Acts 22. 23–23. 11

Acts 22. 23–23. 11

The Story Paul has been accused of “brining a Gentile into the Temple”. The Romans have taken charge of him for his own protection; he has been given permission to address the crowd.  He tells his own story up to the point where God calls him to mission among the gentiles:  that word again sets the crowd off and they are ready to kill him, so once again the Roman officer steps in, takes Paul away.  He may not have understood Paul's speech in Aramaic but he knows it has caused a ruckus, so he decides to interrogate him – complete with a flogging – to find out the truth. 

At that point, as the soldiers are tying him to a stake , Paul asks the officer “Hey, is this actually legal?  Did you know I ma a Roman Citizen?”  The officer doesn't think he can possibly be a Roman citizen. After all, Paul is dishevelled, bruised and bleeding.  He doesn't look much like the type to be able to afford Roman Citizenship.  “I paid a lot of money to become a citizen” is a challenge: the officer is in effect saying  “Do you think I'm stupid? I know from personal experience that Citizenship costs a lot of money?”  Paul, of course is able to surprise the soldier by calmly stating “I was born a citizen!”  He outranked the man who had been treating him with such contempt.   The law was clear:
A Roman citizen could not be tortured or whipped, nor could he receive the death penalty, unless he was found guilty of treason.  And the Romans had been on the point of scourging him: a beating that often caused death.
If accused of treason, a Roman citizen had the right to be tried in Rome, and even if sentenced to death, no Roman citizen could be sentenced to die on the cross.

What is Paul doing here?  Is he suddenly afraid of death or of the pain of a beating?  Maybe, but not enough to wriggle out of it!  What we see here, then is part of a major realignment in Paul's identity and self understanding.  He perhaps more clearly than ever before sees himself as a Roman.  Rather, I believe he is using his citizenship because it is his right to do so;   and he is using his citizenship to get himself to the one place on the planet he had hope to get to for years – Rome!   If they were going to accuse Paul of anything, let them accuse him of treason, and as a Roman citizen, he would stand trial in Rome.
In bewilderment and concern that he has already broken the law, the Roman Governor decides to call together the Sanhedrin (the Jewish Council) the next day...  And as Paul begins to speak to the Sanhedrin, the high priest who is called Ananias orders someone to hit Paul in the mouth.  Paul's response is immediate, sharp, and well-deserved “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck!” (23v3)  Now summoned by the Roman Governor, it's likely that Ananias wouldn't be wearing “priestly” clothes: these were holy and not to  be worn  outside of the Temple.   It's quite possible that Paul, as a comparative newcomer to Jerusalem, didn't recognise that Ananias was in fact high priest.  Certainly he wasn't behaving like one!  Paul knows that he cannot accuse someone of breaking the law if he himself does not keep the law, so he apologises. 
He then sets the two sides in the council against each other.  The Sadducees were the upper-class Jews who, were careless about keeping the law, and more concerned about keeping the temple and sacrificial system going.  The Pharisees were often from more modest background; they were obsessed with keeping the law and interpreting it properly so they were very learned.  The Sadducees didn’t' believe in bodily resurrection; the Pharisees did – they were the ones who took the Bible literally, remember.  And Paul divides the council in two by saying “I'm in chains for believing in the resurrection!”  (v 6)   And this was, once again, much more than a clever trick to confuse his enemies.  It reveals some things that were happening in the depth of his heart.  Identifying himself as a Roman Citizen does not in any sense diminish his sense of identity as a Jew and a Pharisee. 

The point: Paul is a “World citizen.”   he says  “To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law.  those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law... I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.”  (1 Cor 9. 20-22) 

Listen: we need to be within a culture in order to save people within that culture.  Hit and run evangelism will not work,  We need presence evangelism; we need incarnational evangelism.

The problem:  Belonging in a culture, identifying ourselves with a group of people,  can be difficult and even cause problems.  Think of the groups you are part of – family, work colleagues, or on the football terraces.  They may be good people but there may also be things in their corporate behaviour that embarrass you and that you don’t want to copy!  Some Christians conclude that we should separate ourselves from all of that:  keep ourselves apart so we don't pick up sin like the 'flu!

Now, when Paul openly identified himself as a Roman Citizen,that does not mean that he suddenly felt that the Romans were a great bunch of lads.  It didn't mean he was blinded to the weaknesses and flaws in their culture: the appalling cruelty, the contempt for those they had defeated, the idolatry and immorality.

But at this point he has decided “These are my people too!”  

Despite his deep disquiet with some of the personalities, and with the attitudes and outlook of his fellow Jews, despite the fact that some of them were “whitewashed tombs”,  he clearly and definitely has his place among them, as a Pharisee who believes in the resurrection. 

We don't need to like everything about the cultures around us. We don't need to be like the people around us in our attitudes and behaviours.  But we need to identify with them, to be part of their lives and to treat others as our equals and our friends.  How can we identify with more than one “tribe” and still remain faithful to Jesus?

The difference.    Some in the Sanhedrin ask “What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?” (v. 9)   But in fact, one had.  It was precisely because of his encounters with Jesus by the Holy Spirit, and the interventions of the angels of God in his life, that Paul stood before these people as a believer in Jesus.  Paul was a citizen of the supernatural realm, the Kingdom of god.  Paul himself wrote to the Phlippians (from prison, possibly in Rome itself!) “our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil 3. 20).  

It is when our citizenship is in Heaven, when we are focussed on Jesus, identify with him, identify ourselves first and foremost as Citizens of the Kingdom of God, that we are released from a narrow, nationalistic, exclusive attachment to one culture only.  We can be Scottish and British; we can be an ordinary person from Rosyth and have specialist knowledge and skills....  no one culture is able to eat us up – because we belong to the Kingdom of God, and are able to enter into other cultures as a stranger and a visitor. 

So, in the end, Paul is kept as prisoner, but kept safe from the Jews who wanted him dead.  And God confirms his plan in it all:  “Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.”  (v 11).  There would be further cruelties and abuses from the places where Paul claimed human citizenship – both Jewish and Roman.  But the realm where his real citizenship was, where his first loyalty lies, that Kingdom is the triumphant one and will conquer in the end.

© Gilmour Lilly October  2014