May 23, 2023 – Acts 23:12-25

We talked about fairytales yesterday, and how every struggle we encounter doesn't magically change on this side of heaven because of what Jesus did. There’s another comparison, however, between those children’s stories and Scripture that remains crucial to the way we read Scripture as a whole. 

In any fairytale, one of the key elements is introducing the good guys and the bad guys. The “good guys” usually want to save the world or someone they love and enact justice in the world. The “bad guys” are individuals who are exclusively selfish and want to rule the world without regard for others. 

Without meaning to, we can often read Scripture like this: Jews, God’s chosen people, are the good guys. The Philistines (or the Babylonians or Persians or Romans) could easily be cast as “bad guys.” Forgetting the fact that we can trace connections from the Old Testament to the creation of those groups… It’s easier just to label “good and bad.” 

Then comes Jesus. He’s from the “wrong” place. He chooses the “wrong” people to be his followers. He performs miracles for… the “bad” guys who aren’t the “good guy” Jews? It becomes clear that Jesus doesn’t think of anyone as naturally “the bad guy.” The destruction of this system leads to the chief “good guys” being the ones who orchestrated the death of Jesus. And all of a sudden, all of the “rules” about “good vs bad” when it comes to people is broken, and it’s clear that only Jesus is the purely “good” one. 

This section of Acts highlights this exact idea. While it might be easy to dismiss as a recounting of events, the story is a complete flip of who is “supposed” to be the hero of the story. The Roman centurions, guards, commander, and governor all work in accordance to preserve the life of this man (Paul) who is going to be killed by his own people, the Jews. Even though these individuals do not share the faith that they do, they go to the trouble of saving Paul from the plot to kill him. It would have been far simpler to give him up to his own people, but they didn’t. Instead, they unintentionally become crucial in the spread of early church communities, as those who are supposed to be the “good guys” in the story (religious leaders and experts) try to end Paul’s life. 

We are very familiar with the lines that divide us. For the centurions, it was who was a Roman citizen or not. For the religious leaders, it was who shared their interpretation of the law. Perhaps most crucially, the regular public people of Israel drew the line to go along with whatever the public was saying.

Questions for reflection:

  1. What are those lines that you draw?
  2. Who have you labeled as “them,” when they really could be an important part of your story?
  3. Where are you passing judgment where Jesus wouldn’t?