On Laying Down Our Rights

Read: Acts 22: 22-29

I recommend you read, once again, Rev. Ben’s devotion on Oct 20.

The Biblical narrative takes us today to Paul, preaching the Gospel again. The story sounds familiar - he preaches the Gospel, people get mad, and Paul gets in trouble. But in this narrative the story takes an interesting turn. Paul, if you recall, was born in Tarsus, which was a Roman city. Thus, he was born a Roman citizen, a very, very privileged position to be indeed! Now, keep in mind that Paul could’ve flashed his “I’m a Roman” card then and got away with everything, but instead Paul allowed himself to be dragged to the interrogation room. As Americans, we might be tempted to yell at Paul, “flash your Roman card, you silly!!”
The commander dragged Paul into a cell and ordered for him to be flogged and then interrogated (yep... flog first, then ask questions). The centurions stripped him and as they stretched him (quite painfully) onto the whipping pole, Paul then flashed his Roman card (vs. 25b). Now, Paul has knowingly thrown a legal bomb at the centurions. A Roman was supposed to be walked in, questioned respectfully by the commander, and if the offender was guilty the punishment, at worst, would’ve been jail time.

Now, if the person arrested were naturalized (i.e. were not born a Roman but paid lots of moolah to be one), the rules might slide a little bit, but for a born Roman, the rules were to be followed to the T! For Paul to have been dragged in, stripped, and stretched for whipping was already a punishable crime for the commander and his subordinates! What’s worse - the Roman commander himself was not a born-Roman, but only wealthy enough to pay for citizenship! If news of this leaked out to Rome, he’d lose his citizenship (at best) or lose his life (at worst and likely the case).
In America, we’re often used to, or even taught, to protect our rights. When someone cuts in front of us, we’d object and go, “Uh, there’s a line...” When someone cuts someone off on the highway, we’d quickly go crazy on the horns on an angry road-rage-rampage. I, for one, value my right to have my thoughts. If someone tells me I’m wrong for no reasons, I’d scoff back and go, “Ugh ... quite dumb...” (nobody at WCAC and none of my friends fall into this category, by the way).

But as Christians, we were taught to be gracious and loving, patient and longsuffering. Yes, our rights are not to be taken lightly, but we need to understand that sometimes to be a good witness we need to lay them down. Yes, that might even mean letting others take advantage of us! In Asia, this is suicidal.
My mom saw a news item on Taiwanese TV that she found quite humorous in a grotesque way. A thief at a Christian rehabilitation center was crying inconsolably, telling a Christian counselor that he was unable to pay his bills and feed his two year old. The counselor was moved and gave him NT$1000. She gave him a hug... which the thief used to pickpocket her entire wallet. Now, I find it hard to blame the poor counselor who was simply trying to be a witness for Christ.

Now, she could’ve prosecuted the guy to Cloud 9, but she calmly forgave him and was satisfied when the police returned her stolen wallet and money. You might call her “unwise” or even “dumb” for even paying attention to the bum, but I think we need to praise God that there’s someone like her in a place like Taiwan. She gave up her right to go home safely with nothing stolen in order to be a witness to Christ, even though the thief used it as an opportunity to profit illegally.

Last week I wrote about St. Eulalia, who gave her life in the name of Christ at a tender age of 13. Eulalia had the right to live a normal teenage life, to get married to some nice guy, to raise great children, to live to a ripe old age. We all take this right for granted when we are/were teens. But St. Eulalia gave that right up in order that she may never deny the name of Christ! In the eyes of the world, it’s pure folly, but to St. Eulalia, the name of Christ is so precious to her she never denied it!

When we lay down our rights for Christ, He allows beautiful things to happen. The Taiwanese news unfortunately didn’t continue on, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the thief came to Christ one day. St. Eulalia’s death galvanized the nation of Spain. To this day, Spain is 95% Catholic because of her testimony. And as for Paul, his careful timing paid off. The Roman commander didn’t want his mistake to reach the ears of Rome, so he took every effort to protect Paul from everyone who wanted him dead. Within a few months, Paul was on his way to Rome.

PRAYER CALENDAR
Wednesday: Pray for friends (inside and outside church)
Pray for your non-Christian friends. That they will not be swayed by negative pressures.