Real Heroes

Numbers 26-36; Deuteronomy 1-3; Psalms 31-32; Acts 22-26

This week, as we continue in Acts, we find Paul in Jerusalem for what turns out to be the last time. Luke tells us about Paul’s arrest and then, over the next few chapters, relates a long series of trials and speeches that the Apostle makes in defense of himself. I noticed a curious detail in chapter 23. Luke mentions it just in passing. Describing a plot that is being hatched to kill Paul, Luke says that “the son of Paul’s sister” informs the Romans, who then take steps to protect him.

So…Paul has a sister! This is the only place where his family is mentioned. He doesn’t talk about his own family anywhere in his letters. He does mention more than once that he was from a town called Tarsus, in what is today Turkey. From there, Paul went to Jerusalem to study with a famous rabbi, Gamaliel. It’s easy to assume that he had other siblings; after all, Jewish men were expected to marry and have children, in order to fulfill what is often called the first command in the Old Testament: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28)!

It’s also easy to assume that Paul left Tarsus and his family in his late teens to travel to Jerusalem. That’s the picture that many portraits of his life paint, but isn’t it possible that at some earlier time his father had moved his family back to Palestine? All that we hear for sure, though, is that Paul’s nephew is in Jerusalem now, too. Maybe Paul’s sister lived there; or maybe the nephew had followed in Paul’s footsteps, moving to Jerusalem later to study too. We just don’t know. And that’s my point.

Wouldn’t it be nice to know more about Paul and the other Apostles? What were their families like? How many children did they have? What happened to all of them? How many of the children followed the family faith, believing in Jesus? How many didn’t? The Bible is very quiet about a lot of details that made up “the days of their lives.”

For example, this nephew somehow found out about the plot against Paul. He must have been connected to the religious leaders in some way that, again, we don’t know anything about. He must have been on good terms with Paul too; in other words, he hadn’t written him and his apostolic faith off as so much religious nonsense. Maybe all of Paul’s family were believers in Christ. Maybe not. Obviously, Paul and Luke, and all the New Testament writers, were only concerned to tell us about how the gospel went forth, not what it’s messengers were like!

I wonder if that’s a point we should ponder in America today, where the cult of famous people is so central. We glorify everybody from rock stars to baseball players, models to reality show contestants. Maybe we should start glorifying ideals rather than people…things like support of widows, orphans, and aliens (to use the Old Testament categories), or justice, or equity, or compassion, or love. Then, to the degree that we must have “heroes,” we could name those people who give themselves for others as the real heroes. (Sounds a lot like Jesus on the cross, doesn’t it?!)

This is getting long, but I want to add a kind-of personal example. Growing up, my favorite baseball player was Roberto Clemente. (I’m from Pittsburgh, after all!) I loved to watch him hit to the opposite field, run the bases, catch fly balls at break-neck speed in right field, or make stupendous throws to home or third base. I consider him a hero…but it’s not because of his exploits on the baseball diamond. For me, he’s a hero because of his actions after an earthquake in Nicaragua in 1972. Clemente organized relief supplies and was carrying them to Managua. The plane he chartered went down after takeoff, and he died in the crash.