And then Athens

Acts 17:16-34

16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So he argued in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and also in the market-place[h] every day with those who happened to be there. 18 Also some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers debated with him. Some said, ‘What does this babbler want to say?’ Others said, ‘He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign divinities.’ (This was because he was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.) 19 So they took him and brought him to the Areopagus…

22 Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, ‘Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. 23 For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, “To an unknown god.” What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. 26 From one ancestor[i] he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, 27 so that they would search for God[j] and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. 28 For “In him we live and move and have our being”; as even some of your own poets have said,

“For we too are his offspring.”

29 Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. 30 While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.’

32 When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed; but others said, ‘We will hear you again about this.’ 33 At that point Paul left them. 34 But some of them joined him and became believers, including Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

Paul is alone in Athens. He is overwhelmed by the number of idols in town. As becomes clear through the rest of the passage, he sees all the idols as a search for God on behalf of the Athenians – vs. 27 “that they would search for God and perhaps grope for Him”. Paul is heartbroken that people who are struggling to find something to fill the God-shaped vacuum in their lives (to use Augustine’s phrase) are not finding it. And he has nowhere to turn in his distress, no one he can lay his heart bear with – this is a difficult moment for Paul, alone without Christian companionship, in a city that is spiritually wandering aimlessly.

So Paul needs to be discerning in his speech in the Aeropagus, it would be so easy to sound angry, to be harsh in his condemnation of the people of Athens. Instead he wants to speak in such a way that he will get a second chance to speak, because he knows it usually takes more than one encounter with the truth that comes to us in Jesus Christ for people to turn to follow Jesus. So he speaks with winsomeness and warmth, building bridges, making connections. That does not mean he soft-sells the good news, instead it means he speaks in a way that will get a hearing that may possibly open the door to a second encounter.

There is a thought out there that says, “People may only have one chance to hear the good news about Jesus, so you have to tell them everything.” That is not how Paul functioned he knew it took more than one encounter to become a follower of Jesus – so we should be discerning and patient as we speak of the good news, trusting their will be other chances to speak of the hope that it ours in Jesus Christ.

PRAYER:

O Lord, we live at a time when people grope for you, seeking to find you, show us how to speak warmly, winsomely, compassionately, that people may want to hear more of the good news that has come to us in Jesus Christ. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.