Our Eyes Are at Fault, That is All

Paul had claimed he learned to be content in every situation. As Acts closes Paul shows us that the freedom of a Christ Follower isn’t measured by the absence of chains or prisons, but by one’s capacity to love God and humanity in the face of all resistance. By reasonable human standards Paul wasn’t free; the arc of Paul’s life had come to a jarring stop.

Perspective allowed another religious prisoner to maintain his freedom while languishing in the Nazi prison at Berlin-Tegel. Pastor and theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer openly opposed Hitler’s agenda. Two days after Hitler’s inauguration Bonhoeffer preached a sermon to condemn Nazi policies through a radio sermon.

That is, until the transmission was blocked.

Bonhoeffer shifted his tactics and became the head of an illegal seminary that trained the pastors who refused to be cowed into the Nazi-sanctioned church.

That is, until the Gestapo shut the seminary down in 1943.

Undeterred, Bonhoeffer continued resisting the dark cloud that was spreading over Europe. He involved himself in the German resistance movement.

In 1942, Bonhoeffer fell in love with Maria von Wedemeyer. Devotion blossomed and the couple was engaged in January of ’43. Resistance and romance powered Bonhoeffer’s drive for expanding liberty in the face of the Third Reich.

That is, until Bonhoeffer was arrested just months later for belonging to the resistance and for his involvement in the failed attempt to assassinate Hitler with a bomb.

A romance, a dream of German liberation, and unfinished pastoral work—all languished in a military prison at Berlin-Tegel. It appeared the Nazis had successfully stripped Bonhoeffer of his freedom.

That is until you read Bonhoeffer’s prison letters to his fiancée. Here’s a fragment from a Christmas letter from Dietrich to Maria, sent on December 13, 1943:

“We shall ponder the incomprehensibility of our lot and be assailed by the question of why, over and above the darkness already enshrouding humanity, we should be subjected to the bitter anguish of a separation that we fail to understand. How hard it is, inwardly to accept what defies our understanding; how great the temptation to feel ourselves at the mercy of blind chance; how sinister the way in which mistrust and resentment steal into our hearts at such times; and how readily we fall prey to the childish notion that course of our lives reposes in human hands! And then, just when everything is bearing down on us to an extent that we can scarce withstand it, the Christmas message comes to tells us that all our ideas are wrong, and that what we take to be evil and dark is really good and light because it comes from God. Our eyes are at fault, that is all.”

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“Our eyes are at fault…” Bonhoeffer knew the survival skill for God’s random act– allowing his prison to stand. He trusted God’s vision to be superior to his own. Bonhoeffer trusted that if God didn’t flatten his prison, it was because God knew that Cell 92 provided Bonhoeffer with more freedom to advance God’s love than any other place on earth could.  The Gestapo was, at best, a pawn in God’s hand, used to make Bonhoeffer’s message more powerful.

Paul shared Bonhoeffer’s perspective on freedom. Acts ends with Paul spreading the gospel “without hindrance”, all the while serving house arrest.

According to Roman law the prosecution had eighteen months to make their case against the accused. Luke doesn’t explain why Jerusalem wasn’t eager to press their case.

Paul used his freedom, chained to a guard, to advance God’s agenda. Acts fades with a picture of Paul serving his house arrest, boldly inviting unnamed guests into his home, where he bold preached the gospel to them.

We can turn to other parts of the Bible to add faces to some of the anonymous guests Paul entertained. Luke and Aristarchus stayed with Paul in Rome for most of his imprisonment for support. Tychicus was also a frequent visitor of Paul, until Paul commissioned him to deliver the letter to the Ephesians, a letter that was included in the canon of the Bible. Epaphrotitus visited from Philippi, bringing with him financial gifts from the church for Paul to distribute to needy believers. Onesimus, a runaway slave, visited Paul. Paul discipled Onesimus and then sent him back to Philemon. Paul gave Onesimus a letter that challenged Philemon to welcome his slave back as a brother in Christ. This letter was also latter added to the books of the New Testament and is with us today.

Mark, the cause of Paul and Silas’ falling out, visited Paul in chains. We don’t know the details of the visit, but I’d like to imagine that they reconciled their differences.

Other church leaders—Justus, Epaphras, and Demas, all filed through Paul’s home.

Paul the prisoner lived free and ran point for the church through these summits. And he also wrote prodigiously to correct and shape the cultures of the churches throughout the world. The church later recognized four of those letters as the inspired word of God.

So Paul’s apartment functioned more like the nerve center of Christianity than a prison. Not even the Roman Empire could corral Paul’s influence.

Freedom is God’s gift to his change agents. Earthquakes and prisons are merely two rolls of gift wrap God uses when he delivers freedom to his servants.

This is an excerpt from Larry Shallenberger’s book “Divine Intention: How God’s Work in the Early Church Empowers Us Today.” David. C. Cook.