This is one of the more strange stories in the Bible. Pastor Troy alluded to this passage in his sermon last week. Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke continue on in their missionary travels after meeting and sharing the gospel with Lydia, a wealthy gentile woman, and her household. Then Lydia and her household convert to Christianity.
After their time with Lydia, Paul and his travel companions meet a slave girl who has the “gift” of divination and fortune telling, but only because a malevolent spirit possesses her. Through these “gifts” she makes her masters a lot of money. She ends up following Paul, Timothy, Silas and Luke, while shouting: “These men are the slaves of the most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation!” And she did this for days.
This, to quote the passage “very much annoyed, Paul.” It’s actually quite humorous to think about. Paul trying to talk to Silas: “I’m so grateful God led us to Lydia..” Interrupted by: “These are the Slaves of the God Most high!,” Or Luke discussing where God might be leading them next, “Paul, could God be leading us to…”THESE ARE THE SLAVES OF THE GOD MOST HIGH!” Or someone who wants to speak with the men about the strange story they’ve heard about a carpenter from Nazareth who was raised from the dead, but just as they approach the men, they’re interrupted by: ”THESE ARE THE SLAVES OF THE GOD MOST HIGH!” And they promptly change their minds.
Finally, Paul has had it. At his wits’ end and in the name of Jesus, he commands this spirit that is making this girl annoying to come out of her. And it does.
The slave girl has her autonomy back. She’s no longer possessed. She’s also no longer useful to her masters, who made a lot of money off of her fortune telling. So angry were the masters of the slave girl that they had Paul and Silas tried by the town magistrates for “advocating for customs not lawful for Roman citizens to observe.” They’re pretty nebulous charges. There’s no due process here. And what they’re really angry about is their loss of income made by exploiting the young girl.
This passage shows us that not everyone will be happy about the good news of Jesus because the good news of Jesus Christ uncovers sin and injustice in the world and in us. And in doing so it will make people angry. It can make us angry.
Today, we consider Martin Luther King, Jr. a national hero for his leadership of a nonviolent movement that challenged racism and originated from a faith in Jesus Christ. We have roads and schools named after him – in addition to a national holiday. But what we forget is that at the time of his assassination, he was deeply unpopular with the American people. According to a 1968 Harris poll, Rev. Dr. King had a 75% disapproval rating. Dr. King’s work disrupted the status quo, and it angered those in power who had the most to lose if segregation ended. The loss of money and the loss of a cultural (not a biblical) value, that people of color were inferior to Caucasians. And the majority, if not all, of King’s critics professed to be Christians.
The good news of Jesus Christ uncovers our sin of participating in injustice. The good news is not always good news for many. But there’s hope.
In contrast to the owners of the slave girl, there is the guard at the jail into which Paul and Silas were thrown by the town magistrates. When God miraculously opens the doors of the jail freeing the prisoners, the Roman guard is about to take his own life – for surely he’ll be blamed for the prisoners’ jail break and sentenced to death for allowing the prisoners to escape. But Paul yells at him to stop because he and Silas are still in their cell.
The jailer who witnessed how God created a great earthquake to open the prison doors now knows that Paul and Silas follow an all powerful God. He leads them outside the jail because he knows he can no longer keep them in prison. After all, God will surely miraculously free them again. The jailer then asks Paul and Silas, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
The jailer is still terrified. He’s caught between a rock and a hard place to say the least. On one hand, he will surely be punished severely, if not executed, by the Roman magistrates for allowing the prisoners to go free. Or he will have to face the powers of God who ultimately freed Paul and Silas. He does not have a lot of options at this point.
He’s not asking Paul and Silas how he can be saved in the sense of the phrase: “Are you saved in Jesus Christ?” Instead he’s asking how can he be physically saved from punishment that will certainly come down from those in power over him. Just as the girl was a slave to people who exploited her for money, the jailer now knows he’s a slave to an unjust system and empire that jails innocent people like Paul and Silas because they challenge the injustices caused by that very system. He’s ready to be free.
While the Jailer probably expects Paul to miraculously conjure up a map with secret escape routes for the jailer and his family to evade the authorities and subsequent punishment, Paul instead tells him: “Believe in Jesus Christ and you and your household will be saved.” Paul ultimately shares with the jailer that true freedom is only found in Jesus Christ.
Just as the girl was a slave and exploited by men who made a profit off her being possessed by a spirit, and the jailer was a slave to work for an unjust empire and system, we too are enslaved by something. Whether we are held captive by an oppressive workplace. We feel enslaved in a toxic relationship. Or perhaps we are held captive by wrong ideas about Jesus himself by harmful theology taught to us in churches we were once a part of, schools we attended, or even in the families we grew up in. Jesus desires us to be free from all of all that.
Freedom in Christ comes at a cost. Not everyone will applaud us for detaching ourselves from the false image of Jesus many tend to have today. It’s become more costly to follow God’s command to love our neighbor and welcome the stranger. Everyone in the bible became deeply unpopular when they followed God.
Are we held captive by the fear of being criticized or even ostracized for truly knowing Jesus as what he said and did according to scripture? Not what a certain podcaster, politician or a christian subcluture has to say about Jesus. But what Jesus said about himself according to the Bible?
To truly know Jesus is to read and reflect upon all he said and did in scripture and do our best to follow him. In knowing Jesus all that we are held captive by will be exposed, and it won’t be easy. But it is worth it because it’s then and only then we are truly free. Free because we are confident we are loved for who we are by the one who created everything and in whom we are free to truly love others.
So I hope we would be brave and ask God to show us what still holds us captive. And ask Jesus to show us how he is the way to freedom.
