Acts 16
Today we continue to listen to another conversion story. And this time, there are more spectacles and drama. But first, there should be a summary of how St Paul and Silas ended up in jail. After the conversion of Lydia in Philippi, Paul and Silas cast out a demon from a slave girl who used to be a fortune teller. The owner of the slave girl who now lost profit from soothsaying had a grudge against the apostles and slandered Paul and Silas. Paul and Silas were beaten and jailed, consequently.
Now, in prison, late at night, Paul and Silas are praying and singing hymns. And the prisoners are listening to them. But the jailer is asleep. A great earthquake shakes everything.
These settings are very symbolic. The imprisoned apostles did not sleep but were praying and singing. The other prisoners were somehow listening to them. By their prayers and singing in their great adversity, Paul and Silas evangelized the other prisoners. When everyone was released from shackles by the earthquake, no one attempted to escape the prison. They remained in prison. We may say everyone became the prisoners of Christ! But the jailer who was sleeping now is awake and falls in despair. He was a jailer but actually, he was a prisoner of his spiritual slumber. His spiritual slumber is now scattered by the earthquake, a wake-up call. But he does not know what to do. He attempts to kill himself.
Once again, the voice of Paul and Silas saves this prisoner from despair. And the jailer asks, “What must I do to be saved?” From the disaster of an earthquake and the despair of his spirit, he cries out for salvation. And he and his household now receive the promise of salvation through baptism.
The earthquake, a natural disaster, liberates true worshippers of Christ from shackles and wakes up those in the false sense of security from their spiritual slumber.
I wonder if this pandemic in our times becomes a wake-up call. The pandemic exposes how fragile our global civilization is. Especially Western societies realize there can occur wide-scale disasters to them. It seems we believed we would be always safe because of modern civilization and the advancement in science. But all these are more like the tower of Babel.
And we realize how strongly we are bound by money. Many think money can do all things. But we see now money cannot keep us safe. People are pushed to work even against risk and danger because they need money. Children have to go to school because parents have to work. But what do we work for? It seems we work more for money itself than for our families.
In the middle of the pandemic, we should ask the same question the jailer asked Paul and Silas, “What must I do to be saved?”
