Become A Christian? (part 1)

Agrippa said to Paul, “In such a short time are you persuading me to become a Christian?” – Acts 26:28 (NET)

The Apostle Paul is “on trial” in Caesarea. He has been there for quite some time. He had been taken prisoner while in Jerusalem, and later transferred to Caesarea, into the custody of the Roman governor named Felix, with whom Paul seemed to enjoy a cordial relationship. Felix had been succeeded in his position by a man named Festus. Sometime after taking his position, Festus was in Jerusalem. There, “the chief priests and most prominent men of the Jews brought formal charges against Paul to him…they urged Festus to summon him (Paul) to Jerusalem, planning an ambush to kill him along the way” (25:2b, 3b). However, “Festus replied that Paul was being kept at Caesarea, and he himself intended to go there shortly. ‘So,’ he said, ‘let your leaders to down there with me, and if this man has done anything wrong, they may bring charges against him’.” (25:4-5) When the accusations and charges were then leveled against Paul in Caesarea, he replied by stating that “I have committed no offense against the Jewish law or against the temple or against Caesar” (25:8).

While Festus was in Caesarea, “King Agrippa and Bernice arrived…to pay their respects” (25:13b). This “Agrippa” was “Herod Agrippa,” one of the Idumean, Roman-sanctioned kings of a large region of Palestine, as well as the final member of the Herodian dynasty. No doubt finding the situation of Paul to be an interesting one, “Festus explained Paul’s case to the king to get his opinion” (25:14b). Upon hearing the story, “Agrippa said to Festus, ‘I would also like to hear the man myself’.” (25:22a) This tells us a little bit about Agrippa, as well as effectively setting the stage for the events that followed.

Entering upon the scene, we find that “Agrippa said to Paul, ‘You have permission to speak for yourself’.” (26:1a) Paul seized upon this opportunity to preach the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He spoke of the “hope in the promise made by God to our ancestors” (26:6b), and posed the question as to “Why do you people think it is unbelievable that God raises the dead?” (26:8). This hope of resurrection itself was part of the great hope held by the people of Israel, which is why Paul poses the question in such a way in relation to his insistence that Jesus was raised from the dead. Following that, Paul offers testimony concerning his own experience while on his way to Damascus, as he had been on his way to imprison and sentence to death those who were proclaiming this message about Jesus.

As we bear in mind that Paul is presenting his case to a king in the Herodian line, at least one of whom had proclaimed himself as Israel’s messiah, we do well to remember that Agrippa would have had an understanding of messianic expectations and their implications. Therefore, we understand why Paul says, “so I stand testifying to both small and great, saying nothing except what the prophets and Moses said was going to happen: that the Christ was going to suffer and be the first to rise from the dead, to proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles” (26:22b). This calling of Jesus “Christ” or “Messiah” was significant, in that Agrippa was well aware what such a title implied, as it pointed to the exaltation of Israel and its messiah above all nations, including Rome and its Caesar.

Though this would not have been unfamiliar to Agrippa, it may very well have been so for Festus. So he “exclaimed loudly, ‘You have lost your mind, Paul! Your great learning is driving you insane!’” (26:24b) Not only does this serve to point out that Paul had a reputation as a learned and well-studied man, but it also points out that all of this talk of the hope in God’s promise, the resurrection of the dead, and of the messiah, was completely lost on this Roman governor. He was not able to operate inside a 1st century Jewish mindset that was familiar with all of these terms. We, unfortunately, too often suffer from the same malady in our attempts to correctly approach and understand the message of the New Testament.