Given a Chance

“But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip when they heard him and saw the signs that he did. For unclean spirits came out of many who were possessed, crying with a loud voice, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. So there was much joy in that city” Acts 8:3-8.

We talked in my Bible Study today as to whether life was a constant cause-and-effect scenario. Do something bad, get punished. Follow Christ, have joy and get rewards. I think I can make a somewhat general statement and say that when many of us signed on to Christianity we weren’t thoroughly communicated to that the cause-and-effect often gets tossed out the window. The early Christians barely had the opportunity to formulate full opinions about these new beliefs. Most only knew that they believed greatly in a great man that did miraculous things, and that was good enough. There wasn’t time to think of all the whys and hows, and for that matter, many of them weren’t really smart enough, or at least hadn’t been taught enough, to go there. They just believed. In our time we often haven’t thought through Christianity before committing our lives but afterwards we are given the duration of our lives to find more answers to our soul searching.

In this Bible picture the Christians are being persecuted. They’ve been forced to flee and because of this they’re scattered abroad. Philip purposely went down to Samaria. Why? No clue. But he got the wild idea to go to the half-breed Samarians, the outcasts, the ones hated more than the pure-blood Gentiles. Samaria was the capitol of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. When Israel was conquered by the Assyrians the city became a melting pot. The Israelites didn’t stay pure and instead intermarried, thus becoming half-breeds and in Jewish culture that was one of the ultimate no-nos. They mostly weren’t even supposed to talk to outsiders, much, much less intermarry. Needless to reiterate, the Jews hated the Samarians.
But Philip, being a profound Jew, went to Samaria. Now you could say he was following Christ’s example. You could actually take it a step further and say he was following Christ’s exact footsteps knowing He purposely went to Samaria before to minister there. But early Christianity stayed predominately Jewish converts for quite some time, actually with Cornelius to be the first gentile convert a couple of chapters after this story in Acts. I love this picture in Samaria. Philip has brought the good news to them. He’s performing miracles with healings and the casting out of demons. I love this picture because of the whole of it. The church by many would probably be considered in shambles. People are being murdered, some as quickly as they are converted. The strongest are being scattered and having to hide out in random places in cities where people don’t know to hate Christians yet. But it says, “So there was much joy in that city.” There was no room for sugar-coating the good news in that day. The truth of Christ’s life-saving power was very real but the parallel reality of brutal treatment and a difficult earthly life was also very apparent. Knowing this, the early preaching and telling of the good news had to also contain the news of the reality of the life a Christian would take on by committing to The Way.
But there was much joy in that city. You could say it was a fleeting happiness due to all the healing but that wouldn’t fully complete the word joy. No, this was no fleeting moment; this was joy, full, complete and lasting. I find it amazing because in our day of great religious freedom we seem to have lost this key element of joy that they felt even in imminent danger. Sometimes I wonder if Amy Carmichael said it correct when she said, “Persecution winnows the grain, and we do not want a church of chaff.”