On the way to Jerusalem, Paul and his companions keep meeting people who warn them of what awaits the apostle. Some of his companions and people he meets along the way urge him not to go to Jerusalem...
On the way to Jerusalem, Paul and his companions keep meeting people who warn them of what awaits the apostle. Some of his companions and people he meets along the way urge him not to go to Jerusalem. In human terms, their concern is understandable: no one is asking him to renounce Christ or even to give up his apostleship. He could, after all, continue preaching in the cities of Asia Minor or other provinces of the far from small Roman Empire.
Why go precisely where the danger is not merely real, but clearly unavoidable? All this would make sense if someone entrusted with God's service could choose their own path. But the point is that God's servant has no such choice. More precisely, they gave it up themselves when they chose the path of serving God. It does not matter what particular ministry a person has. Once they accept the ministry God entrusts to them, they no longer belong to themselves. Paul, too, no longer belonged to himself and could no longer choose where to preach. At first sight, such a position may seem to be a complete absence of freedom.
It would seem that God's servant must give up freedom. In reality, however, things are not so simple or unambiguous. Having given themselves to God, a person can thereafter be at peace about their fate. From that moment on, there is no longer any need to think about what will happen to you next. You can concentrate entirely on what needs to be done and not think about the rest. You need not think about your own life and death: if your life no longer belongs to you, why worry about what is not yours to decide anyway? Yet, if we think about it, all of us Christians are in this position. We do not belong to ourselves.
Of course, when it comes to life and death, this is true of every person, whatever they believe and however they live. The only question is how fully a person realizes this: whether they live with their eyes open or squeeze them shut and bury their head in the sand. We must admit that today the overwhelming majority live with their eyes shut: they do everything they can to forget their own mortality and are shocked when they come face to face with death.
But even when this is not the case, many still think that a person has some power over their own life and death. Only awareness of the reality of God's presence, of the reality of the Kingdom, frees us from the illusion of such power. The clearer and fuller that awareness, the less desire there is to direct one's life oneself, and the fewer illusions about the possibilities of doing so. Paul, for whom the Kingdom is an absolute reality, has no such illusions at all. He knows he will go where his earthly journey must end—first to Jerusalem, then to Rome. He also knows that this path is not only the sole possible one for him, but the best: the path God has chosen for him.
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21:12 Both we, (his fellow travellers,) and they of the place, besought him not to go up to Jerusalem - St. Paul knew that this prediction had the force of a command. They did not know this.
21:13 Breaking my heart - For the apostles themselves were not void of human affections. I am ready not only to be bound, but to die - And to him that is ready for it, the burden is light.