NOTES for Act 13:1-12

In this story it is very important to understand that Elymas is not an enemy of the apostles, and that the apostles have no authority to punish their opponents or dissenters in any way. This is important because we are very inclined, for the sake of a God-pleasing cause, to find enemies for ourselves and, if we have the chance, to punish them thoroughly. What, then, happened?

As we remember, blindness in Scripture very often expresses conscious or unconscious resistance to God. Do you remember how the Lord spoke about "the blind man who leads the blind"? It is especially significant to hear words about blindness from Paul, who himself went through the experience of being blinded when he was a persecutor of the Church and of Christ. This very episode with Paul lets us understand that the blinding of Elymas is not so much a punishment as an act of God that places a person in a completely special position, the position of needing to choose, always freely nevertheless, between light and darkness, between hostility to God and faith.

How simple everything is, is it not? The Holy Spirit spoke, and everything was clear to everyone. Why, then, are we always overcome by doubts and uncertainty, endless searches for God's will, and inability to hear His voice?

In this connection it is fitting to recall a parable. A certain man came to his spiritual mentor with a question: "Why have I been seeking a meeting with God for so many years, and still it does not happen?" Then the mentor led him into the water and began to drown him. And when the man had almost choked, he pulled him out of the water and asked, "What did you want most of all there, under the water?" The disciple answered, "Air." "Then," said the teacher, "when you desire that meeting as much as air, it will happen."

Do we seek the will of God that strongly? Can we always say, as in this verse, that we "served the Lord and fasted"?

This is what is remarkable about life after Pentecost, this is what is remarkable about the book of Acts: all events take place not simply by human understanding and decision, but because the Holy Spirit has revealed His will. We can only sigh over the fact that for some reason things do not work that way for us. But should we only sigh? Is it not worth looking more closely at why it worked for them?

First, it is written that they worshiped the Lord and fasted. This means that people were seeking God’s will, praying earnestly for it, even fasting so as to pray with greater earnestness. For God this was a sign that His word would be heard with full attention and not allowed to pass by their ears. Do we prepare in such a way for God to be able to say something important to us?

Second, it is said that no word of God is powerless (Luke 1:37). Therefore, if God sees, and He really does see, that we are not going to receive His word in obedience, He will not give it to us. Why cast pearls before swine? The next verse (Acts 13:3) shows that in this case people hastened to fulfill God’s will. If only we were like that too!

The action of God's power, the power of the Kingdom, can be quite diverse. Earlier, during the Savior's earthly ministry, and also after Pentecost, up to the encounter with the magician named Elymas, this power showed itself as healing, raising the dead, and in general restoring the damage done to the world by the evil in which it lies. And now for the first time it manifested itself, as it may appear, in a completely opposite way, depriving of sight a man immersed in sinful life. Many readers understand Elymas's blindness precisely this way: as punishment for a very serious sin committed quite consciously. One can only wonder why, in that case, the whole temple elite did not go blind immediately after the Resurrection. The matter is clearly not so simple and cannot be reduced merely to punishment for sin.

The reason is probably different: Elymas really did come into contact with the Kingdom, and quite closely, though perhaps not for long. Judging by everything, he was a real magician, and therefore really knew of the existence of that power which lies at the foundation of the universe, and in part probably possessed it. This power is one, and it has one source: the God of Israel, one of whose ancient names is God of Power. Of course, no magician is given it in fullness, not even in the fullness available to a believer. This is understandable: a magician always tries to obtain it, so to speak, through the back door - not so much to receive it as to steal it. And because God's power is poured out into creation in full and even overflowing measure, sometimes a magician manages to touch it furtively and even use it for his own purposes, of course without turning to God. Such a contact is possible only, figuratively speaking, from the underside of God's world, but the magician agrees even to this, if only he does not have to meet face to face with God, whom he usually fears.

And so such a magician comes into contact with the Kingdom: with the fullness of its life and its power, with God's presence. But his sight is not accustomed to the light of this Presence, to the light of the Kingdom, for he is used to the spiritual twilight of that underside of the world where he has spent most of his life. It is no wonder that Elymas went blind: bright light can blind an unaccustomed eye. What happens next depends on the person, on his attitude toward the new reality that has broken into his life. We do not know Elymas's later fate, but he, like anyone else, had every opportunity to regain sight both spiritually and physically. Whether he made use of these opportunities is another question.

The other name of the false prophet Elymas, who prevented Barnabas and Saul from preaching Christ to the Roman proconsul, is symbolic: Bar-Jesus, literally “son of Jesus.” It is as though the name itself expresses the sorcerer's claim to displace Christ, if not in the universe, then at least in Sergius Paulus's attention. Elymas behaves like an antichrist: the Greek anti means not only against but also instead of, and the antichrist's aim is to put himself in Christ's place.

In opposing the sorcerer, Saul temporarily blinds him, and we recall how Saul himself became blind when Christ revealed Himself to him. For Saul, temporary blindness became a sign of approaching sight and a call to repentance. Was this not what he wanted for Elymas too?

Luke does not mention whether Elymas repented or what his subsequent path was, just as he says nothing of Simon the Magician's fate. But Sergius Paulus came to believe, and here we see the first instance of apostolic preaching addressed to a high-ranking Roman official; the very first attempt was successful. (Might there be a connection between Saul's new name, Paul, and the proconsul's name? Might this be a sign of the spiritual unity established between them?)

The apostles' preaching continues in Pisidian Antioch. Now Paul, like Stephen whom he had persecuted so recently, reveals to the Jews the meaning of Old Testament history as a path to Christ. Paul is now ready to endure what befell Stephen.