"Justice" or God

"Once we were safe on shore, we learned that we were on the island of Malta. The people of the island were very kind to us. It was cold and rainy, so they built a fire on the shore to welcome us.

 As Paul gathered an armful of sticks and was laying them on the fire, a poisonous snake, driven out by the heat, bit him on the hand.  The people of the island saw it hanging from his hand and said to each other, 'A murderer, no doubt! Though he escaped the sea, justice will not permit him to live.'

But Paul shook off the snake into the fire and was unharmed. The people waited for him to swell up or suddenly drop dead. But when they had waited a long time and saw that he wasn’t harmed, they changed their minds and decided he was a god."
Acts 28:1-6

Reflection
 
This is it, the last chapter of Acts. The “Big Bang” of Christianity has taken place and it’s taken less than 30 years to take root from Israel to Italy. We’ve read how people repented and were radically transformed at Pentecost in the early 30’s. We’ve followed Stephen and Peter and James as they sought to bring the Gospel to Jews and non Jews alike. Some died, all were in danger. But they never denied what they knew to be true. We’ve seen how the church handled conflict and remained unified and by now we have traveled with Paul almost 30 years leaving a trail of churches behind on his way to Rome.

But now he’s shipwrecked on the Island of Malta just south of Sicily. And he’s bitten by a fatally poisonous snake. Common wisdom proclaims that “what goes around comes around”, “sooner or later everyone gets what he deserves”. Since Paul was snakebit he must have been a bad guy. But no, he doesn’t die! He must be a god.

Snakes and the sea in the ancient world were symbols for evil, chaos, and death. Paul had come through both and lived. Yet as we shall see, it is not, nor is it ever some abstract cosmic force of justice to which we are subject, but God. And this God is not subject to anything. No, Paul understood well, and from heaven would hope that we understand too, that none of us are ultimately subject to what we deserve, nor, when are blessed nevertheless, is it because we have earned it. Rather we are subject to God who gives what we do not deserve and seeks to rescue us, if we are willing, from what we do deserve.

Today's Prayer

“Lord, thank you for reminding me that you give me what I have not earned or deserved. Like Paul I deserve to have succumbed to the snake. Yet I live. Please help me more and more and more to live out of simple gratitude, with a resultant deep sense of calling and for Your pleasure. In Christ, I pray. Amen”