Acts 17:22-31
I was one of those kids who loved Greek mythology. In fifth-grade art class, when other students in our pottery unit made ornate birds or football helmets, I created a replica of Pegasus, the winged horse. (“Replica” might be an exaggeration. It had a head like a beagle and wings so disproportionally small that they wouldn’t have managed even a faint rustling sound, not to mention epic flight). I think I was captivated by Greek mythology because the gods and goddesses were so complex and flawed. They represented our human strengths and weaknesses, with all the ugliness and heroism, only on a grander scale.
In Acts 17, Paul is in Athens, the heart of a rich tradition of storytelling and intellectual life. He visits the Areopagus, a large rock outcropping where philosophical ideas were exchanged and trials were sometimes held.
Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely spiritual you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor] he made all peoples to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps fumble about for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we, too, are his offspring.’ “Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” Acts 17:22-31 (NRSVUE)
It’s fascinating that the Greeks give a nod to “an unknown god,” as though they are afraid that they might have missed something in their complex pantheon. Paul acknowledges their caution but questions their belief that deity can somehow be contained in temples or figurines. He proclaims a God who needs nothing from human beings, who transcends the physical, and who is “not far from each one of us” (v. 27). To be in relationship with that God is not to fear the whims of a Poseidon or Athena, but to have the promise of salvation from a God who is always with us.
Questions for Reflection:
- As a Jewish intellectual and a Roman citizen, Paul walked in two worlds. How does he interact with the Greeks differently than he often does with his fellow Jews. Why?
- What is “unknown” about God to you? How are those unknowns helpful or difficult?
Prayer:
Lord of all that is known and unknown, we thank you for the simplicity of the gospel and for forgiving us as we fumble around in the dark trying to understand and obey you. Give us insight when we need it, patience when we lack it, and the will to keep moving toward you. Amen.
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