Redeeming suffering
The Olympic Games are being held this year in Paris. The ancient Olympic games happened every four years, just as they do today. The first Olympic sports were running, jumping, discus, wrestling, boxing, martial arts, and horse racing. There are 329 medal events these days, including skateboarding, rock climbing, breakdancing, and surfing in Tahiti almost 10,000 miles from France. Do you think the ancient Greeks would be mesmerized by the Paris Olympic games? What would they make of breakdancing?
The second biggest athletic competition in the ancient world was called the Isthmian Games. Every other year, athletes from all over Greece gathered in Corinth to race, wrestle, and to compete in poetry contests. There were no gold, silver, or bronze medals for the ancient athletes. While the original Olympic games gave out crowns of olive branches, the Isthmian Games gave victors crowns of wilted celery.
The Apostle Paul spent eighteen months living in Corinth. He almost certainly witnessed the Isthmian Games. Paul was primarily a preacher, but he also worked as a tentmaker. He likely sold tents to athletes, vendors, and spectators. Paul was in a unique position to talk about Jesus to people from all over the Mediterranean. Perhaps some of those athletes, vendors, and spectators went home from the games with personal faith in Christ the Lord. What is certain is that the large, diverse city of Corinth became a place from which the good news spread all over the ancient world.
Let’s turn to Acts 18:1-11, where God assures Paul that he would be safe in the big city of Corinth. Much like modern Paris, ancient Corinth had a positive reputation for luxury goods, fancy restaurants, and wine shops. Also like modern Paris, ancient Corinth had a negative reputation for prostitution, sexual immorality, and violence. When you watch the Paris Olympics Games this summer, I invite you to think about the Apostle Paul living in the middle of a busy city like that. And then, consider how God kept Paul safe from crime and religious persecution so that he could effectively preach the gospel message.
“After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. There he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, and, because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them, and they worked together—by trade they were tentmakers. Every Sabbath he would argue in the synagogue and would try to convince Jews and Greeks.
“When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with proclaiming the word, testifying to the Jews that the Messiah was Jesus. When they opposed and reviled him, in protest he shook the dust from his clothes and said to them, ‘Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.’ Then he left the synagogue and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshipper of God; his house was next door to the synagogue. Crispus, the official of the synagogue, became a believer in the Lord, together with all his household; and many of the Corinthians who heard Paul became believers and were baptized. One night the Lord said to Paul in a vision, ‘Do not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent; for I am with you, and no one will lay a hand on you to harm you, for there are many in this city who are my people.’ He stayed there for a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them” (Acts 18:1-11).
The city of Corinth was an ideal location to spread the gospel. There were about 200,000-300,000 people living in Corinth in the first century. It was the third largest city in the Roman Empire. Only Rome in Italy and Alexandria in Egypt were larger and more culturally significant.
Like modern Paris, ancient Corinth was both a destination city and a travel hub. Corinth was strategically located on the trade route between Europe and Asia. All that international trade made Corinth a wealthy city. The Corinthians had the means and the opportunity to see the world. Of the 17 Corinthian church members mentioned by name in the New Testament, nine of them have international travel stories.
When Paul first arrived in Corinth around 49 AD, he met Priscilla and Aquila who were refugees from Rome. Like Paul, Priscilla and Aquila were tentmakers. Also like Paul, Priscilla and Aquila were Christian leaders. It seems highly likely that Paul traveled to Corinth specifically to team up with Priscilla and Aquila.
It was no longer safe for Priscilla and Aquila in Rome. Jewish people were frequently expelled from big cities like Rome because they did not conform to the eating habits and religious practices of their neighbors. There were 40,000-50,000 Jews living in Rome, but only a few of them were actually evicted around 49 AD. The historian Suetonius gives us evidence that it was specifically the Jews who believed in Jesus Christ that were kicked out of Rome. Suetonius writes, “Since the Jews continually make disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus, [Claudius] expelled them from Rome.” Priscilla and Aquila bonded with Paul, because they were all tentmakers, because they were all Christian leaders, and perhaps most importantly because they all knew profound suffering.
Paul barely escaped violence in Damascus and Jerusalem. Then Paul was persecuted and expelled from both Antioch of Pisidia and Iconium. After that, Paul was nearly stoned to death in Lystra. Paul was so traumatized by persecution in city after city, that it destroyed his friendship and missionary partnership with Barnabas. Paul had recently been stripped, beaten with rods, and imprisoned in Philippi. After that, Paul escaped a riot and imprisonment in Thessalonica. At another point, Paul was put on academic trial in Athens. I can only imagine how exhausted Paul must have felt after all that misfortune.
Paul declares in Acts 14:22, “It is through many persecutions that we must enter the kingdom of God.” Bible scholar David Peterson suggests that Paul was despondent when he arrived in Corinth. Those
feelings of rejection were intensified in today’s story, when Paul gets kicked out of the local synagogue.
Something remarkable happened after all that suffering. Paul heard Jesus speak to him in a vision. “Do not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent; for I am with you, and no one will lay a hand on you to harm you, for there are many in this city who are my people.” Jesus promised Paul that no one was going to injure him in Corinth. Paul was restored and reinvigorated during his 18 months of ministry among the Corinthians.
Paul’s old friends Silas and Timothy joined him in Corinth. Perhaps they brought Paul a large financial gift. Perhaps they started helping out in the tent making shop. One way or another, Saul and Timothy gave Paul the financial independence to stop making tents and preach the gospel full-time.
Titius Justus invited Paul to preach at his house, which was next door to the synagogue. Titius Justus, was a Gentile convert who worshiped at the synagogue. After hearing the gospel message from Paul, Titius Justus became a leader in the new Corinthian Church. Paul also brought Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, and his entire family to the Corinthian church.
Paul was surrounded by many wonderful friends in Corinth: Silas and Timothy, Priscilla and Aquila, as well as Titius and Crispus. The Corinthian Church was one of the first congregations on European soil. It was a remarkably international congregation, with members from Israel, Syria, Turkey, Italy, and Greece all coming together to worship Jesus. It was exactly the kind of multicultural community that would attract the diverse collection athletes, vendors, and spectators in Corinth for the Isthmian Games.
At the heart of this story is the protection of Jesus. Paul, Silas, Timothy, Priscilla, and Aquila had all endured suffering throughout the Roman Empire. God brought them all together in Corinth to experience peace and spread the good news of Jesus Christ. The 18 months spent in Corinth were the safest time in Paul’s ministry. It was also some of the most fruitful and productive time in Paul’s missionary work.
And there are also a few important lessons in Paul’s story. First is that suffering is inevitable. No one gets through life without pain. Christians sometimes imagine that our faith will spare us from experiencing sorrow. That’s not what the Bible teaches us. Jesus clearly warned us that we have to pick up our crosses if we want to follow him.
The Book of Acts tells the story of how Paul went from persecuting Christians, to being persecuted for Christ’s sake. As Paul says in Acts 20:23, “The Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and persecutions are waiting for me.” After his time in Corinth, Paul is kidnapped (21:30-31), threatened (22:22), arrested (21:33), put on trial (21:34), interrogated (25:24-27), ridiculed (26:24), ignored (27:11), shipwrecked (27:41), and even bitten by a snake (28:3). Instead of destroying Paul’s faith, all that suffering made him wiser, more compassionate, and a better witness to the gospel.
Second is that God can redeem our suffering. God redeemed the cross of his Son Jesus Christ with resurrection. God can also redeem our pain with new life. Everybody hurts, and anybody can be transformed by the love of God. As Psalm 30:5 puts it, “Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning.” Your tears truly matter, but there is joy waiting at the end of your story.
Let me be very clear: I am not suggesting that God causes us to suffer. Jesus came to save us from sin, shame, and death.
Likewise, I am not suggesting that the worst moments of our lives are somehow good because of the moral lessons we learned. That’s a rather shallow understanding of both God and suffering. The Book of Job is a profound reminder that suffering can feel meaningless, and that God’s redeeming love often leaves us humbled and confused. Sometimes it feels like victory when God redeems our suffering. Sometimes it feels like clinging to Jesus for mere survival. Both can be true.
Finally, suffering teaches us how to empathize with others. Paul, Silas, Timothy, Priscilla, Aquila, Titius, and Crispus had all suffered for Christ, which taught them to share the pain of their neighbors. They were equipped to love all the athletes who did not win a crown of celery in the Isthmian Games. They were equipped to love all the Jews who were kicked out of the local synagogue. They were equipped to love the women who were mixed up in the prostitution and mystery religions of Corinth and help them find new life.
Jesus can and will intervene in our lives. Jesus will help us discover peace that surpasses all understanding. So bring Christ the Lord all your pain, confusion, rejection, and personal failures. Ask Jesus to redeem what you cannot, to give you the restoration you need to feel like yourself again. Ask God to transform the pain in your life to bring healing to others. And may the Lord bless you and keep you and lead you to peace.