This Sunday’s sermon will start out with my own up-close personal snake encounter, a few years ago at our cabin in Arizona. Though I didn’t get bit like Paul in our text from Acts 28:1-10, I was unexpectedly nose-to-nose with a rattler I hadn’t noticed when I went to connect a garden hose. I can’t read about Paul’s experience without remembering that one.
As we heard last week from the second half of Acts 27, Paul was shipwrecked and came ashore on the island of Malta. No poisonous snakes are found there today, though there is no reason to doubt their presence in ancient times. Human antipathy to snakes is such that increasing population and habitation would naturally drive out the venomous creatures.
In my own snake story, our rescuer came in the form of a fellow who loved snakes and found them beautiful. He captured the critter I encountered and removed it to a safe distance from our cabin. Though it may sound odd, I’m moved to think how God loves us and finds us worth the gift of His Son despite all our “snakelike” attributes and sin.
In the text, verse 2, the translations call the Maltese folks “islanders” or “natives,” but the actual word in Greek is barbaroi, “barbarians.” Though it may not have the overtones of violent nature we associate with “barbarian” today, the term certainly meant uncouth, uneducated, non-Greek speaking peoples of the ancient world.
Yet these “barbarians” are lovely in God’s eyes. They show “unusual kindness” to Paul and the rest of the shipwrecked company. The leading man of the Maltese takes Paul and friends into his own home and abundantly provisions them for the final leg of the journey to Rome. We can only guess, because the text does not say, but almost certainly Paul shared the Good News with them and some became Christians. The text does say that Paul healed the leader’s father and many others on Malta. Salvation came to despised “barbarians.”
The kindness of the ancient Maltese and God’s grace to them through Paul are important reminders to us in these times. Many around us are more likely to view strangers and foreigners as dangerous as snakes and deny them help if not kill them outright. Even when some people of different color or language are admitted into a community they may be viewed as “barbarian” and inferior. Paul’s sojourn on Malta reminds us that we will often be blessed in interactions with those different from us and that they are all beautiful in His eyes.
well put Steve. sometimes, in fact in this time, the snake is close to home. and sometimes the stranger is the angel we entertain unawares when we remain open to our tradition of xtian hospitality.
as you know, i have a son who loves snakes–but reptilelike humans are a challenge for me.
trying for more patience and hoping for better days.
Thanks, Craig. It’s always a pleasure to hear from you. May the Lord give us both more patience with those who cause themselves to appear less than human in compassion and morality. They are God’s to judge, forgive or deal with how He chooses.