I came across this verse about the ‘Asiarchs’ – or maybe it came across me – about a decade ago. It had always been there but it jumped out of the page.
Paul wished to go into the crowd, but the disciples would not let him; even some officials of the province of Asia who were friendly to him sent him a message urging him not to venture into the theater (Acts 19:30,31).
So backing up a little… Paul’s time in Ephesus was quite remarkable. Two years of lectures in the hall of Tyrannus with the message getting out far and wide – to the whole region of the Roman province of ‘Asia’ and to both Jews and Gentiles; handkerchiefs being taken to those who needed healing; burning of books that were steeped in occult (Ephesus has been shown to be a major centre for occult with many ‘magic papyri’ having been discovered) and a turning away from occult with ‘the word of the Lord growing mightily and prevailing’ (Acts 19:20).
And major objections that centre around two elements, the economy and religion (what has changed with that!). So a riot begins. [Those two elements – mammon (and the previous post on ‘Moloch’ has a tie to this) and religion will always come to the fore when there is a clear advance of something genuine coming from heaven to a region or culture.]
So Paul decides to be superman and calm down the crowd and he aims to go into the (open air) theatre. The disciples resisted him doing this. Understandably so as they value his life. However it is the next response that stands out with some of the ‘Asiarchs’ (they are not disciples, and Luke indicate that this response was of some of the Asiarchs) who were friends of Paul who also did not want him to risk his life. Here is a description of who the Asiarchs were:
An official of the province of Asia, Asiarch, a wealthy and influential man, probably connected with the Imperial cult; an Asiarch, an officer in the province of Asia, as in other eastern provinces of the Roman empire, selected, with others, from the more opulent citizens, to preside over the things pertaining to religious worship, and to exhibit annual public games at their own expense in honor of the gods, in the manner of the aediles at Rome
They were the representatives of the imperial cult, commissioned to maintain the order that would hold in place Roman Imperial customs, culture and religious affiliation. Paul’s message ‘Another Caesar’; Paul’s denial that Rome brought peace; that Caesar was not ‘king of kings’ nor ‘lord of lords’; that the good news did not come from the centre of the world but from the unique crucified one… his message was not one that was ‘good news’ to Asiarchs. It was a message that they had to be opposed to and in the current situation what an opportunity to rid themselves of the messenger who was nothing but a thorn in their flesh.
We have reduced the message to something ‘spiritual’ and private and due to our blindness to the context (a huge Imperial rule) and language (even words such as ekklesia, gospel, peace carried strong political connotations) we have failed to see that ‘sins forgiven’ was one element in the proclamation. We don’t know what the contents of Paul’s lectures were, but I suspect they must have covered a whole range of topics, and given the wider message of his gospel huge elements must have challenged the Asiarchs and their vision. Paul – Paul as the messenger of the God who raised the Jewish Messiah from the dead – had a vision for a different world. A different economics, a different society; something that had not been seen before. Something very down to earth and only utopian in the sense it had not yet been manifest anywhere.
Asiarchs who were not (as we would say) ‘Christians’, and among them some were taken by the vision of the future. [An aside that could be explored – were they followers of Jesus but not ‘Christian’… and are all ‘Christians’ followers of Jesus?] The dynamic in Ephesus was not of getting ‘Christians’ to the top of the ladder so that they had the power to bring about change – I think the book of Revelation would shout loud at that point ‘deception’; neither was it ‘we got to get all those influential people saved’. Maybe it was more let us discover the hope that is in us, a hope for this world, so that it permeates us and we can articulate our hope for a different world / society; let us be open to one and all so that there is a genuine friendship bond; and if there is enough authenticity about us maybe some of the Asiarchs will pull for that same new world that we have articulated.
Years ago Steve Lowton said to me ‘Scotty you have not changed’ with a sideways reference back to the wonderful crazy days of prayer for city transformation. I hope what he said is true. It is not about ‘Christians’, ‘believers’, ‘the church’ being at the centre of change as if we are the ones, but it is about those who have been touched by the powers of a different age taking responsibility for our world so that Asiarchs are not colonised, controlled, nor even converted to serve our narrow agenda, but are envisioned to put their own reputation, careers on the line because they have seen a new tomorrow that has never been manifest before.
I honestly think the ‘Gospel’ proclamation is crazy. But I believe it to be true. It is based on the resurrection – you cannot find the body is to make a crazy claim… but I believe it to be true. He is the firstborn of all creation.