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This passage is about the journey
towards Jerusalem, where Paul was going to die.
Apostle Paul knew his life was going to
end very soon. It was God’s plan for him after so many years serving the Lord, spreading the Good News everywhere. Prisons and hardships were so familiar to him (Acts 20:23). The believers in several places he came across were crying
and kissed him goodbye as he said they wouldn’t meet him again (Acts 20:37-38).
Now in Caesarea, Agabus - a prophet came and told him what the Holy Spirit said
of how he would die (v.11). His close friends and the believers there were weeping
and urging him to avoid Jerusalem (v.12).
Normally we will be very sad when
someone tells us that we are going to die. Let alone when we have to die for
the sake of someone else. Sometimes, not very often, we heard about a person
who is willing to give his/ her body parts for the healing of a family member.
It’s because they love the person so much that the sacrifice feels lighter to
do. But to die for someone, needs more than that. The ultimate love which
encompasses everything or anyone else even our own selves. Otherwise it’s
impossible to reach such decision. This even applies when we have to die to sin, to self-indulgence, to money,
to the world, etc.
Apostle Paul had no hesitation at
all about this. Verse 13 shows how Paul replied to the people around him, “What
are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be
bound, but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”
Dear brothers and sisters, do we
have such love that Apostle Paul had towards Jesus? “If anyone comes to me and
does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and
sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26). It
is not that we have to hate others, but Jesus requires the first place in
our hearts. It’s the standard he set and a very high one.
Jesus Christ left his Kingdom in
Heaven to die bearing the wrath of God to save you and me. We need to look deep
inside. Is Jesus the King of our hearts, whom we give our ultimate devotion and
love? For Apostle Paul said, “Yes, everything else is worthless when compared
with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have
discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain
Christ.” (Phil 3:8). He is truly wholeheartedly devoted to Jesus Christ. How
about us? May God help us all.
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