03.09 | Celebrity & Simplicity

Acts 25

‘So on the next day Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp, and they entered the audience hall with the military tribunes and the prominent men of the city. Then, at the command of Festus, Paul was brought in.’

Acts 25:23

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I know those hands.

I was on a flight from Cape Town to Durban. I’d taken my seat, and saw a man get on the plane who looked exactly like Jonty Rhodes.

Jonty Rhodes was a South African cricketer who mostly played during the 1990s, and is still considered one of the greatest fielders of all time. The catches he took, and the athleticism of his run outs, remains legendary.

This guy looked really like Jonty Rhodes. 

As the flight attendants came down the aisle, the man reached up to receive something from her. And I knew those hands. I’d seen them on a thousand slow motion replays. It was undoubtedly Jonty.

I caught up with him on the way off the flight. He was warm and friendly, and we walked through Durban airport, chatting like old friends—with us parting ways as he showed me a shortcut to my next flight. It was one of those surreal and beautiful moments when you meet a hero, and you don’t fluff it with an awkward line, playing it too cool, or embarrasing over-enthusiasm.

At the point of our story today, Paul has been in prison for two years.

Two years. Two years of vocation postponed. Two years of the empty routines of confinement. Two years of waiting. 

And then, suddenly, he’s brought out to make another defence. And this time, it is before a king.

The king arrives with great pomp. The king arrives with his queen. The king arrives with the military tribunes and the prominent men of the city.

Paul is faced with a celebrity lineup of power and prestige, and presented with all their wealth and showmanship.

There’s always a danger when we find ourselves in front of someone, to adapt our behaviour. Not necessarily those adaptations we make in an effort to communicate more effectively cross-culturally or make the person more comfortable. I’m talking about the insecurity that more subtly distorts—making us say things that maybe we don’t entirely think or do things that aren’t entirely natural to us. It is the temptation to dilute our beliefs before the cynic, or feign zeal before the zealous, or find ourselves too eager before the celebrity. It is the internal ranking system that makes us treat those we consider important with greater attention, and those we consider less interesting with a dismissive heart. We might call it inauthentic. We might call it fake. The Bible calls it fear of man.

Fear of man, the Proverb warns us, lays a snare.¹ Fear of man is like a trap for our feet. It entangles us and distracts us and leaves us stuck. It fixates on superficialities, changes our behaviour before the powerful, creating ungodly hierarchies of the heart, which then dismisses or patronises those we think less of. 

Paul, standing in chains, is about to make his defence. And what we will see in it is a beautiful undistractability by the pomp. He demonstrates the radical alternative: simplicity.

Simplicity of his message. Simplicity of his heart. Simplicity in his single concern for the opinion of the One.

For simplicity is the great antidote to the fear of man, for true simplicity is purifying and purifying and purifying our motives, until every corrupting and distracting desire of our insecure hearts has melted away into doing all things for the pleasure of the only King who will ever, truly, have our hearts.

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Reflect:

Who can lead me to change my behaviour to earn their affirmation?

Bring this back to the Lord. Repent. Lay it down: it is a snare to you. Ask the Spirit to show you what it might look like to meet them with simplicity of heart, with nothing more or less than the desire to point them towards the Jesus they need as much as you do.

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Pray:

Father,

I’ve been insecure;

I’ve pretended,

Adapted,

Dressed up,

Dressed down;

I’ve talked different, thought different, worked different, sounded different;

I’ve let the opinion of others shape me.

Father, it has been fear,

And I am sorry.

Restore me:

Restore me in simplicity of heart,

That I may walk my moments 

In the unshifting affirmation of your love,

And with nothing in my heart towards another

But simple love

And eyes on you.

Make my heart steady,

My vision clear,

And my words truthful.

In Jesus’ Name,

Amen

Old Testament: 

For those also reading the Old Testament this year, your additional readings are here:

Job 32-34 | Proverbs 22:28-23:3

1. Proverbs 29:25