Lectionary: 293
When they heard about resurrection of the dead, some began to scoff, but others said, “We should like to hear you on this some other time.”
And so Paul left them.
Elites, like those in first century Athens, like to consider themselves open-minded and willing to hear any new or good idea. But there are limits; new ideas should fit into what is already known and accepted. If they're coming from out of nowhere like a bolt from the blue or or a revelation from heaven, they're not so welcome.
Saint Paul presented himself well in Athens. He belonged in that crowd of well-educated, sophisticated intellectuals who know how the world works and how to make it work for them. He began his address on that pleasant day in the agora with the familiar story of God creating the universe. Jews and Greeks more or less agreed on that, although the Greeks accepted it more for lack of a better explanation. Their creation story didn't include a generous god whose expression of pure goodness erupts in the appearance of beauty, life, joy, and boundless patience with ungrateful creatures. But neither were these elites unfamiliar with Jewish philosophy. Some of it made sense and some of it was appealing.
So they went with the Apostle up to a certain point. However, when he announced that God's supreme generosity restored a crucified messiah to life and revealed him as the judge of all the living, they pulled out. This was too much. It doesn't fit; it's outlandish; and besides, we're subject to no one's judgment.
As much as things change, they stay the same. Today's elites and their wannabes are still loath to deal with anyone rising from the dead. Or death, for that matter. Life is a cabaret, not a vale of tears.
Paul won a few converts in Athens but he went away disappointed. Learning from the experience, he would speak simply of Christ and him crucified. He wrote to the Corinthians:
When I came to you, brothers, proclaiming the mystery of God, I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling, and my message and my proclamation were not with persuasive (words of) wisdom, but with a demonstration of spirit and power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.
As important as the Resurrection is, it means nothing without the Crucifixion. Perhaps this is why the Gospel accounts of Jesus's crucifixion are so detailed and the Easter appearances, so sketchy.
That explains also Paul's reformed method of preaching. Rather than strut and fret his hour upon the stage like an all-powerful god who created the world, he would behave like the humble Lord who was led like a lamb to slaughter. The Apostle came to Corinth in weakness and fear and with much trembling. He did not attempt to persuade but preferred to demonstrate God's spirit.
So long as Christians are human we will feel the temptation to power. We will want to awe the gullible, coerce the uncertain, and destroy opposition. And so long as there is a Holy Spirit we will suffer humiliations like Paul's defeat in Athens. But we will also be surprised like the farmer who knows not how the grain ripens, when people flock to know Jesus Christ and him crucified.
I noticed this morning two serious mistakes that Saint Paul made in his address to the Athenians. First, he suggested that Jesus might be the "unknown god," as if he might have a place among the idols of Greece and Rome. But if the Lord says anything to the gods it will be from Psalm 82: I declare: “Gods though you be, offspring of the Most High all of you, yet like any mortal you shall die; like any prince you shall fall.”
ReplyDeleteSecondly, and worse, Saint Paul makes no mention of the crucifixion of Jesus. He might have supposed the Athenian elite were not ready to hear it, but those who don't know the crucifixion do not know the LORD. He'll not make that mistake again. Henceforth he will preach "Christ and him crucified!"