Acts 16:16-34
The Mafia inherited a lot of its
basic structure from the Romans. Roman
society was organized around a system of patronage. A handful of families controlled political
and economic life, with shifting alliances among themselves – the Caesars and
the Flavians and the Antonines and so forth.
Each family was an extended network with its Father at the top and
people who owed him favors at the bottom.
I’m about to read a historian’s description of how things worked. Think about Marlon Brando as Don Corleone in The Godfather when you hear it.
“Roman societal patronage was highly based around the Roman ideals of fides or loyalty. Clients were loyal
supporters of high standing families and at the head of those families were the patronus, or their patron. For this loyalty the patron
rewarded their loyal clients with gifts of food and land. If a client needed
any sort of legal representation or aid they called upon their patron for
support. Patrons often handed out sportulas, which were monetary handouts for their
support and loyalty. The patron received not just loyalty from their clients
but they also had the respect, men for guarded escorts, and their political
support.”[1]
What was
meant by “political support” might be someone doing exactly what that slave
girl in the book of Acts did for Paul and Luke.
“The client would sing praises of their patron when they ran for office,
and would be forced to vote for them. Aiding his patron in his private
life and accompanying him when he appeared in public are other tasks performed
by clients.”[2]
That
makes the way that Paul treated her all the more shocking by Roman
standards. He put up with her support
for awhile, but then silenced her. As
Luke recalls,
“One day, as we were going to the place of
prayer, we met a slave-girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her
owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling. While she followed Paul and us, she
would cry out, ‘These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.’ She kept doing this for many days. But
Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, ‘I order you in the
name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.’ And it came out that very hour.” [Acts 16:16-18]
Christianity was not to be established as one more,
competing faction in the bloodthirsty arena that was Roman society. The apostles were not going to set themselves
up as patrons and create their network of clients. There would not be the pattern of “one-hand-washes-the-other”
and “you-scratch-my-back-I’ll-scratch-yours”.
(We still use a Latin phrase for that: quid pro quo.)
People
would be people, not sources of wealth and prestige, and that would begin with
this slave girl who, interestingly, identified Paul and Luke as also slaves, “slaves of the Most High God”
[16:17]. Paul didn’t simply order her to
be silent. He ordered the spirit that
had taken her over to release her. He
set her free from the system that was using her and making a profit off of her. This Christianity was dangerous to the system
because it didn’t play by the rules. So
the Empire struck back.
“But when her owners saw that their hope of
making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the
market-place before the authorities. When
they had brought them before the magistrates, they said, ‘These men are disturbing
our city; they are Jews and are
advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe.’ The crowd joined in attacking them,
and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be
beaten with rods. After they had
given them a severe flogging, they threw them into prison and ordered the
jailer to keep them securely. Following
these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and fastened their feet
in the stocks.” [Acts 16:19-24]
Jump
ahead with me here, about two thousand years, and travel to the other side of
the world. Have you followed some of
what has been going on in the Philippines lately? There has been a drought since November caused
by El Nino that has left people hungry and threatens this year’s crops. According to the Vatican News’s reporters, one
of the provincial governments has been so unresponsive to calls for assistance
from farmers that at the start of last month about 6,000 of them blockaded a
road in protest. After three days, the
governor’s response was to order troops to disperse them. The troops fired on the crowd. At least three people died and many, many
more were injured. Survivors took refuge
in the Spottsville United Methodist Church, claiming the
ancient right of sanctuary, while the government prepared legal action against
the bishop and the pastor.[3] Eventually, the police moved in and executed
a search warrant. Now, here’s the point
I want to emphasize – when they had searched every last person who took refuge,
they found not a single weapon anywhere among them.[4]
The
people were acting in a way that did not accept and did not even mimic the
rules of confrontation that the powerful use against the powerless. In so doing, it becomes less clear who really
is or is not powerless. Paul and Silas
were locked away in prison, and
“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to
God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was an earthquake, so
violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the
doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened.” [Acts 16:25-26]
Notice that it wasn’t just
the two of them who were set loose. It
was everyone. They had freed the slave
girl from at least part of her exploitation, and God freed the two of them but
also the rest of the people there while he was at it.
Then there was the jailer. He was part of the Roman system but was
imprisoned by that same system – accused, judged, and condemned automatically. He knew what would happen to him if he could
not account for his prisoners, so
“When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he
drew his sword and was about to kill himself, since he supposed that the
prisoners had escaped. But Paul
shouted in a loud voice, ‘Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.’” [Acts 16:27-28]
That
act alone, the act of not running away, gave Paul and Silas the chance to speak
of God’s power to save and the jailer believed and then he, in turn, flipped
around the way he treated the prisoners.
No more Roman rules.
“At the same hour of the night he took them
and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without
delay. He brought them up into
the house and set food before them; and he and his entire household rejoiced
that he had become a believer in God.” [Acts 16:33-34]
God does not play by our rules, but
calls us to play by his. They are not
the rules of the Mafia or the Roman Empire.
They are not the rules of might-makes-right. They are not the rules of “an eye for an eye
and a tooth for a tooth”. They are not the
rules of “if you hit me, I get to hit back harder”. They are not the rules of “somebody punch
that guy in the nose and I’ll pay your legal bills”. Try this out:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall
love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for
those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in
heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain
on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do
you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? And if you
greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others?
Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is
perfect.” [Matthew
5:43-48]
No, we are not yet perfect. Speaking only for myself, I have a far way to
go. Speaking for the Church as a whole,
we have a far way to go. But at least
that’s the direction we head for, and by God’s grace we may do some good to
others along the way, and maybe set someone else free to do the same.
It
does happen. Ask that slave girl. Ask the jailer. Maybe ask yourself.
[1] https://sites.psu.edu/romanpatronagegroupdcams101/societal-patronage/
[2] http://sites.psu.edu/romanpatronagegroupdcams101/what-is-patronage/
[3] http://www.cbcpnews.com/cbcpnews/?p=75372
[4] http://interaksyon.com/article/125929/breaking--police-serve-search-warrant-on-kidapawan-church-providing-sanctuary-to-protesters
No comments:
Post a Comment