Another King Named Jesus

Lydia by Maria Elkins

The Lectionary suggests the account of Paul’s coming to Philippi of Macedonia from Acts 16:9-15. I was intrigued by Lydia’s invitation to host Paul and his group in her home, and that they accepted. (v. 15) Nothing is said about Lydia’s marital status. Whether she had a husband, was widowed or single, she clearly seems to have been a business woman of independent means sufficient to own a home large enough to host an itinerant group. Nothing in the text indicates any hesitation about her hosting men or concern about the reactions of her neighbors.

Apparently in places far from Israel that did not have enough Jews to form a synagogue with ten adult men, the Jews who were there would gather for Sabbath prayer by a river or other body of water. This group in Philippi was apparently all women. We can only speculate about the absence of men. Were these Jewish women all married to Gentile men? In a Roman colony, were the Jewish men required to work on Sabbath? As seems typical in some contexts, were the women the ones keeping the religious fervor alive while the men followed their own pursuits? Lydia was apparently not Jewish but had attached herself to this group as a “worshipper of God” (literally “God fearer”). This expression was used for Gentiles who did not go through formal conversion to Judaism but learned from Jews to pray to and worship the God of Abraham. Whether she had become a somewhat informal leader of this group, she did respond to the teaching about Jesus from Paul’s company and put this new faith into prompt action through her hospitality. Again with no direct indication of this in the text, Lydia may have been more receptive to the Gospel of Jesus by being somewhat of an outsider to both the Jewish group and the Roman culture, by virtue of her pursuit of the God of Israel. To me this seems consistent with the Gospel’s particular appeal to those who don’t quite fit in, which is an extension of those to whom Jesus was especially attractive. 

This set me to speculating on the size of the group and who it might have included. In Acts 15:36-41, Paul and Barnabas to their separate ways, and Silas joins Paul seemingly in Jerusalem. Timothy joins them in Lystra (16:1-3). Up to this point the movements of Paul have been described in the third person (“they”). Then in 16:9-10 Paul has his vision of the man from Macedonia urging them to come over to Macedonia. The departure from Troas for Philippi in Macedonia is described in the first person plural (“we” and “us”). This might suggest that Luke joined the party at that point. The narrative continues in the first person plural in Acts 20, 21, 27, and 28). Might Luke even have been the man from Macedonia Paul saw in his vision?

In any case, this suggests the possibility that Lydia hosted a group of at least four men in her home. The text says nothing about any women in the group, and I suppose that for women to have been traveling with Paul would have been unusual. Nevertheless, the group with Paul clearly engaged with a group of women who met by the river to pray on the Sabbath (v. 13). Without getting into a whole discursive on Pauline attitudes about women, suffice it to say that women played some important roles in his endeavors, here without any hint of scandal or offense to propriety.

As I scanned ahead in Acts to explore the shifts between third and first person in the narrative, I saw in Acts 17:7 that the powers in Thessalonica were outraged because they understood the Gospel proclaimed by Paul and Silas as "saying that there is another king named Jesus." We can blow this off by saying that they misunderstood that Jesus' kingdom was "not of this world" (John 18:36). Nevertheless, those of us who render supreme and sole allegiance to Jesus will always be a threat to human authorities. With their confidence of sharing in Jesus' resurrection, the Roman Empire could not control the early Christians, even with torture and death. The Romans knew that the Emperor had no power over the Christians' "king." Even modern democracies such as the US will tolerate and even welcome a generic, diluted Christianity (Judeo-Christian Civil Religion), but they will always be uncomfortable with those who follow Jesus without reservation or exception.

Indeed, the accusation of treason is only raised after the complaint about the economic loss by delivering the slave girl from the spirit of divination by which her owners made a great deal of money by her fortune-telling. Just like today, economics drives both politics and religion. Reflecting on this, thought about the parallel to the sex trafficking that has become such a high-profile blight in our time. A lot of finger pointing and tongue wagging focuses on other countries and the US border with Mexico, but plenty of it is entirely domestic in the US. Are girls lured into sex trade in the US really any different than the slave girl in Philippi? Sex trafficking persists because it is profitable, being paid for by those who have the money for such indulgences, and the means to keep it from sullying their respectability.

The text tells us nothing about what happened to the slave girl after being freed from the spirit of divination. Was she still held as a slave, now relegated to the lowest position since she was no longer a source of income? Was she set free to find her way in the hustling streets of Philippi? When the group with Paul left Lydia’s home, did Lydia, the jailer’s family, and the nascent church in Philippi take her in to support and guide her into a new life? This could be a model for today’s church in the US to challenge “king money” and proclaim another king named Jesus.