From Ephesus to Jerusalem

 Saturday after Trinity Sunday

St. Boniface, Color Red

Lectionary Texts for Saturday:

OT: 1 Samuel 12

NT: Mark 3:31-35

Lectionary Texts for Sunday

OT: 1 Samuel 8:4-20

Psalter: Psalm 138 (UMH 853)

Epistle: 2 Corinthians 4:15-5:1

Gospel: Mark 3:20-35

 

St. Boniface was an English, or more properly, Anglo-Saxon, missionary to Germany in the late 7th and early 8th centuries. He brought Christianity to Germany. Eventually he became Archbishop of Mainz.

 

Today we return to our Acts study. Please read Acts 21:1-16. 

 

This is one of Luke's lengthier travel narratives. Notice immediately that the text has again gone to first person plural narration, "we." Again the Occam's razor explanation is likely best. The pronoun we is used because Luke himself is with Paul on this journey. Luke doubtless made extensive travel notes and gives us a clear and accurate itinerary. You can follow the route on a map in the back of your Bible.

 

I have sailed this route on a comfortable ocean liner. Paul, Luke, and the others went on two cargo ships, changing ships at Tyre, in Lebanon. (We did not put into shore there. Lebanon is unfortuately too dangerous). Ptolemais is the modern Israeli-Arab city of Acco (called Acre in Crusader times). I'll never forget the wonderful smells of all the spices in the vast market there. 

While all forms of travel were difficult compared to the ease with which we can move about the world today (pre- and post-Covid), travel was the best in Paul's time that it had ever been. Paul's entire vast Mediterranean World was connected by the superb system of Roman roads and bridges. I have seen Roman roads bridges everywhere from England to Spain to France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, to Israel and Jordan. Marianne and I walked a 3/4 mile ancient Roman bridge in France that was probably safer than the recently replaced Bonner Bridge that connected Bodie Island and Hatteras Island in the Outer Banks of NC. 

One could traverse the entire Roman Empire in Paul's time--all of North Africa, all of Europe except Scandanavia, and most of the Middle East--knowing just two languages, Latin and Greek, and being able to converse anywhere. One could cover all this land and carry just one currency, the Roman denarius. Roman naval patrols kept piracy non-existent. On the other hand, just read 2 Corinthians 11:23-29, to see how dangerous travel was even in this best of ancient travel times. 

Luke and Paul did take advantage of good Christian hospitality along the way. At two extended travel stops Paul was sternly warned not to go on to Jerusalem. At Tyre "through the Spirit" Christians warned Paul not to go there. In Ptolemais a prophet named Agabus dramatically repeated that warning. We could have a theological disputation at this point. I'll just say first, that not everything that happens is God's will. Second, Paul seems clearly to be going to Jerusalem against God's will. It was "in the Spirit"--the Holy Spirit-- that he was warned. Have you ever done anything that you knew when you did it was against God's will. That's Paul here. God can and often does rescue you, as God will rescue Paul, but not without a lot of trouble, as we'll see in our next study.

God of all travelers,

Keep us on the right road, the straight path. Help us to steer clear of unnecessary trouble. Help us to be safe. Save us when we aren't. In the name of the Savior. Amen.

Faithfully

Christian