Tag Archives: Gentiles

“Those People”

April 22, 2024 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

The crowd listened to Paul until he said this. Then they raised their voices and shouted, “Rid the earth of him! He’s not fit to live!”
Acts 22:22 (NIV)

I gave a message to our local gathering of Jesus’ followers yesterday. We’re in an interesting and challenging series of messages in which we’re exploring how we react and respond when our lives get interrupted. This can take the form of life itself interrupting with challenges, struggles, trials, and tragedies. It can also be what happens when Jesus interrupts as He did multiple times to multiple people after the resurrection in John chapters 20 and 21.

In today’s chapter, Paul is being escorted by Roman soldiers to the Roman barracks for his own safety. The riotous crowd of his fellow Jews were following, screaming death threats, and threatening to stone Paul. In a courageous act, Paul asks the Roman soldiers to let him address the crowd.

Paul starts by providing his religious resume. Paul was raised and educated in Jerusalem and was a student of a man considered the greatest teacher of the time. He was a card-carrying member of the most powerful theological sect and had been the most zealous hunter and prosecutor of Jesus’ followers.

Then Jesus interrupted his trip to Damascus.

What’s interesting about this version of Paul’s story is that he gives us an additional detail that Luke failed to mention when he reports the story back in Chapter 9. After his conversion, Paul went back to Jerusalem. He went back to the Temple to pray. We don’t know where this event was on the timeline of Paul’s life. While praying, Paul fell into a trance and God told him to leave Jerusalem because the Jews there wouldn’t accept his story. Instead, God tells him, “I will send you far away to the (non-Jewish) Gentiles.”

With this statement, the crowd immediately erupts back into their murderous rage.

The good religious Jews of this time were prejudiced against those who were not Jewish. Keep in mind that the Law of Moses specifically commanded them to love foreigners living among them as they love themselves (Lev 19:34). Like good lawyers, they found ways to twist the Law to justify doing the opposite. Even the Jews who had become disciples of Jesus struggled with accepting Gentiles as equals.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself thinking about my own prejudices. Yes, I have them. I suspect we all do to one degree or another. I once gave a message and asked my listeners to close their eyes. I then asked them who came to mind when I said the words “those people.” I had more than one person tell me that day that they had to confess their own prejudices after that.

It’s easy for me to point the finger at the Jews of Jerusalem whose racism against anyone not Jewish is glaring in the story. As a disciple of Jesus, I’m commanded to actually obey the command to love others as I love myself without loopholes, addendums, or exemptions. I can’t honestly Confess “Jesus is Lord” unless I honestly confess and repent of my own prejudices against those who pop to mind when I consider “those people.”

When Jesus interrupted Paul’s life, he was required to learn to love and embrace the very people he’d been systemically taught to ignore and even despise. Jesus asks the same of me.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Jews and Romans

April 5, 2024 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

But the Jewish leaders incited the God-fearing women of high standing and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region.
Acts 13:50 (NIV)

I once spent three years living in a small town of just over 300 people. It was a great experience, and it inspired a play I wrote many years later called Ham Buns and Potato Salad. One of the things I learned living in such a small town was how the community operates, unofficially. Sure, there was an official mayor and city council, but that doesn’t mean they actually ran things. There were individuals who held sway behind the scenes if they felt strongly enough about a matter. It’s the way the world works.

In today’s chapter, Luke records the events of the first missionary journey taken by Saul and Barnabas. Luke has just spent the previous few chapters explaining how the Holy Spirit led the Jewish leaders of the Jesus Movement to understand that Jesus’ Message was for all people, both Jews and non-Jews (Gentiles). Today’s chapter provides a great example of how Saul and Barnabas operated in taking Jesus’ Message to places that had never heard that message.

The first stop they made upon entering a town was the local Jewish synagogue. Saul and Barnabas started with the Jewish locals. Luke records the message Saul gave in the synagogue in Pisidian Antioch proclaiming Jesus was the resurrected Messiah. This created quite a stir and people crowded to hear more, but it angered the local Jewish leaders, so they “incited the God-fearing women of high standing and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region.”

The Jewish leaders knew the individuals in their community who held sway. Paul and Barnabas quickly went from being popular visitors to having the welcome mat yanked out from underneath them. Their response to this persecution was right out of Jesus’ playbook. They shook the dust off their feet and switched focus from the Jews to Gentiles in the area.

One of the Gentiles who became converts on this journey was a man named Sergius Paulus. He was the Roman proconsul on the island of Cyprus. He was a documented historical figure. To have a Roman official of such a high level become a believer would have been a huge deal. He wasn’t big fish in a small pond like the “women of high standing” in Pisidian Antioch. He was a big fish in a big pond. Sergius Paulus was a powerful man within the Roman Empire. As a believer, he could influence all sorts of people throughout the Empire itself. Some have argued that it was this high-profile conversion that led to Saul taking on the name Paul. He’s first called Paul in today’s chapter and will be referred to as Paul by Luke from this point on.

In the quiet this morning, I meditated on the contrasting experiences that Paul and Barnabas had with the small-town power brokers of Pisidian Antioch and the Roman Governor of Cyprus. It’s the beginning of a major shift in the Jesus Movement. It will not be long before the burgeoning number of non-Jewish Greek and Roman believers outnumber the original core of Jewish believers in the leadership of the Movement. There’s a storm on the horizon.

As a disciple of Jesus, I’ve had to understand that things change and the spiritual journey is one of constantly managing those changes. I’ve observed that organized religion, on the other hand, loves tradition and will often shun change at all costs to avoid the discomfort of change. I find this to be a tragic mistake, and one I want to avoid for the rest of my earthly journey.

Featured image is Sergius Paulus by Raphael

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Game Changer

April 2, 2024 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

He said to them: “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean.
Acts 10:28 (NIV)

When I was in high school, our school had the most diverse student population in the state of Iowa. At least, that’s what I remember being told. Between desegregation and the wave of Asian immigrants who entered the state after the Vietnam War, we had a mix of three very distinct ethnic groups. Layer on top of that mix the fact that the white kids had very distinct social groups of nerds, jocks, burnouts, etc.

Our educators created a group made up of leaders within all of these ethnic and social groups. The idea was for the leaders to get to know each other, talk to each other, and share with each other their stories and experiences. As a teenager, this experience was pretty amazing. It taught me a lot about empathy and respect for others.

I believe it is hard for a modern reader to comprehend the level of religious, cultural, and ethnic separation that existed between first-century Jews and the non-Jewish (aka Gentiles) around them. God had been clear in the Law of Moses that His people were not supposed to mistreat foreigners living among them but rather to bless them. Over time, it became less about blessing and not mistreating and simply became segregation. In today’s chapter, Peter himself says that it was inappropriate to associate with anyone who wasn’t a Jew.

Jesus had already laid down both the teaching and the example that His Message was for all people. He’d commanded the disciples to take His Message to all nations and to the ends of the earth. We’re now several years into the Jesus Movement and it’s still primarily operating as a Jewish sect centered in the Jewish capital of Jerusalem.

In telling the history of those early years, Dr. Luke chose to confine the story to some of the most pertinent events. The acceptance of, and mission to, Gentiles will be a radical game changer for the devout Jews who have, to this point, made up the core of those in the Jesus Movement. It will create huge rifts and there will be a tremendous struggle for Jewish believers to let go of the cultural divide they’ve lived and believed in their entire lives.

In setting us up for this tectonic shift, Luke shares two key events.

The first was the radical conversion of Saul, who became the greatest and most zealous proponent of taking Jesus’ Message to the Gentiles. Being educated and well-connected in the Jewish establishment, Paul will also leverage his clout and former standing to give Jewish believers an example to follow as well as comfort in the shift.

The second key event happens in today’s chapter. Peter, the undisputed leader of the Twelve, is given a vision and then a divine appointment with a Gentile. Not only was Cornelius a Gentile, but he was also a Roman Centurion who was reviled by zealous and patriotic Jews living under Roman occupation. God makes it clear to Peter that the old Jewish rules of “clean” and “unclean” food and people no longer apply. Jesus’ Message and the indwelling Holy Spirit are for people of every tribe, nation, and language.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself thinking about the cultural divides that still exist, even in my own fairly heterogeneous small town in Iowa. My job is to love others in my circles of influence, but that includes all of those with whom I have contact. Even in a small community, I confess that it is easy to stick with my peeps. How many people do I have the opportunity to engage, but choose not to because it’s uncomfortable breaking out of the normal, daily, cultural routine?

I can do better.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Same Story, Different Age

June 25, 2019 Tom Vander Well 1 Comment

Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”
Jonah 3:4 (NIV)

One of the things I’ve experienced in my continued and repeated reading through God’s Message is that every time I read through a section it is layered with new meaning simply because I am at a different place in my life journey than I was before. I’d like to think that there is some increased depth of wisdom, knowledge, and maturity to account for it. There are times, however, that simply being in a different place on life’s road experiencing different circumstances and challenges offers the opportunity to see things from a different perspective.

I am once again struck this morning by the foreshadowing in the story of Jonah of the experiences of Paul as recorded in the book of Acts.

Reading the ancient prophets can always feel like a long slog in this chapter-a-day journey. They repeat their messages of warning, judgment, instruction, and encouragement over and over again to God’s people. They perform shocking acts of public performance art as metaphorical word pictures. On and on and on they preach and proclaim, and the people rarely responded. While there were periods of repentance and spiritual renewal, most of the story is about God’s people hard-heartedly refusing to listen to God’s Message.

In Jonah’s story, we have a single prophet who proclaims a simple message of eight words. It doesn’t even name God, provide instruction, or offer encouragement. The entire city of Nineveh, from the least to the greatest, repents and seeks God’s forgiveness. An entire city of non-Jewish, Gentile people who are the key enemy of Israel, respond to one minor prophet who proclaims eight words from God.

In the book of Acts, we read of Paul going from city to city proclaiming Jesus’ message. He always began at the Jewish synagogue. More often than not, his message fell on deaf ears and hard hearts while those who were not “God’s chosen people” received it heartily, just like the Ninevites who heard Jonah’s eight-word sermon.

This morning I find myself reminded of the message we heard this past Sunday. It reminded me that life can often be like a new movie that tells an old story with different players. The Lion King is simply the story of Hamlet in the jungle with animals. In the same way, life often repeats itself. How often today are Jesus’ followers like God’s people in ancient times? Do we sit isolated in our holy huddles choosing to hate, condemn, and cast off any concern for those outside the walls of our church building as we ritualistically repeat God’s message of Jesus dying and returning to Life for all people?

“Love God,” Jesus basically said as he boiled down God’s commands, adding, “Love people; All people.” God’s Message in six words. Jonah had eight. Pretty simple, if my ears and heart are open to hearing it, believing it, and living it out.