Awaiting a Fair Hearing

Week Seven - Day 2

Today's Reading

Acts 23:1 to Acts 25:27

We last left Paul as he was about to speak to the council of Jewish religious leaders in Jerusalem.  It had been years since he was in Jerusalem, and had only been back a little over a week to bring offerings of financial relief to the Christians in that city.  Although Paul had been careful to observe all the Jewish customs, he was charged with defiling the temple and causing unrest.  As he stands before the council, the first words out of his mouth are: "Brothers, up to this day I have lived my life with a clear conscience before God" (23:1), meaning he had lived in fidelity to the Law.  The high priest doesn't like Paul's remark, obviously taking it as an insult, and orders those standing by Paul to strike him on the mouth.  There are some similarities in this scene with the questioning of Jesus when he was arrested, for Jesus was also struck on the face for his answer to the high priest.

For Paul this is only the beginning of his ordeal as he stirs up the pot among two religious factions of the Jews, the Sadducces and the Pharisees, when he gives his own credentials as a Pharisee and says, "I am on trial concerning the hope of the resurrection of the dead" (23:6).  By making a connection the Pharisees' belief in resurrection, he is also making the connection back to what Paul is proclaiming about Jesus.  As a disturbance breaks out among the Jews over this theological point, the Roman authorities rush in to take Paul back into protective custody.  The Roman authorities keep trying to understand what crimes Paul has committed, but can only see this as a religious argument and find no crimes against the state with which to charge him.  When a plot to kill Paul is discovered he is shielded from the threat because of his Roman citizenship and taken to the Roman Governor's palace in Caesarea Maritima on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea.  

There, the governor Felix seems to enjoy Paul's company and holds repeated conversations with him even as Paul is kept locked up, although he is given certain privileges.  Two years pass without any official actions being taken against Paul, and when Felix is replaced by Festus there are steps taken to get to the bottom of the matter.  Was Paul guilty of crimes, and where should he be tried?  Festus offers Paul the choice of going back to Jerusalem to appear before the Jewish religious authorities, but Paul once again plays his citizenship card and appeals to be heard before the emperor's tribunal in Rome.  Festus replied, "You have appealed to the emperor; to the emperor you will go" (25:12).

Who should now appear on the scene but King Herod Agrippa, the king who Rome allowed to rule in the region.  He has come to welcome the Festus, the new imperial representative.  Festus hopes that Agrippa can help sort out this regional dispute, because Festus has no idea what to write in his report to the Emperor Nero in Rome.  What better way than to hear directly from Paul what he thinks this is all about.  So Paul is brought before them.  What will Paul say?  Will he help his case or hurt it?