23The commander called in two of his officers and told them, "By nine o'clock tonight have two hundred soldiers ready to go to Caesarea. Take along seventy men on horseback and two hundred foot soldiers with spears. 24Get a horse ready for Paul and make sure that he gets safely through to Felix the governor."
25The commander wrote a letter that said:
26Greetings from Claudius Lysias to the Honorable Governor Felix:
27Some Jews grabbed this man and were about to kill him. But when I found out that he was a Roman citizen, I took some soldiers and rescued him.
28I wanted to find out what they had against him. So I brought him before their council 29and learned that the charges concern only their religious laws. This man isn't guilty of anything for which he should die or even be put in jail.
30As soon as I learned that there was a plot against him, I sent him to you and told their leaders to bring charges against him in your court.
31The soldiers obeyed the commander's orders, and that same night they took Paul to the city of Antipatris. 32The next day the foot soldiers returned to the fortress and let the soldiers on horseback take him the rest of the way. 33When they came to Caesarea, they gave the letter to the governor and handed Paul over to him.
34The governor read the letter. Then he asked Paul and found out that he was from Cilicia. 35The governor said, "I will listen to your case as soon as the people come to bring their charges against you." After saying this, he gave orders for Paul to be kept as a prisoner in Herod's palace.
I know a young minister who was fired from is church. He was called in and told to clear out the parsonage immediately. No warning, no grace period and no explanation. Where was the District Superintendant? Where was this pastor's "day in court?" I was stunned...probably not nearly as much as the victim. I complained on his behalf...to deaf ears.
Ironically, a completely secular commercial company offered him a job unrelated to anything the young man had ever done. The reason? the director said "nobody should be treated that way. Somebody had to come to his rescue".
It's a heavy indictment to say the world sometimes has a higher sense of truth and justice than the church does. Yet this is what we have in today's scripture. It was the religious leaders who wanted to kill Paul. It was the civil leaders who said "wait! doesn't he get a trial first?"
The world doesn't often get it right. In fact, our culture has become increasingly hedonistic and hostile to the gospel. It's difficult to live a holy life in this world. So...when the world's standard of conduct (as low as it is) is higher than the church's, we need to do some serious soul searching.
The church has historically been a refuge. Its part of the reason we use the word "sanctuary". When the church becomes a courtroom we know we have lost our way. I know when we exercise grace and mercy some bad people go free. But...we did have a parable about that in Matthew.
Come to think of it...it is grace and mercy that let me go free. It afforded me an opportunity to become something new.
Live boldly out there today...
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