Acts 28:1-10

Paul Ashore on Malta
1 Once safely on shore, we found out that the island was called Malta. 2 The islanders showed us unusual kindness. They built a fire and welcomed us all because it was raining and cold. 3 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. 4 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, the goddess Justice has not allowed him to live.” 5 But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects. 6 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.

7 There was an estate nearby that belonged to Publius, the chief official of the island. He welcomed us to his home and showed us generous hospitality for three days. 8 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. 9 When this had happened, the rest of the sick on the island came and were cured. 10 They honored us in many ways; and when we were ready to sail, they furnished us with the supplies we needed.




Dig Deeper“There really are cover-ups and conspiracies everywhere you look,” a man I was having supper with once told me. Over the next two hours the gentleman sat across the table from me and gave me a run down on some of the most imaginative and fantastical conspiracies that you’ve ever heard. They involved various secret societies, massive governmental cover-ups, and disinformation at nearly every level of politics, history, and even religion. It seemed that this man believed every single conspiracy that you’ve ever heard of whether it was a government plot to fake moon landings, the illuminati secretly controlling the world, or other well-known theories. He also believed in a whole litany of wild conspiracy theories that I had never heard of. The whole evening was fascinating and somewhat entertaining but turned out to be fairly unproductive from the standpoint of what really matters in life. After listening patiently for nearly two hours, I began to try to turn the conversation towards the need that we all have for the kingdom of God whether or not any conspiracy theories are true. Even if there is some secret cabal working together to rule the world and lead it into evil, I tried to explain, the only real solution is God’s kingdom and his family.

I was certain, at least in the beginning, that this man would be wide open to hearing the gospel proclaimed as the great hope of a world that he completely believed was even more fallen and evil than most. Yet, I was surprised to find that that was not the case at all. This same man who seemed willing to believe almost anything on the flimsiest evidence and fancy, brushed off the truth of the gospel as though it was freshly fallen dandruff on a black shirt. He was a very nice man but, despite his seeming capacity to believe, he was simply not open to the gospel. It seems as though his willingness to find conspiracies and believe all kinds of crazy things about the world that, for whatever reason, appealed to this man, actually kept him from having any interest in the gospel rather than helping him to be open to it.

After going through an incredible ordeal in which a short day-trip turned into a two week nightmare of being tossed around at sea and finally running aground of a island that was unknown at first to the crew, it must have been a welcome relief to stagger onto the shores of what they learned was the island of Malta and be greeted in such a friendly manner. The name Malta actually meant something like “refuge” in the original language and it surely must have seemed an accurate name at the time. What the NIV renders as “islanders” is actually the word “barbarians” which referred to anyone who was not a native Greek speaker, although it also implied a bit of native simplicity or backwardness from the perspective of the more “civilized” Romans and Jews. But these people demonstrated nothing but kindness as they quickly built up a fire or a series of fires to accommodate 276 shipwrecked passengers. Even though it would likely have been around 50 degrees Fahrenheit at the time, the passengers were wet and probably chilled to the bone. A good warm fire was a welcome relief.

Paul set about to be helpful and grab up firewood to assist their hosts in caring for the large and unexpected group. In chilly weather snakes can sometimes stiffen up and appear to be part of a group of sticks until they are warmed by the fire and begin to move, and in this case attack. The Island of Malta is no longer home to any poisonous vipers as they have apparently, like Ireland, rid themselves of such a menace over the centuries. But they did have poisonous vipers back then because the moment the snake bit Paul, the islanders expected him to die fairly quickly. In fact, they superstitiously believed that this was the cruel but just hand of fate or the gods setting things right. They were quick to believe that after surviving such a a harrowing shipwreck and escaping with his life, that being immediately bitten by a deadly snake could only be an indicator that Paul deserved such a fate in the grand scheme of things. They were quick to believe that he must have been an evil man, a murderer or something of the like, to deserve such a quick and violent sentence of the goddess of justice.

The Holy Spirit, however, had other plans for Paul. He would continue to endure much but he still had to get to Rome. He had prayed that he would arrive in Rome with great joy to see the Christians there and God had repeatedly confirmed for him that he would make it to Rome. So the Spirit working through Paul would hardly let something like a deadly viper bite stop him. Luke clearly implies that Paul miraculously showed no ill effects from the poisonous bite whatsoever. The people of Malta watched and waited for him to die or show some painful side effects but nothing happened. As a result they quickly changed their minds. They truly were open to believing in all kinds of things as they went from believing that he was a murderer that had been dealt justice by the hand of a goddess one moment, but were completely willing to believe that he was actually a god himself. This whole incident is somewhat of an amusing reversal of Paul’s experience at Lystra where the crowds immediately thought Paul was a god, only to listen to the claims of the Jews and just moments later believe that he was an evil man that needed to be stoned.

After surviving the viper attack, Paul was taken to the home of the most important man on the island, Publius. It is likely that the passengers, guards, and prisoners were split up into various homes to be cared for and that the centurion would have been put up in the house of the chief official of the island. Being his personal prisoner, and maybe even someone that he would have regarded as his friend by this point, Paul would go with the centurion and stay with Publius, as would Luke as he says that Publius welcomed “us”.

When Paul arrived he found that Publius’ father was in bed in a scene that is mildly similar to Jesus’ arrival at Peter’s house where he healed Peter’s mother-in-law (Matt. 8:14). The older man was suffering from a common malady on the island of Malta but what happened next was not at all common for the islanders. Paul placed his hands on him and prayed and the man was immediately healed. As word of this miracle spread, people from all over the island came to be healed by Paul. Paul worked tirelessly to give the people of Malta samples of the kingdom of God breaking into the present age as physical healing came upon them by the Holy Spirit working through the apostle.

Yet, there is one important detail that we find nowhere in this account. Nowhere in this account of the happenings on Malta are we told that anyone accepted the gospel, and that would be highly uncharacteristic of Luke to not mention that if it had happened. The people were friendly enough and they were willing to bring tangible gifts and honor Paul. They even set them up nicely for the rest of their journey as they prepared to leave the island, but Luke tells us of no one who accepted the gospel. He doesn’t tell us, of course, that Paul preached at all, but knowing Paul that is almost impossible to believe. It seems that Luke didn’t mention any preaching because no one on the island came to accept the gospel in faith. That’s pretty amazing when you think of it but it is not unlike the situation around that supper table a few years ago. Some people seem prepared to believe in almost anything including conspiracies, fateful snake bites, and one of the gods coming to the island of Malta and yet unwilling to accept the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It goes to show that willingness to believe all kinds of crazy things and to change one’s beliefs in a moment are not necessarily signs of one’s openness to the gospel. Nor is the willingness of someone to show kindness and hospitality to other human beings. Accepting the gospel does require faith but it is faith that is rooted in humility. It is a faith that is more open to what God is actually doing than with what one wants to hear.

Paul may not have had any success in the gospel being accepted on Malta but God had continued to spare his life and set him apart for his commission to preach the gospel in Rome. Paul had prayed that he be kept safe in Judea and make it Rome with great joy (Romans 15:30-32). The first half of that prayer had been answered spectacularly. Paul had yet to make it to Rome, however. But he is about to and Luke is about to tell us how God answered Paul’s prayers in a way that even he could never have imagined.


Devotional Thought
After such harrowing events, we find Paul engaging in the simple servant-like task of helping to build the fire rather than taking a well-deserved break. No matter how tired and drained we can feel by life sometimes we are still called to be servants. What can you do today to serve someone else?