Stretching, Acts 22

Acts 22, stretched

25 As they stretched him out to flog him, Paul said to the centurion standing there, “Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn’t even been found guilty?”

Paul has been shaved and purified, cleaned; he has prayed and shared with the apostles; he has been shut out of the temple and beaten. After speaking to the crowd, Paul is stretched out and about to be flogged and at this moment, he asks a question, an essential question, “Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn’t even been found guilty?”

He doesn’t cry and plead out for mercy; Paul does not state the coming error in Roman law by the soldiers.

Paul asks a question, a question to make the authorities question and think themselves.

Accused of breaking the Jewish law by the crowd and sentenced to death, Paul appeals to Roman law as and is served and saved.

When stretched out, Paul questions and lives.

from Acts 22

“Then the Lord said to me, ‘Go; I will send

you far away to the Gentiles.’ ”

Paul the Roman Citizen

22 “The crowd listened to Paul until he said this. Then they raised their voices and shouted, “Rid the earth of him! He’s not fit to live!”

23 As they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air, 24 the commander ordered that Paul be taken into the barracks. He directed that he be flogged and interrogated in order to find out why the people were shouting at him like this. 25 As they stretched him out to flog him, Paul said to the centurion standing there, “Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn’t even been found guilty?”

26 When the centurion heard this, he went to the commander and reported it. “What are you going to do?” he asked. “This man is a Roman citizen.”

27 The commander went to Paul and asked, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?”

“Yes, I am,” he answered.

28 Then the commander said, “I had to pay a lot of money for my citizenship.”

“But I was born a citizen,” Paul replied.

29 Those who were about to interrogate him withdrew immediately. The commander himself was alarmed when he realized that he had put Paul, a Roman citizen, in chains.”

Paul is stretched and then, through questioning, released. As we move into difficult waters, our Lord wants us to question ourselves and others questions stretch.

Unspoken questions; thoughtless beliefs and actions, keep us in chains. Question.

Question.