Acts, Chapter 22 (NRSV)Something that has been mentioned before in the Book of Acts now becomes very important. Paul is a Roman citizen by birth. As we read the story of the riot in Jerusalem which occurs because of Paul's defense of his faith, there are numerous parallels between the "trial" of Jesus and the "trial" of Paul. But at the moment the flogging by the Roman garrison is about to begin, Paul mentions to the centurion in charge that he is a Roman citizen. The action immediately changes. Torturing a Roman citizen without due process is a capital crime in the Empire.
There is great surprise on the part of the garrison commander when he learns this news. The commander had purchased his citizenship - at great cost. Paul was a freeborn Roman, which gave him higher status that the new man who had threatened to torture him. To the readers of Luke's time this would have made perfect sense, though to us it does seem a bit ironic that such a small thing would make such a large difference in how Paul was going to be treated.
Augustus of Hippo, in his comments on this passage, points out that what Paul valued the most, his relationship with Jesus, and his knowledge that Jesus was the Messiah that the prophets had foretold mattered the least to the crowd and to the Romans. What Paul seems to have cared about the least, his birthright as a Roman citizen, was the thing that the powers of the world valued most highly. There's a clear upside down relationship between what Paul thinks and what the world thinks. Chrysostom sees a further teaching in this moment; God is going to use the birthright of Paul, which Paul only mentions offhandedly to the guard (remember Paul has already earlier been whipped and beaten in other cities), to be the means by which Paul will join Peter in Rome. And it's in Rome that both will be martyred.
There are two things in this account that I think are worth meditating upon. The first is that Paul does not value the things the world values. Paul is running after something completely different. It's hard even today to not imagine a look of triumph on Paul's face as he surprises the garrison commander with the news of his citizenship. But that's a projection of our own values onto the story. Paul does not seem to be concerned about what he is about to suffer. In some ways you have to wonder why he brought the fact of his citizenship up at all. Was he concerned about the punishment is torturer might endure when the truth came out? Did he see that a reprieve might allow him another chance to proclaim the Gospel? We really can't tell. All we can be sure of is that Paul behaving differently than many of us would. What would have to change in us to be able to be like Paul in this moment?
The second thing that I find worth meditating on in this story is that God is going to use this reversal, based as it is on human rather than divine values, to accomplish Paul's final goal of proclaiming the Gospel in the great capital of the Gentile world. Once again God is drawing a straight path using crooked lines. That's something that is writ most large in the events of Holy Week isn't it? God uses our fear, our cowardice, our willingness to hide from the light to accomplish the salvation of the world. The early church used to say that on Easter Day, God used the values of God's opponents to overcome them. The forces which oppose God's will can't in the end succeed because they are fundamentally flawed, they are bent inward on themselves.
How have you seen God using the parts of you that you struggle with the most to do things that in end give you great joy? It's hard to recognize that God is doing that in the moment it is happening, but I find that in hindsight I can often see this principle at work in my own life. Can you see it in yours?
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