When the seven days were almost completed, the Jews from Asia, who had seen him in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd. They seized him, shouting, “Fellow Israelites, help! This is the man who is teaching everyone everywhere against our people, our law, and this place; more than that, he has actually brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.” For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian with him in the city, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple. Then all the city was aroused, and the people rushed together. They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple, and immediately the doors were shut. While they were trying to kill him, word came to the tribune of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. Immediately he took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them. When they saw the tribune and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.Then the tribune came, arrested him, and ordered him to be bound with two chains; he inquired who he was and what he had done. Some in the crowd shouted one thing, some another; and as he could not learn the facts because of the uproar, he ordered him to be brought into the barracks. When Paul came to the steps, the violence of the mob was so great that he had to be carried by the soldiers. The crowd that followed kept shouting, “Away with him!” (Acts 21:27-36, NRSV)
Isn’t it interesting how the people rebel against what they had been taught is right and proper?
But don’t we all do this?
Maybe not to the point of becoming an angry mob and beating the one with the new idea, but we are all protective of the way we learned something when someone comes and says something opposite of what we learned. This is particularly true when it comes to our faith.
Jonah was swallowed by a _______? I am sure most of you said whale. Because we learned in Sunday School that Jonah was swallowed by a whale. But the Bible doesn’t say whale, it says a big fish. So it might not have been a whale.
And we will fight against this. and this statement doesn’t even affect our salvation! We are all quick to beat down what is different than us. But really the only way for us to evangelize is to know the other and to know another we have to listen to them.
So don’t push something away because it is different. You may just learn something and maybe share something in the process.
aSacredRebel 