In the Apostles’ Footsteps- Part 1- at Mars Hill – Brad Jersak

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Series Prologue:

Follow Dr. Bradley Jersak, PTM’s pastoral scholar, as he walks the ancient streets of biblical cities across Türkiye and Greece—sites where Christ’s apostles once trod. Knowing that Paul the apostle or John the beloved disciple traversed those same stones is a profound experience that brings the words of Scripture to life. In this series, Brad offers reflections on key locations he visited with students and friends of St. Stephen’s University.   

Part I – Mars Hill and the Acropolis in Athens  

Scripture — Acts 17:22-31 (note underlined sections) 

 ²² Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. ²³ For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you. 

²⁴ “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. ²⁵ And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. ²⁶ From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. ²⁷ God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ²⁸ ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ 

²⁹ “Therefore, since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. ³⁰ In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. ³¹ For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead. 

Atop Mars Hill / the Areopagus 

The Acropolis Paul saw from Mars Hill

In my previous readings of Acts 17—Paul’s speech to the philosophers on Mars Hill in Athens—I could imagine him on a mound amid the idols to which he referred. What I didn’t realize then was that (1) Mars Hill (a solid-rock perch overlooking the city) had doubled as a court (the Areopagus) for centuries and (2) looming over Mars Hill nearby was the higher citadel of Athens’ great Acropolis. The Acropolis includes a complex of temples, including the ginormous Parthenon (dedicated to Athena) and other stone temples to Athena and lesser Greek gods (such as Nike). Mars Hill itself had been associated with the god Ares for many centuries.  

Hearing the Acts 17 passage read aloud at Mars Hill, when Paul says, “I see that in every way you are very religious,” it is impossible not to simultaneously gaze up at the impressive pillars of the Parthenon that once housed their gods.  

In their shadow, Paul’s response is quite different from the confrontations of the prophets Elijah and Isaiah, who famously taunted foreign idols and ridiculed pagan ways of worship. True, Paul does insist, like Isaiah, Jesus and Stephen before him, that the God who made us can’t be shrink-wrapped by people into marble houses or wooden or metal idols. Yet Paul’s congeniality surprises us as by establishing common ground upon which to preach Christ. His daring approach transcends the exclusive and repulsive message so many Christians tend to preach. Paul wants to draw his listeners toward the ultimate truth of the Jesus Gospel.

Paul’s Hospitable Gospel

A few examples are noteworthy: 

+ Instead of narrowing the family of God to Christianity, he declares that “we are [all] God’s offspring” by virtue of sharing one ultimate Creator God.  

+ Instead of condemning their pagan religious impulses as fruitless, he commends their groping as earnest seeking (however imperfect) and he leans into Jesus’ promise that those who authentically seek God will be found by him. 
 
+ Instead of negating their worship as obviously silly and misguided toward false gods, Paul cites a popular hymn to Zeus to make his point (“In him, we live and move and have our being”), showing how their hymn to Zeus is fulfilled in Jesus. And he even appropriates and redirects their veneration of “an unknown god” toward the God finally revealed in Jesus.    

So, Paul’s gospel isn’t narrow, condemning or negating. But neither does he simply affirm the Athenian religion(s) as if he were an “anything goes” pluralist. He crosses the bridges he builds in Athens to present a subversive message, something like:

“Of course, we know that God, who created all things and all peoples, isn’t confined to temples drafted by engineers and built by artisans (like the impressive structure you see on the Acropolis). God is so much bigger than that! Am I right?”  I can imagine them starting to nod… “Hmm, the stranger makes a good point. ”

“And of course, we know that God is ultimately the Judge and calls for all people everywhere to repent.” Standing on Mars Hill, the historic Court of the Areopagus, where the god Ares (or Mars) had been tried by the other gods for the murder of Poseidon’s son… well, who could argue with that? 

“And of course, we know (from the Epimenides’ Hymn to Zeus) that God is not dead and cannot be confined to a tomb.” [So far, so good. But…] “And neither is God’s Son, Jesus, whom God raised from the dead and appointed Lord and Judge over all.”  Here, Paul can make the move from Zeus and his daughter Athena to the Christian Creator God and his son Jesus… Paul introduces the resurrection of Jesus as his proof. A bridge too far for some. 

Hymn to Zeus

Since I’ve mentioned this Hymn to Zeus, here it is. Noting how Paul has used it in his sermon: 

Statue in the Agora (marketplace) below the Acropolis

They fashioned a tomb for you, holy and high one, 
Cretans, always liars, evil beasts, idle bellies. 
But you are not dead: you live and abide forever, 
For in you we live and move and have our being. 

Ultimately, Paul’s conversation with the Athenian philosophers didn’t bear much fruit. Some sneered at his claims of the resurrection. Others, such as Dionysius the Areopagite, did catch on and he would become a significant figure in the early church. Yet Paul’s multifaith engagement in Athens does seem to have left a bitter taste in his mouth (see 1 Corinthians 1:18-31). “Where are the philosophers of this age?” … Athens, perhaps? The encounter inspired Paul to distill his basic message further down to nothing but “Christ crucified and risen” (1 Corinthians 1:1-5). That’s a good caution for us, too. Best to stick to an “all Jesus, all the time” gospel.  

But at the same time, the Mars Hill speech reveals important aspects of Paul’s practice and his theology. In terms of practice, he made himself familiar with the cultures he was addressing. He can rattle off lines from a popular pagan hymn to a false God and repurpose its fulfillment in Christ as an authoritative Christian doctrine! He was willing to build spiritual bridges over which he delivered his gospel to the hearts of any true seeker. 

And in terms of theology, he reveals several radical notions for our own consideration: 

+ Because God created all people, then we can start with the premise that all people are God’s beloved children.

+ God has embedded an impulse in human hearts that ultimately leads us to seek for God. And then God embedded clues across our indigenous cultures that serve as pointers to their fulfillment in Christ.  

+ Spiritually hungry people who grope for God, even in the ignorance of their unChristlike religions, eventually find their hope fulfilled in the revelation of God through Jesus Christ. 

A Christ Larger than the Temple of Christianity

Paul’s theology is so expansive that he offers an image of Christ larger even than the “Temple of the Christian religion” or its many sects. Paul is so generous that he can nod to authentic seeking. Christ can find us even within our distorted religious forms. But he preaches that our salvation comes from above and by the grace of the One who came and who comes to seek and find us wherever we are.

Remember what Jesus said to the woman at the well in John 4:23-24. Citing Eugene Peterson’s Message translation: 

 “…the time is coming—it has, in fact, come—when what you’re called will not matter and where you go to worship will not matter. 

“It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That’s the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration.” 

Paul also knows firsthand that Christ can seek and find and meet us outside of our religious constructs. Paul, following Jesus, conceives encounters with God that burst beyond the temples, texts, rites, and rituals of our earnest seeking. We meet Christ and become his living temple in a heart connection with a living Savior. Christ will travel anywhere, to any well (even Samaritan), on any road (even Damascus), or up any hill (even Mars) to find the willing seeker. The venue for this meeting is any person’s own heart and life.

At least, that’s how I saw it on Mars Hill.

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PTM believes the good news of Jesus is our source of hope, comfort, encouragement, and healing. If this has been your experience, please let us know. And if you have questions you’d like to us address, you can email us at info@ptm.org