THE BEAUTY FOUND IN KINDNESS

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

When it was decided that we would sail for Italy, Paul and some other prisoners were handed over to a centurion named Julius, who belonged to the Imperial Regiment. We boarded a ship from Adramyttium about to sail for ports along the coast of the province of Asia, and we put out to sea. Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, was with us.

The next day we landed at Sidon; and Julius, in kindness to Paul, allowed him to go to his friends so they might provide for his needs.

Acts 27:1-3

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As we read through the Book of Acts, we almost forget that it has an author, probably because he does such a good job keeping himself in the background so the work of the Gospel as the church gets started takes center stage. Despite his best efforts, we do occasionally see Luke (yes, the same Luke that penned the Gospel) come to the forefront and the opening verses of Acts 27 are one of those places as we start to journey along with Paul on the road to Rome and his requested appeal to the Roman emperor Caesar. Look again at these verses here:

When it was decided that we would sail for Italy, Paul and some other prisoners were handed over to a centurion named Julius, who belonged to the Imperial Regiment. We boarded a ship from Adramyttium about to sail for ports along the coast of the province of Asia, and we put out to sea. Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, was with us.

The next day we landed at Sidon; and Julius, in kindness to Paul, allowed him to go to his friends so they might provide for his needs.  Acts 27:1-3

It had been a while since Paul had traveled anywhere for after his secret transfer under the protection of nightfall from Jerusalem to Caesarea, he remained captive there for well over two years time. Although he was completely innocent, first the Roman governor Felix and then his predecessor, Festus, were unwilling to release the Jesus apostle. For his part, Paul hadn’t exactly pushed the issue, mostly because of his faith as he waited for his opportunity to go to Rome and testify as God had commanded he do while he was in Jerusalem.

That time had now come and Paul was ready to sail to Italy with Luke, a “Macedonian from Thessalonica” named  Aristarchus, and “some other prisoners” who were “handed over to a centurion named Julius, a member of the “Imperial Regiment”. They all “boarded a ship from Adramyttium” which was “about to sail for ports along the coast of the province of Asia” and got underway, landing the next day in Sidon, a Phoenecian port city to the north of Caesarea.

Now, Paul was on his way to appeal to Caesar and had been in captivity for more than 24 months. While providing Paul with quarters during his stay, it was almost as if he was under house arrest and certainly wasn’t permitted to leave and travel anywhere let alone go to visit friends.

This is what makes the act of kindness performed by Julius so beautiful. He knew nothing of Paul. In fact, it had only 24 hours or less since he took custody of the apostle and I place the emphasis on custody. Julius was completely responsible for Paul and getting him to Caesar. If he failed his duties, he wouldn’t just be subject to disciplinary action but possibly death. There were steep consequences for dereliction of one’s duties within the Roman military system.

And yet, in verse 3, we find Julius allowing Paul to go to his friends in Sidon so they might be able to “provide for his needs”. He stepped out on faith and trusted that this man of the Lord would not run away. Kindness and charity trumped concerns over potential repercussions from failure.

Sometimes, I think we can over think opportunities to show kindness to others like when you see that person standing at an intersection with a sign stating they are homeless and hungry. The following thoughts can immediately rise up and maybe they have happened to you or someone you know:

“They are just going to use the money for alcohol or drugs?”

“It’s just a scam. They don’t want to work and so they collect money from people every day.”

“They don’t look like they are homeless to me.”

Through human reasoning, you were afraid to just step out on faith and place the rest in God’s hands. You were focused more on the potential reverberations of your giving without even knowing you were right. Worse of all, you most probably didn’t stop, pray for a moment, and ask the Lord to reveal whether or not you should give. For don’t you think the Lord won’t stop you in a minute if He knows the money you give, His money He had blessed you with, will be used for illicit purposes.

God loves a cheerful giver and he wants us to give gifts out of kindness.

For Julius, he gave Paul freedom to spend fellowship with friends and have his needs met.

And it was beautiful in the sight of God.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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