Philemon
My
sister used to be treasurer for the ARCO Chemical Workers’ Union and was
involved in the contract negotiations.
That kind of thing is confidential and she never shared what went on,
but I know it must have been harrowing at times because she always looked
exhausted when she got back from those trips.
But on this Labor Day weekend, here’s a situation that makes modern
labor relations look easy.
There
was a man who lived in Colossae whose name was Philemon. Philemon had become a Christian through the
preaching of the apostle Paul. (People
who lived there were called Colossians, hence Paul’s letter to the Colossians
and his letter to Philemon mention some of the same folks.)
Philemon owned a slave named Onesimus (which
means “useful”). Paul was in prison
outside Rome, awaiting what he hoped would be trial and release but turned out
to be his execution. While he was there,
Onesimus showed up and, like Philemon earlier, came to faith in Christ. He began to help run errands for Paul and to
do things that were necessary for him both to survive and to continue
consulting with the churches Paul had organized all over the eastern Mediterranean.
Then
Paul found out that Onesimus was a fugitive.
He had run away from Philemon.
Now, we all know what happens to runaway slaves, don’t we? If they aren’t killed immediately, they are
returned to their captors, who make an example of them to discourage other
slaves from running. Torture is the
beginning and the end is likely death.
The usual method was crucifixion.
(When Jesus was killed that way, the element of humiliation and
dehumanization that is part of slavery was supposed to be an element of the
execution.)
If
Paul let Onesimus stay, he would be harboring a fugitive and/or receiving
stolen goods (the labor of Onesimus). In
Roman terms, he was already suspected of undermining the social order with his
strange, new twist on Judaism, and letting Onesimus off the hook would prove
that he was a subversive whom the Empire would be better off without. His treatment of a runaway could throw the
whole Jesus Movement into danger.
So if Paul sends Onesimus
away, they may all be endangered. If he
denounces him to the authorities as a runaway, Onesimus may not even make it
back to Philemon. If he sends him back,
he is betraying not only a human being but also a fellow Christian.
What
to do?
The
one possible solution does not depend on Paul, but on Philemon, who has a power
that Paul does not. He could pardon
Onesimus. It would have been unusual, as
if Harriet Tubman had been captured and carried back to Maryland, only to be
told it was okay and that she should just turn around and return to
Philadelphia. It just wasn’t going to
happen. But that is what Paul asked.
He
asked Philemon to welcome Onesimus – get this – as a brother. Then he wanted him freed and sent back to
Paul to pick up where he had left off.
Now,
Paul took some steps to encourage this outcome.
He sent this letter with Onesimus, and in it are greetings to others in
Colossae to guarantee that it would be read publicly before the fellowship. In it, he reminds Philemon that he owes him a
debt of gratitude as the one who brought them the gospel and respect as an
apostle, and pity as a prisoner – especially as a prisoner for the faith. He puts all of this out there, and does it so
that everybody would be hearing it at once.
Can
you imagine the whole, infant church at Colossae turning their eyes on these
two people in front of them, the master and the slave, both of them being named
as children of God through Christ, being called equal before God? Can you imagine being there, wondering if this
new status was going to alter the relationship between them in a concrete way
or not. Would it make you, also a slave,
an equal to Philemon? Would it make you,
a free person, but with nothing to your name but the clothes on your back and a
list of debts, the same as a prosperous, respected, educated, influential
head-of-household citizen? Just how
radical was this new community going to be?
Paul
knew what he wanted. Onesimus knew what
he wanted. Philemon may or may not have
wanted the same thing, but would he want more than anything to live as a child
of God?
Paul
referred to Onesimus as Philemon’s brother. They had probably heard the story that Jesus
had told about a runaway son who returned to his father – the one where the son
was a ne’er-do-well, good-for-nothing that they might all have been better off
without, but whom the father welcomed back into the family not as a servant, as
the prodigal planned to ask, but as a full-fledged son. The older brother, who had never messed up
like that, didn’t really want to recognize him again, and at the end of the
story it’s left open what happens, because the father throws a party and tells
the older son, who is standing outside and sulking, that he should come in and
celebrate, but doesn’t force him. Jesus
left the story open at that point, with the older son deciding what to do.
Here
is Philemon, with all eyes on him, and Paul’s letter saying,
“I preferred to do nothing without your consent, in order
that your good deed might be voluntary and not something forced. Perhaps this is the reason he was
separated from you for a while, so that you might have him back for ever, no longer as a slave but as more than
a slave, a beloved brother—especially to me but how much more to you, both in
the flesh and in the Lord.
So if you consider me your partner, welcome him as you would
welcome me. If he has wronged you
in any way, or owes you anything, charge that to my account. I, Paul, am writing this with my own
hand: I will repay it. I say nothing about your owing me even your own self. Yes, brother, let me have this benefit
from you in the Lord! Refresh my heart in Christ. Confident of your obedience,
I am writing to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say.” [Philemon 14-21]
Tell
us, Philemon, what that older brother does.
Finish the story that Jesus left open.
Finish it (if you can) the way he would wanted it to end.
There’s no record of what happened
next. But we do know this: around the
year 100 A.D., Ignatius of Antioch, another man awaiting martyrdom, wrote a letter
to the church in Ephesus, not too far from Colossae, in which he mentions
“Onesimus, a man of inexpressible love, and your bishop in the flesh,
whom I pray you by Jesus Christ to love, and that you would all seek to be like
him.”[1]
Good for you, Philemon. Good for you.
[1]
Letter of Ignatius to the Ephesians, chapter 1.
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/ignatius-ephesians-roberts.html
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