Monday, November 2, 2009
Oak & Linden trees and modern day evangelism strategies! - Acts 14:8-23
8:00 PM | 
Posted by
Fidel V
Whats the story?
Apparently one day the gods Zeus and Hermes looked over to a town in the region of Tyana, which Ovid places in Phrygia, and as legend would have it had become corrupted and mistreated the travelers and visitors.
So one day Zeus and Hermes came disguised as ordinary peasants and began asking the people of the town for a place to sleep during that night. They were rejected by all, before they came to an old and retired couple named Baucis and Philemon. Even though the couple were poor, they showed more pity than their rich neighbors, where "all the doors bolted and no word of kindness given, so wicked were the people of that land."
After serving the two guests food and wine, Baucis noticed that although she had refilled her guest's beech wood cups many times, the wine pitcher was still full. Realizing that her guests were in fact gods, she and her husband "raised their hands in supplication and implored indulgence for their simple home and fare." Philemon thought of catching and killing the goose that guarded their house and making it into a meal for the guests. But when Philemon went to catch the goose, it ran onto Zeus's lap for safety. Zeus said that they did not need to slay the goose and that they should leave the town. Zeus said that he was going to destroy the town and all the people who had turned him away and not provided due hospitality. He said Baucis and Philemon should climb the mountain with him and not turn back until they reached the top.
After climbing the mountain to the summit ("as far as an arrow could shoot in one pull"), Baucis and Philemon looked back on the town and saw that it had been destroyed by a flood. However, Zeus had turned Baucis and Philemon's cottage into an ornate temple. The couple was also granted a wish; they chose to stay together forever and to be guardians of the temple. They also requested that when it came time for one of them to die, the other would die as well. Upon their death, they were changed into an intertwining pair of trees, one oak and one linden, standing in the deserted boggy terrain.
This story was common among the area of Lystra and greek speaking regions, where it spreaded, thus embodying the pious exercise of hospitality, the ritualized guest-friendship termed xenia.
Acts 14:8-23
Two generations after the writing of said "poem/moral fable", Paul and Barnabas, enter the city of Lystra, full of determination and empowered through the Spirit, Paul immedately recognizes both need and faith, in the eyes of a man who could not walk from birth, and thus another chance is given by the Lord to ratify his message through the apostles to the city of Lystra, by means of signs and wonders (14:3), and as fate would have it, this amazing sign of grace and power, shown by God through the apostles falls into hardened hearts, that are confused and fail to worship the creator and opt to worship the creation, the root of all sin, and thus evoking quite the reaction from the apostles who shred their upper garments (a well known sign of grief in ancient times).
It is interesting to see how this whole episode drove the Lystran's who both revolted by Jews, and affirmed in the hardening of their hearts, to not only reject the message, but in their sin, go against their own customary belief of guest-friendliness, inspired by their own pop culture and stone Paul outside the city.
The Reshaped Journey
What is extremely noteworthy in such an event is Paul's resilience under such adversity and albeit near death experience, that he decides not only to keep spreading the gospel to another city, but in fact come back to Lystra and build up leaders for the church. An amazing display of God's grace and Paul's obedience.
How do we, in the midst of modern church evangelism settings take this to heart? how can we endure in spite of taunts from college roommates, or peer pressure from friends, or perhaps our own fears of rejection, from preaching the Gospel to another? are we willing to pay the price?
Welcome to the world of 1st century popular moral fables in Lystra: A famous greek mythology moral fable written by the roman poet Publius Ovidius Naso in his book Metamorphoses, VIII goes something like this:
Apparently one day the gods Zeus and Hermes looked over to a town in the region of Tyana, which Ovid places in Phrygia, and as legend would have it had become corrupted and mistreated the travelers and visitors.
So one day Zeus and Hermes came disguised as ordinary peasants and began asking the people of the town for a place to sleep during that night. They were rejected by all, before they came to an old and retired couple named Baucis and Philemon. Even though the couple were poor, they showed more pity than their rich neighbors, where "all the doors bolted and no word of kindness given, so wicked were the people of that land."
After serving the two guests food and wine, Baucis noticed that although she had refilled her guest's beech wood cups many times, the wine pitcher was still full. Realizing that her guests were in fact gods, she and her husband "raised their hands in supplication and implored indulgence for their simple home and fare." Philemon thought of catching and killing the goose that guarded their house and making it into a meal for the guests. But when Philemon went to catch the goose, it ran onto Zeus's lap for safety. Zeus said that they did not need to slay the goose and that they should leave the town. Zeus said that he was going to destroy the town and all the people who had turned him away and not provided due hospitality. He said Baucis and Philemon should climb the mountain with him and not turn back until they reached the top.
After climbing the mountain to the summit ("as far as an arrow could shoot in one pull"), Baucis and Philemon looked back on the town and saw that it had been destroyed by a flood. However, Zeus had turned Baucis and Philemon's cottage into an ornate temple. The couple was also granted a wish; they chose to stay together forever and to be guardians of the temple. They also requested that when it came time for one of them to die, the other would die as well. Upon their death, they were changed into an intertwining pair of trees, one oak and one linden, standing in the deserted boggy terrain.
This story was common among the area of Lystra and greek speaking regions, where it spreaded, thus embodying the pious exercise of hospitality, the ritualized guest-friendship termed xenia.
Acts 14:8-23
Two generations after the writing of said "poem/moral fable", Paul and Barnabas, enter the city of Lystra, full of determination and empowered through the Spirit, Paul immedately recognizes both need and faith, in the eyes of a man who could not walk from birth, and thus another chance is given by the Lord to ratify his message through the apostles to the city of Lystra, by means of signs and wonders (14:3), and as fate would have it, this amazing sign of grace and power, shown by God through the apostles falls into hardened hearts, that are confused and fail to worship the creator and opt to worship the creation, the root of all sin, and thus evoking quite the reaction from the apostles who shred their upper garments (a well known sign of grief in ancient times).
It is interesting to see how this whole episode drove the Lystran's who both revolted by Jews, and affirmed in the hardening of their hearts, to not only reject the message, but in their sin, go against their own customary belief of guest-friendliness, inspired by their own pop culture and stone Paul outside the city.
The Reshaped Journey
What is extremely noteworthy in such an event is Paul's resilience under such adversity and albeit near death experience, that he decides not only to keep spreading the gospel to another city, but in fact come back to Lystra and build up leaders for the church. An amazing display of God's grace and Paul's obedience.
How do we, in the midst of modern church evangelism settings take this to heart? how can we endure in spite of taunts from college roommates, or peer pressure from friends, or perhaps our own fears of rejection, from preaching the Gospel to another? are we willing to pay the price?
God reminds us that even though, we may face rejection and adversity while sharing his word, He remains in control and has a purpose in our suffering, not all the people in Lystra rejected God's message, Paul even returns to strengthen church leadership. Paul's words must echo as a standard for believers who wish to carry out the Great Commission, "through many tribulations we must enter the Kingdom of God" and granted some might find this phrase to entail somewhat of a negative connotation, it is the latter part of it where we should look for strength, for by faith in Jesus we have already entered in it, and even the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
Labels:
barnabas,
baucis,
evangelism,
hermes,
lystra,
moral fable,
mythology,
oak and linden trees,
paul,
philemon,
phryrgia,
zeus
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