I bet you have heard of the Apostle Paul, and if you are a Bible-frequenter you probably also know of Barnabas. They traveled together on Paul’s first missionary journey. In Lystra, they healed a lifelong cripple, and he walked for the first time.
For just a moment let your mind jump into the perceptions of the Lystran locals suspending your 21st Century bias’ or what your Bible knowledge tells you. “That fellow is walking!” fire the thoughts behind your wrinkled brow. “That’s weird,” whisper your lips as your squinting, focusing eyes compensate for the slight turning of your head.
“That’s the fellow I threw stones at as a child,” thought one. Another recalled walking down the opposite side of the street to avoid alms-giving. “I wonder what his parents did that their child was cursed,” automatically mused one after another.
The man was a fixture in the psyche and experience of Lystra, one the “normal” people compartmentalized as not-like-us, but still part of their city-scape. The problem was now he was walking. “Am I seeing this? Are others seeing this?” After quickly checking their sanity their normal for this man cracked a bit. Then it fell apart and word spreading like the coronavirus. Zeus’ priest-in-residence ordered, “Get a bull, grab the garlands and meet at the temple! Be quick about it!”
The people at Lystra were primed for the gods to come in the flesh, and so when two strangers had the village-cripple walking they jumped to a ready-made conclusion: Zeus and Hermes are here! Luke recorded these things and how Paul and Barnabas defused the situation over in Acts 14.
Leave a Reply