On Malta

Sermon by Mark Johnson of Steiger Minneapolis

Once safely on shore, we found out that the island was called Malta. The islanders showed us unusual kindness. They built a fire and welcomed us all because it was raining and cold. Paul gathered a pile of brushwood and, as he put it on the fire, a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand. When the islanders saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to each other, “This man must be a murderer; for though he escaped from the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live.” But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects. The people expected him to swell up or suddenly fall dead, but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god.

There was an estate nearby that belonged to Publius, the chief official of the island. He welcomed us to his home and for three days entertained us hospitably. His father was sick in bed, suffering from fever and dysentery. Paul went in to see him and, after prayer, placed his hands on him and healed him. When this had happened, the rest of the sick on the island came and were cured. They honored us in many ways and when we were ready to sail, they furnished us with the supplies we needed.

-Acts 28:1-10

Last month, I wrote about the shipwreck in Acts 27.  This month, I would like to continue the story and see what happened once Paul and the rest of the people on the ship landed on Malta.

After Paul and the other people on the boat—276 in all—come ashore, either swimming or holding onto boards, they encounter some people there.  [The Greek word Luke uses literally means “barbarians,” but this is not necessarily a negative thing.  The Greeks and Romans called anyone “barbarians” who didn’t speak Latin or Greek, because they thought other languages sounded like the people were just saying, “Bar bar bar.”  So the word is actually onomatopoeia—a word that sounds like what it describes.]  The people on the island are actually very hospitable.  They take care of everybody and build a fire because these people have just been in a two-week-long storm and had to swim in the Mediterranean Sea, so they’re probably cold.

At this point, Paul goes to get some more sticks for the fire, either because he wants to be helpful or because he’s thinking, “You call that a fire??”  But what he doesn’t realize is that there is a snake in the wood he gathers—a snake that doesn’t appreciate being thrown into a fire, so it bites Paul and hangs onto his arm.  The people on the island assume that this is a form of justice—that Paul is a murderer who can’t escape his fate—and they expect him to die, because it was a poisonous snake.  Paul doesn’t seem to mind, though, and he throws the snake into the fire and goes about his business.  The islanders keep waiting for him to swell up and die, and when he doesn’t, they finally change their minds about him and assume he must be a god.  This has happened to Paul before, in Lystra.  That time, Paul went to great lengths to keep people from sacrificing animals to him; this time Luke doesn’t give us any details on how he handles it, but we know he didn’t let people run around thinking he was a god. 

Instead of going into that, Luke continues the story, because Paul finds out that the father of the island’s leader is sick, probably with what they now call “Malta Fever.”  It came from drinking goat’s milk, because there were some little things in the milk that made you sick.  We can treat it now, but since there was no cure for it back then, people would be sick for months at a time.  Paul heals the official’s father, and everybody on the island hears about it, so all the sick people there come to him.  He heals them all.  By the way, apparently it is Paul—not Luke or Aristarchus—who heals them.  When all the people from the ship eventually leave three months later, the islanders give them lots of stuff and honor them highly.

You know, Paul wanted to go to Rome, not Malta.  But he ends up in Malta, and God uses him.  The big picture of this whole chapter is that God is faithful.  God promised Paul he would go to Rome, and he will get him there.  We can trust God no matter what—even if we are in a storm or if there is a viper hanging on our arm.

But I want to think more about how the islanders—the Maltese—interpret the events in this story.  First, since Paul and the others are saved from a shipwreck, they assume that fortune is on their side.  Then Paul gets bitten by a poisonous snake, so they assume he is a murderer.  The Maltese believed in a goddess Justice, so they do not see the snakebite as a random event but rather as this goddess making sure Paul gets his due.  Finally, when he doesn’t swell up and die, they decide he must be a god, because in their minds, people with supernatural power are gods.  [By the way, this incident is not an endorsement of snake handling in churches.  It’s really not.]  The assumptions the Maltese make about life determine how they interpret all these events.  Those of us today would be more likely to look for “rational” reasons—that it was a coincidence, that Luke didn’t know what was a poisonous snake and what wasn’t, that Paul had somehow built up an immunity to snake poison, or maybe that the snake was just really old and didn’t have much venom left.

The assumptions we have about how life works cause us to see things the way we see them, and they cause our emotional responses as well.  The Maltese assumed that life was fair and just; they believed the goddess would take care of justice in this life.  People today sometimes think life should be like this, and if it’s not, they get bitter, cynical, and disillusioned.  See, if we function with the assumption that life is fair, we’re in for a rough time, because God never promised a fair and just life.  We need to work toward justice, and Jesus will make things right in the end (we will all have to answer for what we have done; the Bible even says we will have to give an account of every careless word we have said), but on this side of heaven, life will not always be fair. 

If you think life should always be fair, you are probably an angry person.  We all need to reexamine our assumptions, because if they are based on lies, our whole perspective will be messed up.  Satan is the father of lies.  That means his main goal is to get us to believe lies, because if our assumptions about life, God, and ourselves aren’t true, we won’t be able to make it.  We need to take every thought captive for Christ.  When we are struggling with something, we need to ask ourselves why that is, and also ask why we are interpreting things the way we are.  Maybe we think life is supposed to be fair.  Or maybe we think that everything that happens is the will of God.  I don’t think either of those things is true.  Many people are really angry with God because bad stuff has happened to them, and they think it was the will of God.  Many angry, bitter people have turned their backs on God because something happened to them that was never God’s will.

I want to challenge you to look at the assumptions you have about life and see if they’re true.  Most of our problems are because we are believing lies.

Paul had different assumptions than the Maltese.  The snake didn’t even bother him, and when he saw someone who was sick, he knew what to do.  We need to know that when we’re stuck on Malta, the power of God is still there.  Maybe we want to be in Rome, but the power of God is still with us in Malta.  God is with you wherever you are, even if it seems unbearable.

So what should you do if you’re in Malta?  First of all, build a fire.  Do whatever is necessary to survive where you are.  Remind yourself of what is true—write things down that you need to remember, or do whatever you need to do in order to remember the truth.  When you are shipwrecked, you need to have the truth to survive.  (By the way, Truth is a person.  Jesus said that he is the Truth.)  And second, you need to connect with the church.  Don’t isolate yourself or withdraw from Scripture and prayer.  And don’t run on your emotions.  It won’t help.  You can’t trust your emotions all the time, especially when you’re on the beach in Malta.  Third, take care of what God has put right in front of you.  God has stuff for you to do on Malta—or wherever you are.  When you are faithful with what he puts in front of you, God will use you and work all things together for your good.  I don’t know if this shipwreck was God’s will or not, but healing people was.  Paul could have sat and pouted because he was in Malta, not Rome, but he didn’t.  Why?  Because he’s the one who wrote that God works all things together for the good of those who love him!  He was there in Malta, so he asked God what to do.  Lots of people have dreams of what they want to do in the future, dreams that could even be from God.  But we need to be faithful with what God has put in front of us right now, or we will never see the dream.

Some of you are in Malta right now.  And it’s frustrating.  If you’re there, build a fire—do what you need to do to survive—and then do whatever needs to be done.  There is probably someone right in front of you, and God wants to use you to show his love to him/her. 

We can’t be healthy emotionally or spiritually if we believe lies.  The lies we believe affect how we live and see the world.  So I want to go through some possible lies we might be believing.  These things are not true:

• Trust nobody.  My survival is all up to me.
• Everybody is trustworthy.  If you are one of those people who wants to rescue everybody, be careful; not everyone is safe.
• My value and significance is decided by other people.  It’s not true; God determines this.
• Success, life, and happiness should come easily.  If you have quit every job you have ever had, you might believe this lie.
• Life must always be fair and just.
• All events are God’s will.
• I am not acceptable or adequate.  I am stupid and rejected.
• My worth and significance are determined by my performance.  If you believe this, you have to keep dancing; and that’s no way to live.
• I am helpless and powerless; others have all the power in my life.
• My feelings are always reliable and should be listened to. 
• I am my body.
• Failure is unacceptable.  Failure is fatal.
• I don’t belong here.  I have heard this from all sorts of people at our church.  People think they’re too normal to belong, or they think they’re too weird to belong.  We’ve all felt this way.  It’s not true.  You belong.

We can’t live our lives based on lies and false assumptions, because that will kill us.  My prayer is that God will bring those things to the surface, and that if you’re in Malta, you’ll get everything out of it that you can.  Don’t despair; it’s not a bad thing to winter in Malta.

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