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Week Fifteen, Day Four

Acts 15: 36-41

The delegation from Jerusalem delivered their message and then stayed for a while, helping out and strengthening the church. They had not come as authorities from on high, but as fellow ministers on the journey.

After a while, Paul decided it was time to hit the road again, so he asked Barnabas if he wanted to go and revisit those churches they had founded. Barnabas was ready, but he wanted to take John Mark with them as well. Paul didn't want Mark to go since, on the last journey, Mark had “deserted” them in Pamphylia. A sharp disagreement arose between the two, and, in the end, Barnabas took Mark and went one way while Paul took Silas and went another.

It is ironic that the Church could reach a consensus over a profoundly divisive issue, but, here, two leaders and longtime friends part ways. Every sermon and Bible study I have ever heard (or, for that matter, taught) about this incident makes a hero out of Barnabas because he gave Mark another chance, and, in the end, Mark proved to be an effective disciple. It was the same spirit in Barnabas that allowed him to take in Paul when no other Christian really trusted that his conversion was legitimate. It is why Barnabas early on was called “son of encouragement.”

Is it possible, though, that Paul had a point? The trip he was suggesting was the very one that they had taken the first time. If the course had been too much for Mark last time, what would make this one different? It was a physically challenging trip and at least one leg of it was quite dangerous. Paul wanted someone he could depend on, someone who could carry their weight, someone who wouldn't be more of a liability than an asset. This trip wasn't really about Paul or Barnabas or Mark; it was about the people they were going to serve. Paul isn't suggesting that Mark is a bad person, or that he doesn't have anything to contribute; he was concluding, from personal experience, that this trip wasn't a good match for Mark.

While we all admire Barnabas' faith and encouragement, a good deal of damage has been done in the Church by the inability of good, tenderhearted people to say, “No.” How many ministries and, for that matter, churches have suffered greatly under leaders who should have been told no? How many people have suffered in positions for which they were ill-suited because people refused to be lovingly firm? In the end, Barnabas took Mark, but they took a much easier course. We will never know who was right about this, but we do know that God used both to spread the Gospel twice as fast.

Blessings,

Michael Piazza
President, Hope for Peace & Justice

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