Altar’d.Men’s BS. Does not meat expectations
Intro/Scripture
Paul is abandoned
Now Roman law would have permitted him to employ an advocate and call witnesses. But, as Alfred Plummer puts it, ‘among all the Christians in Rome there was not one who would stand at his side in court either to speak on his behalf, or to advise him in the conduct of his case, or to support him by a demonstration of sympathy’. ‘At my first defence no one took my part; all deserted me.’ Yet if ever an accused man needed help it was now. We are not told what charges had been laid against him. But we know from Tacitus, Pliny and other contemporary writers the kind of allegations which were being made against Christians at that time. They were supposed to be guilty of horrid crimes against the state and against civilized society. They were accused of ‘atheism’ (because they eschewed idolatry and emperor-worship), of cannibalism (because they spoke of eating Christ’s body), and even of a general ‘hatred of the human race’ (because of their supposed disloyalty to Caesar and perhaps because they had renounced the popular pleasures of sin). It may be that some of these charges were being levelled against Paul. Whatever the case for the prosecution, he had no-one to defend him but himself. Either because Christian friends could not or would not, he was unsupported and alone.
Paul’s Gethsemane
This moment, one might cautiously say, was Paul’s Gethsemane. Of course his agony was different from Christ’s. Yet like his Master before him he had to face his ordeal alone, for at the time of his greatest need he could say ‘all deserted me’, as it is written of Christ ‘they all forsook him and fled’ (Mk. 14:50).
Seek God in the trial
Nevertheless, once more like his Master, Paul knew that he was not alone. In anticipation of the coming desertion, Jesus said, ‘the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, every man to his home, and will leave me alone; yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me’ (Jn. 16:32). Similarly Paul could say that, although ‘all deserted me’ (16), yet ‘the Lord stood by me and gave me strength’ (17) Christ’s presence at Paul’s side and his gift to him of inward strength (the verb is endynamoō as in 2:1 and Phil. 4:13) both fortified him to preach the gospel to all the Gentiles present and led to his rescue (at least temporarily) ‘from the lion’s mouth’.
First, the Lord stood by him in contrast to those who failed to appear. Second, the Lord strengthened (endynamōsen, lit., “empowered” or “enabled”) him. The verb comes from the same family that includes the word for “power” (dynamis from which comes the English word “dynamite”). In Ephesians 3:20, Paul speaks of the kind of empowering that God gives, this God “who by the power [dynamis] at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine.…”
Paul is modeling Christ
In the next generation, as his own trial and martyrdom approach, Ignatius will extend and apply Paul’s logic using a similar expression: “But in any case, ‘near the sword’ means ‘near to God’; ‘with the beasts’ means ‘with God.’ Only let it be in the name of Jesus Christ, so that I may suffer together with him! I endure everything because he himself, who is the perfect human being, empowers me” (Smyrn. 4:2).
Paul’s Suffering gives witness to the world
We are now in a position to see what a superb illustration the apostle is giving Timothy of his charge to ‘preach the word’. Paul is on trial for his life. He has been deserted by his friends (who have left him in the lurch or been unable to help him), opposed by his enemies and unsupported in his trial by any barrister or witness. So he is alone. Surely now he will think of himself for a change? Surely now he will betray at least a little self-pity? Surely now he will defend himself and plead his cause? Perhaps he did answer the charges laid against him, for he refers to the trial as his ‘defence’ (16). Yet even now, although in grave personal danger, facing the probability of a death sentence, his overmastering concern is not himself but Christ, not to be a witness in his own defence but a witness to Christ, not to plead his own cause but the cause of Jesus Christ.
In one of the highest tribunals of the empire, before his judges and perhaps before the emperor himself, no doubt with a large crowd of the general public present, Paul ‘preached the word’. Or, as he himself expresses it: ‘the Lord stood by me and gave me strength to proclaim the message fully, that all the Gentiles might hear it’. If ever there has been a sermon preached ‘out of season’, this was it!
All he tells us about its content is that he ‘fully preached the kērygma’. That is, he took the opportunity to expound the gospel in its fullness, the good news of Jesus Christ incarnate, crucified, risen, reigning and coming again. Only because of this could he claim as he has done ‘I have finished the race’ (7).
Alfred Plummer gives a graphic description of the scene as he envisages it:
‘It is quite possible that this event, which the Apostle of the Gentiles regards as the completing act of his own mission and ministry, took place in the forum itself … But at any rate it would be held in a court to which the public had access; and the Roman public at this time was the most representative in the world … In that representative city and before that representative audience he preached Christ; and through those who were present and heard him the fact would be made known throughout the civilized world that in the imperial city and before the imperial bench the Apostle of Christ had proclaimed the coming of his kingdom.’