Mistaken for Gods

February 28, 2009

Today's Reading: Numbers 1-2 and Acts 14

In the reading today in Acts 14, Paul and Barnabas face a problem that they probably didn’t forsee. They were sharing the gospel, and miracles were happening, and it was going well. In fact, it was going a little too well.

In all honesty, I don’t think that I have ever had a witness that was so good, that people were mistaking me for the divine. In the case of Paul and Barnabas, they thought they were Greek Gods of Zeus and Hermes. I guess since Paul did most of the talking, they probably thought of him as Hermes, the messenger of the Gods.

I’ll bet Paul was probably thinking: “Aww, I wanted to be Zeus.”

Seriously, you have to admire Paul and Barnabas’ dignity. They didn’t just “go with it”. I’m sure all of you have seen movies like The Wedding Crashers, Galaxy Quest, The Road to El Dorado and many others in which the main characters are complete frauds, and go with what the people tell them they are for some sort of long-term gain.

These movies always end the same way. Eventually, the frauds true identity is uncovered, and they have to deal with an entirely new set of problems.

In other words, Paul and Barnabas could have gone with what the crowd was saying and used it to their advantage by saying: “Yes, we are Zeus and Hermes. Apparently, after the Son of God rose from the dead, he shook all of the heavens, and we just couldn’t take it. If you have any sense at all, worship Jesus, for crying out loud. Look what he did to us! He took away my lightning bolts! And remember Hermes’ winged helmet? It’s gone.”

Of course, even for a greater good, a lie is still a lie. The weirdest thing is that their act of humility didn’t cause the gospel to grow. Instead, the crowd became so insistent that they were gods that they were insulted that they didn’t accept their sacrifices.

Despite the fact that they wanted to worship them one minute, they were stoning them the next. It is amazing how quickly those who praise you become those who condemn you to death. Now they knew how Jesus felt.

Of course, Paul’s perseverance was reward when he was raised from the dead after being stoned presumably to death.

I suppose the take away value is this: tell the truth, even if it is not convenient. If you have to face a set of unpleasant circumstances after that, don’t worry. God is still in control of the situation even (and especially) when you are not. Things will work out, even if people are throwing rocks at you.