Homilies on Acts, Homily 55

“And it happened that after three days Paul called together the leaders of the Jews. When they had gathered, he said to them, Men and brothers, although I have done nothing against the people or the customs of our fathers, I was handed over as a prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans. After examining me, they wanted to release me, because there were no grounds for putting me to death. But when the Jews objected, I was forced to appeal to Caesar—not because I had anything to accuse my nation of. This is why I have called for you, to see you and speak with you: because it is for the hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain.” He wanted to clear both himself and others: himself, so that they would not accuse him and hurt themselves by doing so; and those (others), so that the whole affair would not seem to have been their doing. For a report was probably circulating that the Jews had handed him over, and this was enough to alarm them. So he addresses this and defends his own conduct. “How, then, does it make sense,” someone might ask, “that they would hand you over without a reason?” The Roman governors, he says, are my witnesses: they wanted to release me. “Then why did they not let (you) go?” “When the Jews objected,” he says. Notice how he plays down (in speaking of) their charges against him. If he had wanted to make matters worse, he could have used those charges to press harder against them. That is why he says, “I was forced to appeal to Caesar”: his whole speech expresses forgiveness. What, then? Did you do this to accuse them? No, he says: “Not because I had anything to accuse my nation of,” but so that I could escape the danger. For it is for your sake “that I am bound with this chain.” That is how far I am, he says, from feeling any hostility toward you. His speech so softened them that they, too, defended their own countrymen: “And they said to him, We have neither received letters from Judea about you, nor has any of the brothers who came reported or spoken any evil of you.” (v. 21.) Neither by letters nor through messengers have they made anything bad about you known. Nevertheless, we want to hear from you yourself: “But we want to hear from you what you think” (v. 22). Then they anticipated his reply by revealing their own views. “For as for this sect, we know that it is spoken against everywhere. And when they had set a day with him, many came to him at his lodging. He explained and testified to them about the kingdom of God, trying to persuade them about Jesus from both the Law of Moses and the Prophets, from morning until evening. And some believed what was said, and some did not believe.” (v. 23, 24.) They did not say, We speak against it, but, “It is spoken against.” Then he did not answer immediately, but set a day for them, and they came to him, and he spoke, it says, “from both the Law of Moses and the Prophets. And some believed, and some did not believe. And when they disagreed among themselves, they left after Paul had made one statement: The Holy Spirit spoke well through Isaiah the prophet to our fathers, saying, Go to this people and say, You will hear and hear, but will not understand; you will see and see, but will not perceive. For this people’s heart has grown dull, and their ears are hard of hearing, and they have closed their eyes, so that they will not see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, turn, and have Me heal them.” (v. 25–27.) But when they left, divided against one another, he rebuked them, not because he wanted to rebuke those (that believed not), but to strengthen these (that believed). “Isaiah spoke well,” he tells them. So this mystery is given to the Gentiles to know. It is no wonder, then, that they contradicted him: this had been foretold from the beginning. Then he again stirs their jealousy (on the score) of the Gentiles. “So know this: the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it. And when he had said these words, the Jews left and had a great debate among themselves. And Paul stayed two full years in his own rented house and welcomed everyone who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with complete confidence, with no one stopping him. Amen.” (v. 28–31.) This shows the freedom he now had: the man who had faced obstruction in Judea was unhindered in Rome, and he stayed there teaching for two years. What about the (years) after these? (Recapitulation.) (d) “After examining me,” he says, “they found nothing against me” (v. 18). When those men should have rescued him, they “handed (him) over to the Romans.” And the evidence was so abundant, * * because those men had no power to condemn him but handed him over as a prisoner. I have come, “not because I had anything to accuse my nation of” (v. 19). See how warmly he speaks: “my nation.” He does not treat them as foreigners. He does not say, I am not accusing them, but, “I have nothing (whereof) to accuse them,” although he had suffered so many evils at their hands. Yet he says none of this and does not make his speech offensive; nor does he seem to be sparing them as a favor. For the main point was to show that they handed him over to the Romans as a prisoner, when those men should have condemned him if he had been guilty. (a) “This is why,” he says, “I wanted to see you” (v. 20): so that no one could accuse me and say what (naturally) might come to mind (τὰ παριστάμενα), that after escaping their hands I have come for this purpose: not to bring evils on others, but to flee from evils myself. “I was forced to appeal to Caesar.” Notice that they, too, speak more gently to him. “We ask,” they say, and they want to speak in defense of those (at Jerusalem). (e) When they should accuse them, they plead for them: by the very act of clearing them, they actually accuse them. (b) For this very thing proved that they knew they were deeply in the wrong. If they had been confident, they would at least have done this, so that he could not tell the story entirely his own way; besides, they were reluctant to come. And by their repeated attempts they showed * * (f) “As for this sect,” they say, “we know that it is spoken against everywhere.” (v. 21, 21.) True, but (people) everywhere are also persuaded (as, in fact, here): “some were persuaded, and some did not believe. And when they had set a day with him,” etc. (v. 23–25.) See again how he silences them through the Law and the Prophets instead of miracles, and how we always find him doing this. Yet he could also have performed signs; but then it would no longer have been a matter of faith. In fact, this (itself) was a great sign: his speaking from the Law and the Prophets. Then, so that you will not find it strange (that they believed not), he introduces the prophecy that says, “You will hear and hear, but will not understand,” more now than then; “and you will see and not perceive” (v. 26), more now than then. This is not said for the first group, but for the unbelievers. How, then? Did the fact that those others believed contradict the prophecy? It says, (“Go,”) “to this people” (that is), to the unbelieving people. He did not say this to insult them, but to remove the stumbling block. “So know this,” he says, “the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles. They,” he says, “will hear it too.” (v. 28.) Then why are you speaking to us? Did you not know this? Yes, but I spoke so that you might be persuaded, and so that I might clear myself and give no one grounds for an accusation (against me). (c) It was the unbelievers who withdrew. But see how they no longer plot against him. For in Judea they exercised a kind of tyranny. Then why did God’s Providence arrange for him to go there, even though the Lord had said, “Get out of Jerusalem quickly”? (ch. xxii. 18.) So that their wickedness would be exposed and Christ’s prophecy fulfilled, that they would not bear to hear him; so that everyone would learn that he was ready to suffer anything; and so that what happened would comfort those in Judea, for there, too, (the brethren) were suffering many terrible evils. But if he suffered this way while preaching Jewish doctrines, how could they have tolerated him if he had preached the doctrines of Christ’s glory? They could not tolerate him while he was “purifying himself” (ch. xxi. 26), so how could they have tolerated him while preaching? What charge do you bring against him? What have you heard? He said nothing of the kind. The mere sight of him stirred everyone to fury against him. It made sense, then, for him to be set apart for the Gentiles; it made sense for him to be sent far away, destined to speak to the Gentiles there as well. First he calls the Jews, then, after showing them the facts, he turns to the Gentiles. (ch. xxiv. 18.) “The Holy Spirit spoke well,” etc. But the statement, “The Spirit said,” is nothing remarkable: for an angel, too, is said to say what the Lord says. But that is not the case with Him (the Spirit). When someone speaks of things said by an angel, he does not say, The angel spoke well, but, The Lord spoke well. “The Spirit spoke well”: this amounts to saying, It is not me you refuse to believe. But God foreknew this from the beginning. “He spoke,” it says, “boldly, unhindered” (v. 31), for it is possible to speak boldly and still be hindered. Nothing checked his boldness, but he also actually spoke unhindered. (c) He “spoke,” it says, “about the things concerning the kingdom of God.” Notice: nothing about things perceived by the senses, nothing about the things of this present life. (f) But what do we say about what happened to him after the two years? (b) (The writer) leaves the hearer thirsty for more. Pagan authors do the same (in their writings), for knowing everything makes the reader dull and weary. Or else he does this, (e) because he cannot describe it from his own personal knowledge. (a) Notice how God’s Providence arranges things: “I have often been kept from coming to you…having had a great desire for many years to come to you.” (Rom. xv. 22, 23.) (d) But he kept their hopes alive. (g) I am eager to go to Spain, and “I hope,” he says, “to see you on my journey and to have you help me on my way there, if I first have my fill of your company to some extent.” (ib. 24.) (i) About this he says, I will come and rest together with you “in the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel” (ib. 29); and again, “I am going to Jerusalem to serve the saints” (ib. 25). This is the same thing he has said here: “I came to give aid to my nation.” (Acts xxiv. 17.) (h) Do you see how he did not foresee everything—that sacred and divine head, the man higher than the heavens, whose soul could grasp everything at once, who held first place—Paul? The man whose very name, for those who know him, is enough to stir the soul, make it watchful, and shake off all sleep! Rome received him in chains, arriving from the sea, rescued from a shipwreck—and was itself rescued from the shipwreck of error. Like an emperor who had fought and won a naval battle, he entered that most imperial city. (k) He was now closer to his crown. Rome received him in chains and saw him crowned and proclaimed the victor. There he had said, I will rest together with you; but this was the beginning of another race, and he added trophies to trophies, a man who could not be defeated. Corinth kept him two years, Asia three, and this city two on this occasion; he entered it again a second time, when his life also reached its completion. So he escaped then, and after filling the whole world, he brought his life to its close. Why did you want to learn what happened after these two years? Those years, too, were like these: chains, tortures, battles, imprisonments, ambushes, false accusations, deaths, day after day. Have you seen only a small part of it? However much you have seen, he is the same throughout the rest. It is like the sky: if you see one part of it, wherever you go you will see it just like this. It is like the sun: even if you see only some of its rays, you can infer the rest. So it is with Paul. You have seen part of his Acts; they are like this throughout, overflowing with dangers. He was a heaven containing the Sun of Righteousness, not a sun like the one (we see), so that this man was better than heaven itself. Do you think it is a small thing that when you say “The Apostle,” everyone immediately thinks of him (as), when you say “The Baptist,” they immediately think of John? What can anyone compare his words to? The sea, or even the ocean? But nothing equals them. (His) streams flow more abundantly than this (sea); they are purer and deeper. So it would be no mistake to call Paul’s heart both a sea and a heaven: one for its purity, the other for its depth. He is a sea whose voyagers travel from earth to heaven, rather than from city to city. Anyone who sails on this sea will have a prosperous voyage. On this sea, the Holy and Divine Spirit carries the souls sailing on it in place of the winds. There are no waves here, no rocks, no monsters; everything is calm. It is a sea calmer and safer than a harbor, with no bitter salt water, but a pure spring both sweeter than * * and brighter and clearer than the sun. It is a sea containing neither precious stones nor purple dye like ours, but treasures far better than those. Anyone who wants to descend into this sea needs no divers, needs no oil, but needs great kindness and love for others (φιλανθρωπίας). He will find in it all the good things in the kingdom of Heaven. He will even be able to become a king, take possession of the whole world, and receive the greatest honor. Whoever sails on this sea will never be shipwrecked, but will understand everything well. But just as those who lack experience in this (our visible sea) drown (in attempting to dive therein), so it is in that other sea. This is exactly what happens to heretics when they attempt things beyond their strength. So we must know its depth, or else not venture into it. If we are going to sail on this sea, let us come with our belts fastened, ready for action. “I could not,” he says, “speak to you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh.” (1 Cor. iii. 1.) Let no one without endurance sail on this sea. Let us equip ourselves with ships—that is, zeal, earnestness, and prayers—so that we may cross the sea in peace. For this truly is the living water. Just as if someone were given a mouth of fire, that is the kind of mouth a person gains by knowing Paul well; just as if someone had a sharp sword, that person becomes invincible. Understanding Paul’s words also requires a pure life. That is also why he said, “You have become people who need milk, since you are slow to hear.” (Heb. v. 11, 12.) For there is, there is a sickness of hearing. Just as a weak stomach cannot take in wholesome food (which it finds) hard to digest, so a soul that has become swollen and feverish, slack and weak, cannot receive the word of the Spirit. Listen to the disciples saying, “This is a hard saying: who can hear it?” (John vi. 60.) But if the soul is strong and healthy, everything is very easy, everything is light. It rises higher and becomes more buoyant, better able to soar and lift itself up. Knowing these things, then, let us bring our soul into a healthy condition. Let us follow Paul’s example and imitate that noble soul, that soul as hard as diamond, so that, following in the footsteps of his life, we may be able to sail through the sea of this present life, reach the harbor where there are no waves, and obtain the good things promised to those who love Him, through the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, with Whom, to the Father and the Holy Spirit together, be glory, might, and honor, now and always, forever and ever. Amen.