Acts 21:26-34: a reflection

26Then Paul took the men, and the next day purified himself and went with them into the temple, declaring the fulfillment of the days of purification, until the offering was offered for every one of them. 27When the seven days were almost completed, the Jews from Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the multitude and laid hands on him, 28crying out, “Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against the people, and the law, and this place. Moreover, he also brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place!” 29For they had seen Trophimus the Ephesian with him in the city, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple. 30All the city was moved and the people ran together. They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple. Immediately the doors were shut. 31As they were trying to kill him, news came up to the commanding officer of the regiment that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. 32Immediately he took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them. They, when they saw the chief captain and the soldiers, stopped beating Paul. 33Then the commanding officer came near, arrested him, commanded him to be bound with two chains, and inquired who he was and what he had done. 34Some shouted one thing and some another, among the crowd. When he couldn’t find out the truth because of the noise, he commanded him to be brought into the barracks.

Paul had gone to the temple to do a conciliatory thing, joining in a purification rite to show respect for the law and reassure his critics. And it goes catastrophically wrong. Jews from Asia see him, assume, wrongly, that he has brought a Gentile into the temple (they had seen him with a Greek in the city and supposed the worst), and stir up a mob that drags him out and tries to kill him. His good-faith gesture is met with violence built on a false assumption, and only a Roman commander's intervention saves his life.

Notice the painful irony. Paul was trying to build a bridge, to honor the law and calm suspicion, and he was violently attacked for it, on the basis of something he had not even done. There are few things more bitter than being misrepresented and attacked precisely when you were trying to do good, having your intentions twisted into their opposite. Paul knew that bitterness firsthand.

And yet, notice what God did with it. This unjust arrest was the beginning of a chain that would carry Paul, and the gospel, before governors and kings and eventually to Rome itself, exactly where God had told him he would go. The false accusation and the mob's violence did not derail God's purpose; they advanced it. When you are misrepresented and attacked for doing good, it is a real grief, and you may follow a Savior who knew it too. But take heart that God is not thwarted by others' false assumptions; he can weave even unjust treatment into the advance of his purposes. Do good, entrust the outcome to him, and trust that he is working even through what is unfair.

Lord, Paul tried to do good and was violently misrepresented for something he had not done, and yet you used even that unjust arrest to advance your purposes. When I am misrepresented and attacked precisely for trying to do good, comfort me, and remind me that you are not thwarted by others' false assumptions. Help me keep doing good, entrust the outcome to you, and trust you to work even through what is unfair.