The Clerk who was right, but wrong
Friday, August 15 2008 09:28 | Written by Barry Bryson | 
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I begin the college course I teach with this question: “Radical Islamic Jihadists believe that their only option against the onslaught of Westernization is violence. Are they right?” I have (thankfully) never had a student approve of the violence embraced by Radical Islamists, but I have had many admit that Starbucks, Target, and The Gap are part of a tidal wave of culture that seems unstoppable. Most of these students have experienced the global reach of Western culture personally, as many are international students, and most others have studied and traveled abroad. There are few places from Tierra Del Fuego, to the Faeroe's, to Fiji where one would be unable to buy a USA Today, and a Venti Latte to start the morning.We spoke last Sunday morning about a time when Western culture felt similarly threatened, and similarly responded – when the Gospel became so successful in Ephesus, that the city’s economy was threatened (Acts 19). We are told that the mob response ignited by the Silversmith guild resulted in the citizen’s of Ephesus filling the amphitheater and screaming for two hours. This brief exercise if mobocracy comes to an end after the intervention of the Town Clerk of Ephesus. Exhibiting great bravery and clear-headedness he tells them:
“…You have brought these men here who are neither robbers of temples, nor blasphemers of our goddess. So then if Demetrius and the craftsmen with him have a complaint against any man, the courts are is session, proconsuls are available, let them bring charges. If you want anything beyond this, it shall be settled in a lawful assembly…”
I have always had a great admiration and affection for the Town Clerk of Ephesus. He is one of a large group of Roman officials (Gallio, Claudius Lysias, even Ponitus Pilate) who appear in the New Testament as the representative of law & order, of due process. The mob has a visceral response to the threat Christianity poses to their idolatry based culture. The Town Clerk insists that no crimes have been committed to his knowledge, and if any have – formal charges should be brought.
The things he says to the crowd are prudent, and true. And yet there is a sense in which the mob response of the citizens understands the real situation in a way the Town Clerk does not. He says the temple hasn’t been robbed, and the goddess has not been blasphemed – this is true- and yet the preaching of the Gospel intends to destroy both.
We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ… II Corinthians 10.5
The mob understands that the Gospel fully intends to destroy every competitor, and responds the way a cornered animal would respond – it turns and fights. Christianity did destroy the Artemis cult – but not by blasphemy and robbery, vandalism and violence – it won in the marketplace of ideas. The gospel won because it is true.
Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers and powers, and world forces of this present darkness, against spiritual forces of wickedness… Ephesians 6.12
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