He is a Murderer

or maybe a god

Scripture Reading: Acts 28:1-6

              In the last chapter of the Book of Acts, Luke includes this narrative about the shipwreck that landed Paul on the island of Malta. There is a mildly humorous thread woven into the story about the Maltese people’s evaluations of Paul.

              After swimming ashore from the ship that was being ripped apart after hitting a reef off of Malta, Paul is bitten by a poisonous snake while gathering sticks for a fire. The Maltese people were doing what we all do. They were sizing up these unexpected visitors. They were categorizing them as either good or bad. In Paul’s case, they weighed the evidence at hand. He is a prisoner of the Roman government for some reason. He barely escaped death at sea. And immediately after escaping a drowning, he is bitten by a deadly serpent.

              They concluded that Paul was the worst kind of criminal. He was a murderer. They believed that the gods were exacting retribution. Paul was getting what he deserved. He was an evil man and that is why these bad things were happening to him.

              But Paul didn’t swell up, fall over, and die.

              So, they changed their minds. They said he was a god. In the opinion and judgment of the Maltese people, Paul went from being the worst kind of man to being the best kind of god in a matter of minutes. That’s funny.

              But before we laugh too hard at the Maltese people, we should look in the mirror. We aren’t likely to call anyone a god, but we do have this bent toward judging people’s moral and spiritual status based upon how life is treating them. If things are sunshine and roses, it must be because they are good folk. If there is a dark cloud from which they can’t escape, they have some hidden sin, or they are out of God’s will, or something of that sort. We are like the disciples, who once asked, “Lord, who sinned…that this man was born blind?”         

              If the experiences of Paul we read about in Acts teach us anything, they should teach us not to judge ourselves or others solely based on how life is going. A smooth road is not a sure sign of a good life. And a difficult life is not solid evidence of a depraved life.