Acts 16:16-40
16 As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by soothsaying. 17 She followed Paul and us, crying, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” 18 And this she did for many days. But Paul was annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, “I charge you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.
19 But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market place before the rulers; 20 and when they had brought them to the magistrates they said, “These men are Jews and they are disturbing our city. 21 They advocate customs which it is not lawful for us Romans to accept or practice.” 22 The crowd joined in attacking them; and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. 23 And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely. 24 Having received this charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
25 But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, 26 and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and every one’s fetters were unfastened. 27 When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” 29 And he called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas, 30 and brought them out and said, “Men, what must I do to be saved?” 31 And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32 And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all that were in his house. 33 And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their wounds, and he was baptized at once, with all his family. 34 Then he brought them up into his house, and set food before them; and he rejoiced with all his household that he had believed in God.
35 But when it was day, the magistrates sent the police, saying, “Let those men go.” 36 And the jailer reported the words to Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent to let you go; now therefore come out and go in peace.” 37 But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men who are Roman citizens, and have thrown us into prison; and do they now cast us out secretly? No! let them come themselves and take us out.” 38 The police reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens; 39 so they came and apologized to them. And they took them out and asked them to leave the city. 40 So they went out of the prison, and visited Lydia; and when they had seen the brethren, they exhorted them and departed.
If Paul, Silas and their companions were accustomed to being accosted by their fellow Jews, here now they are persecuted, beaten and arrested by Roman Gentiles. And all this prompted by the love of money. The slave-owners cynically profited from popular superstition, but faced with a genuine healing that hits their income they abandon all pretense of interest in religion. Instead of wonder they respond with rage and stir up Roman prejudice and violence against these Jews.
In the face of this, Paul, Silas and their companions display patience, courage and grace, praying and singing even while in pain from their beatings. And when the prison doors are opened what is their first thought? Not for themselves, but for their jailer. This extraordinary kindness brings the jailer to his knees.
Paul’s kindness toward the jailer is combined with bold self-respect and awareness of his own civil rights as a Roman, and he is not afraid to calmly claim them. He refuses to be servile. The Roman state has nothing to fear from the Christians, but would-be persecutors should know that the mission of Christ is ultimately invulnerable to opposition.
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Saint John Chrysostom counters objections that the jailer, like all the uneducated, was easily prone to superstition, so it is no wonder that he so quickly accepted to be a Christian. On the contrary, says Saint John, Paul would have explained to him before his baptism the difficulties, dangers and demanding cost of a “life of philosophic self-command”—far more than any Greek philosophy—of becoming a disciple of Christ. The jailer had “a great soul” and like others, “was persuaded of these things to his own peril.”
For, if a person is persuaded about any common things, it is no wonder: but if resurrection, a kingdom of heaven, a life of philosophic self-command be the subjects, and, speaking of these to persons of lowly education, one persuades them, it will be more wonderful than if one persuaded wise men. For when there is no danger attending the things of which one persuades people, then (the objector) might with some plausibility allege want of sense on their part: but when (the preacher) says—to the slave, as you will have it—“If you are persuaded by me, it is at your peril, for you will have all men for your enemies, you must die, you must suffer evils without number,” and yet for all this, convinces that man’s soul, there can be no more talk here of want of sense. Since, if indeed the doctrines contained what was pleasant, one might fairly enough say this: but if, what the philosophers would never have chosen to learn, this the slave does learn, then is the wonder greater….What then said Paul to [the jailer]? “That Christ rose again,” you say; “that there is a resurrection of the dead, and a kingdom: and he had no difficulty in persuading him, a man easily led to anything.”
How did Paul persuade him? Said he nothing about the way of life? That he must be temperate, that he must be superior to money, that he must not be unmerciful, that he must impart of his good things to others? For it cannot be said, that he was persuaded of these things as well because of the poor power of his mind; no, to be brought to all this required a great soul. For let’s assume, that as far as the doctrines went, they were rendered more apt to receive these by their want of intelligence: but to accept such a virtuous, self-denying rule of life, how could that be owing to any defect of understanding? So that the less understanding the person may have, if nevertheless he is persuaded to things to which even philosophers were unable to persuade their fellow-philosophers, the greater the wonder—when women and slaves are persuaded of these truths, and prove it by their actions, of which same truths the Platos and all the rest of them were never able to persuade any man. And why say I, “any man?” Say rather, not themselves even: on the contrary, that money is not to be despised, Plato persuaded (his disciples) by getting, as he did, such an abundance of property, and golden rings, and goblets; and that the honor to be had from the many is not to be despised, this Socrates himself shows, for all that he may philosophize without end on this point: for in everything he did, he had an eye to fame. And if you were familiar with his discourses, I might go at great length into this subject, and show what a deal of insincerity there was in them,—if at least we may believe what his disciple says of him,—and how that all his writings have their ground-work in vainglory. But, leaving them, let us direct the discourse to our own selves. For besides the things that have been said, there is this also to be added, that men were persuaded of these things to their own peril.
(On Acts, Homily 36).
Update
His Beatitude is in Washington, DC, today at the National Cathedral for the US commemoration of the Armenian genocide. He will join Archbishop Demetrios (GOA) and many other church, religious and government representatives for this event. His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, and His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia will preside.
Meanwhile, Treasurer Melanie Ringa, and I go to Dallas today for a meeting tomorrow morning with leadership in the Diocese of the South to discuss the financial resolution to be presented at the 18th All-American Council. Metropolitan Tikhon (as locum tenens of the DOS) will join us early in the afternoon and stay on in Dallas for the weekend to serve and to meet with Archimandrite Gerasim (Administrator), Father Marcus Burch (Chancellor), diocesan deans, and others.