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Week Twenty, Day Four

Acts 27: 39-28: 10

After giving thanks, Paul fed everyone on board the ship, and, as day broke, they saw a bay on the coast of Malta that looked promising. As they made to sail into it, though, the ship struck a reef and began to break apart. Soon they were all in the sea—prisoners, soldiers and sailors. Fortunately, though, Paul had kept all the sailors on board long enough that they were now close enough to swim to shore. Those who couldn't swim held onto pieces of the ship, and, ultimately, they all made it safely to shore, just as Paul had promised.

Now, if that wasn't enough drama for one day, as they build a fire to warm and dry themselves, Paul picks up some wood and a snake bites his hand. He shakes the snake off into the fire, but everyone watching decides he must really be guilty because, though he survived the shipwreck, now he was going to die of snakebite.

Of course, that doesn't happen, so some of the natives decide he must be a god. It apparently never occurred to them that some snakes aren't poisonous. Still, it made a good impression, so they spent three months on the island and were offered gracious hospitality. Paul is able to preach and minister all the while, until it is safe once again to resume their journey.

After all this drama, the ending of the book of Acts is very anticlimactic. Ultimately, Paul arrives in Rome where he is allowed to live and work, preach and teach, for two whole years while awaiting his appointment with Caesar. Luke never tells us what happens when that time comes, and tradition holds that much of Paul's writings came from this time.

To modern readers, it seems exceedingly disappointing that Acts doesn't tell us how the story turned out. Here we have journeyed with Paul for years, but we don't know if he lived or died. There are numerous traditions about that. Most hold that he was released ultimately, only to be rearrested and beheaded later by the notorious Emperor Nero. Luke doesn't tell us that though. Why?

Perhaps it was because Luke understood that this really wasn't Paul's story. Luke set out before Bethlehem to tell how this Jesus got from Galilee to Rome. In the first volume (the gospel of Luke) the story is of the physical journey of Jesus of Nazareth. In this second volume, he has been telling us how the risen body of Christ—the Church—traveled to the very heart of what was then the known world. Faithful servants like Peter, and Steven, and Barnabas, and Lydia, and Aquila and Priscilla, and, ultimately, Paul became the incarnation of the Spirit of Jesus.

Perhaps Luke stops the story because he knows that faithful servants like you are still writing it.

Blessings,

Michael Piazza
President, Hope for Peace & Justice

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