PAUL PREACHING AT LYSTRA
8In Lystra sat a man who could not use his feet, lame from birth, who had never walked. 9This man was listening to Paul as he was speaking. When Paul stared intently at him and saw he had faith to be healed, 10he said with a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And the man leaped up and began walking. 11So when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in human form!” 12They began to call Barnabas Zeus and Paul Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. 13The priest of the temple of Zeus, located just outside the city, brought bulls and garlands to the city gates; he and the crowds wanted to offer sacrifices to them. 14But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard about it, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting, 15“Men, why are you doing these things? We too are men, with human natures just like you! We are proclaiming the good news to you, so that you should turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and everything that is in them. 16In past generations he allowed all the nations to go their own ways, 17yet he did not leave himself without a witness by doing good, by giving you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying you with food and your hearts with joy.” 18Even by saying these things, they scarcely persuaded the crowds not to offer sacrifice to them.
19But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and after winning the crowds over, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, presuming him to be dead. 20But after the disciples had surrounded him, he got up and went back into the city. On the next day he left with Barnabas for Derbe.
COMMENTARY: The attempt to worship Paul and Barnabas (14:11–15a)
The crowd’s superstitious and even fanatical behaviour is hard to comprehend, but some local background throws light on it. About fifty years previously the Latin poet Ovid had narrated in his Metamorphoses an ancient local legend. The supreme god Jupiter (Zeus to the Greeks) and his son Mercury (Hermes) once visited the hill country of Phrygia, disguised as mortal men. In their incognito they sought hospitality but were rebuffed a thousand times. At last, however, they were offered lodging in a tiny cottage, thatched with straw and reeds from the marsh. Here lived an elderly peasant couple called Philemon and Baucis, who entertained them out of their poverty. Later the gods rewarded them, but destroyed by flood the homes which would not take then in. It is reasonable to suppose both that the Lystran people knew this story about their neighbourhood and that, if the gods were to revisit their district, they were anxious not to suffer the same fate as the inhospitable Phrygians. Apart from the literary evidence in Ovid, two inscriptions and a stone altar have been discovered near Lystra, which indicate that Zeus and Hermes were worshipped together as local patron deities.
Since it was in the Lycaonian language that the people shouted out their belief that the gods had visited them again, and named Barnabas Zeus and Paul Hermes, it is understandable that the missionaries did not at first understand what was happening (11–12). It dawned on them only when the priest of Zeus … brought bulls and wreaths, intending to offer sacrifices to them (13). At this the missionaries tore their clothes, to express their horror at the people’s blasphemy, and rushed out into the crowd, protesting against their intention, and insisting that they were human like them (14–15).
He begged them to turn from the vanity of idolatrous worship to the living and true God. He spoke of the living God as the Creator of heaven, earth and sea, and of everything in them (15). Did he gesture to the sky, to the Taurus mountains to the south, and to the Great Sea beyond them? Moreover, he who made all things has not been inactive since. Although in the past he let all nations go their own way (16), yet he has never at any time or in any place left himself without testimony. On the contrary, he has borne a consistent witness to himself by his kindness to all humankind, including Paul’s listeners. He has given them rain from heaven and crops on earth in their seasons, thus providing them with plenty of food for their bodies and filling their hearts with joy (17). Overawed by the majesty of this perspective, the crowd were restrained only with difficulty from sacrificing to them (18).
We need to learn from Paul’s flexibility. We have no liberty to edit the heart of the good news of Jesus Christ. Nor is there ever any need to do so. But we have to begin where people are, to find a point of contact with them. With secularized people today this might be what constitutes authentic humanness, the universal quest for transcendence, the hunger for love and community, the search for freedom, or the longing for personal significance. Wherever we begin, however, we shall end with Jesus Christ, who is himself the good news, and who alone can fulfil all human aspirations.
8In Lystra sat a man who could not use his feet, lame from birth, who had never walked. 9This man was listening to Paul as he was speaking. When Paul stared intently at him and saw he had faith to be healed, 10he said with a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And the man leaped up and began walking. 11So when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in human form!” 12They began to call Barnabas Zeus and Paul Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. 13The priest of the temple of Zeus, located just outside the city, brought bulls and garlands to the city gates; he and the crowds wanted to offer sacrifices to them. 14But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard about it, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting, 15“Men, why are you doing these things? We too are men, with human natures just like you! We are proclaiming the good news to you, so that you should turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and everything that is in them. 16In past generations he allowed all the nations to go their own ways, 17yet he did not leave himself without a witness by doing good, by giving you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying you with food and your hearts with joy.” 18Even by saying these things, they scarcely persuaded the crowds not to offer sacrifice to them.
19But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and after winning the crowds over, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, presuming him to be dead. 20But after the disciples had surrounded him, he got up and went back into the city. On the next day he left with Barnabas for Derbe.
COMMENTARY: The attempt to worship Paul and Barnabas (14:11–15a)
The crowd’s superstitious and even fanatical behaviour is hard to comprehend, but some local background throws light on it. About fifty years previously the Latin poet Ovid had narrated in his Metamorphoses an ancient local legend. The supreme god Jupiter (Zeus to the Greeks) and his son Mercury (Hermes) once visited the hill country of Phrygia, disguised as mortal men. In their incognito they sought hospitality but were rebuffed a thousand times. At last, however, they were offered lodging in a tiny cottage, thatched with straw and reeds from the marsh. Here lived an elderly peasant couple called Philemon and Baucis, who entertained them out of their poverty. Later the gods rewarded them, but destroyed by flood the homes which would not take then in. It is reasonable to suppose both that the Lystran people knew this story about their neighbourhood and that, if the gods were to revisit their district, they were anxious not to suffer the same fate as the inhospitable Phrygians. Apart from the literary evidence in Ovid, two inscriptions and a stone altar have been discovered near Lystra, which indicate that Zeus and Hermes were worshipped together as local patron deities.
Since it was in the Lycaonian language that the people shouted out their belief that the gods had visited them again, and named Barnabas Zeus and Paul Hermes, it is understandable that the missionaries did not at first understand what was happening (11–12). It dawned on them only when the priest of Zeus … brought bulls and wreaths, intending to offer sacrifices to them (13). At this the missionaries tore their clothes, to express their horror at the people’s blasphemy, and rushed out into the crowd, protesting against their intention, and insisting that they were human like them (14–15).
He begged them to turn from the vanity of idolatrous worship to the living and true God. He spoke of the living God as the Creator of heaven, earth and sea, and of everything in them (15). Did he gesture to the sky, to the Taurus mountains to the south, and to the Great Sea beyond them? Moreover, he who made all things has not been inactive since. Although in the past he let all nations go their own way (16), yet he has never at any time or in any place left himself without testimony. On the contrary, he has borne a consistent witness to himself by his kindness to all humankind, including Paul’s listeners. He has given them rain from heaven and crops on earth in their seasons, thus providing them with plenty of food for their bodies and filling their hearts with joy (17). Overawed by the majesty of this perspective, the crowd were restrained only with difficulty from sacrificing to them (18).
We need to learn from Paul’s flexibility. We have no liberty to edit the heart of the good news of Jesus Christ. Nor is there ever any need to do so. But we have to begin where people are, to find a point of contact with them. With secularized people today this might be what constitutes authentic humanness, the universal quest for transcendence, the hunger for love and community, the search for freedom, or the longing for personal significance. Wherever we begin, however, we shall end with Jesus Christ, who is himself the good news, and who alone can fulfil all human aspirations.
