Falling Into Cracks

Then Paul answered, What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.  And since he would not be persuaded, we ceased and said, Let the will of the Lord be done.  — Acts 21:13-14

This has been one of those days where disaster rolls up on disaster, where every plan falls apart, where every attempt at fixing a problem creates a bigger problem.  I picked up on this passage yesterday not knowing that I would be living it out today. 

For weeks during his journey back to Jerusalem from Asia Minor, Paul had been warned that imprisonment awaited him.  He did not continue in defiance but in obedience.  He had settled the matter in his heart.  Paul understood that, despite the hardships in this path, it was God's intention that he should follow it.  If you choose to follow Christ, there will be times when you are called on to make intentional and willing sacrifices.  Most of the time, obviously, we don't have people walking up to us with prophetic utterances — though I sometimes think I am given more foreknowledge than I receive or pay attention to. 

If we do get a warning it presents us with something of a problem.  Are we putting ourselves in a bad situation from which the Holy Spirit is trying to guide us?  Or is He tempering us in advance so that the stresses of the trial cannot catch us off guard?

Upon arriving in Jerusalem, Paul and his companions met with the elders of the Church and reported the success of the Gospel among the Gentiles.  The leadership welcomed the news, but they were concerned about the attitudes of the Jewish believers toward Paul and his apostolic calling.   To satisfy those law-abiding Jews, the leaders laid out a plan for Paul to demonstrate his own respect for and rigorous adherence to the law.

.... And they said to him, You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed. They are all zealous for the law, and they have been told about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or walk according to our customs. 

What then is to be done? They will certainly hear that you have come.  Do therefore what we tell you. We have four men who are under a vow; take these men and purify yourself along with them and pay their expenses, so that they may shave their heads. Thus all will know that there is nothing in what they have been told about you, but that you yourself also live in observance of the law (Acts 21:20-24).

As Bobbie Burns once explained to a field mouse whose life was disrupted by his plow, sometimes it is your very prudence that puts you in the path of destruction:

When the seven days were almost completed, the Jews from Asia, seeing him in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd and laid hands on him, crying out, Men of Israel, help! This is the man who is teaching everyone everywhere against the people and the law and this place. Moreover, he even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place (Acts 21:27-28)

Talk about a plan not surviving first contact with the enemy.  The attempt to reassure the Jewish followers of Christ put Paul in exactly the situation the Church was trying to avoid.  A riot ensued.  Paul had to be dragged away from a bloodthirsty mob by Roman soldiers.  Despite his attempts to explain himself, forty Jews swore an oath not to eat or drink until they had assassinated Paul.  He had to be secretly carried out of Jerusalem to Caesarea by night with a guard of two hundred infantry and seventy cavalry.  He remained imprisoned for two years as governors came and went and the Jews continued to demand his life.  Using his legal standing as a Roman citizen, Paul appealed to Caesar and was sent to Rome.  His storm-driven voyage across the Mediterranean Sea was itself an epic adventure, ending in a shipwreck.

But in all that time, Paul had opportunity after opportunity to speak of Jesus, of his own miraculous conversion, of the power of the Cross and the hope of the Gospel.  Just as Jesus had said, Paul spoke before rulers and authorities — governors, kings, councils, and military leaders.  He was like a scrubby little tree growing on a great rocky cliff, his message, like the roots of that tree finding its hidden, convoluted way into cracks and crevices, slowly but surely splitting and breaking down the vast and seemingly impenetrable stone.

Christianity found its way into the heart of the Roman Empire.  Once it had taken hold, it would never be eradicated.  It might be unseen, underground, but it was always, and is always, working, growing, expanding, and breaking through.  Paul did not preach to great crowds of people most of the time.  His work established a number of churches, mostly in Greece and Asia Minor, but he left no large, impressive buildings.  He had a few close associates whom he influenced — Timothy and Luke, for example.  His life and faith witnessed to the soldiers who guarded him.   Still, viewed from the perspective of the great, worldwide ministries, the huge congregations, the wealth of churches and church leaders, the splendor of buildings and physical monuments that abound under the name of Christ today, Paul might not look like he accomplished much.    But he stands very high in the esteem of heaven.  As the end of his life came in view, Paul could truthfully say, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."

Most of us live fairly mundane lives.  We will never be known by thousands or occupy any kind of exalted position in the world.  But there are people around us every day whom we can touch and influence for good, or evil.  There may be only one person that you know who will be impacted by what you say and how you live.  The crack in the rock may be microscopic, but God wants in, and it is up to you and to me to make that possible by voicing and bearing the truth.  God knows I will never be able to live a perfect life, but I can live an honest life and a holy life — holy in the sense that my existence has a dimension and a purpose that transcends the visible and the physical.    

If only, when I face adversity, I could look for the opportunity that is offered.  If only I could stop for a moment beside a flat tire, a dead battery, a crashed computer, a storm-shattered house, a bad report from the doctor, a financial loss, a family crisis, or whatever bad thing I must face — if only I could stop and think, for just a fleeting instant, that God is still in control, and He has a reason for allowing my day or my life to take this direction and this path.  Instead of always declaring war on the devil, sometimes I should consider surrendering to the Lord.