clarify…”
I can be like this in other things too and
can spend ages wondering if so-and-so will have understood what I meant, deeply
concerned they might have taken it the wrong way…
I think clarity is a good thing…
Misunderstandings often cause problems…
However, there can be – for me at least –
certain unhealthy undertones to an excessive desire to be fully understood. It
can, I think, demonstrate that perhaps too much weight is being placed on other
people’s opinions and not enough on God’s – who always knows our hearts.
Further being misunderstood has good biblical
precedents. It happened to Jesus; he was accused of being a glutton and a
drunkard (Luke 7). Most of the OT
prophets were (still are?!) perceived as pessimistic doom-mongers. In Acts 2 we
saw that those filled with the Spirit were construed as drunk.
So too here. In fact, the misunderstanding
that occurs is comically huge! Paul and Barnabas come to tell people about the
one true God (e.g. v. 15) and end up getting mistaken for gods themselves.
It would not, however, have been amusing at
the time. In fact I imagine it was quite scary, particularly as Paul and
Barnabas probably did not speak the Lycaonian language the people started
shouting in.
John Stott notes that this bizarre episode is
more explicable given the existence of a local legend in which the two gods
mentioned[1]
come to the town but are overlooked, with disastrous consequences.[2]
Bizarre it still is though and provides a
huge test for Paul and Barnabas. Their response, as we will see, demonstrates
both their integrity and incredible adaptability.
- What does it feel like to be misunderstood? Why?
- Reread this passage imaging that you are Paul or Barnabas. How would you have felt? How do you think you would have responded?
- Are there any recent or current situations in which you have felt misunderstood? How did this feel? How did you respond? Does the fact that many people in the Bible, including Jesus, were misunderstood encourage you in any way?
If you have a bit longer :-)
John Stott notes the
similarity between the healing of the man here and the healing brought through
Peter in Acts 3:1.[3] Do you think Luke
intentionally told the story in such a way as to highlight this similarity? If
so, why might he do this? Is there anything we can learn from these two
stories?
No comments:
Post a Comment