“The next day Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp and entered the audience room with the high-ranking military officers and the prominent men of the city. At the command of Festus, Paul was brought in. Festus said: ‘King Agrippa, and all who are present with us, you see this man! The whole Jewish community has petitioned me about him in Jerusalem and here in Caesarea, shouting that he ought not to live any longer. I found he had done nothing deserving of death, but because he made his appeal to the Emperor I decided to send him to Rome. But I have nothing definite to write to His Majesty about him. Therefore I have brought him before all of you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that as a result of this investigation I may have something to write. For I think it is unreasonable to send a prisoner on to Rome without specifying the charges against him.’
Then Agrippa said to Paul, ‘You have permission to speak for yourself.’“
Acts 25:23–26:1
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JUNE 16, 2025
Take a moment today to skim Acts 25. The whole chapter feels like a runaround, full of posturing and pomp and circumstance—as several of the past chapters were before. Paul has just been smuggled out of Jerusalem to avoid the assassination plot against him. (I wonder what happened to those 40 men who vowed not to eat until they had killed him…don’t you?) Now, there’s talk of transferring Paul back to Jerusalem—but only because of the secret plan to ambush him along the way. Instead, Festus brings the religious leaders back to Caesarea. Everyone is trying to do a favor for someone in order to curry favor, trying to get those with power to use their power on their own behalf. They’re arguing about whether Paul has done anything illegal or worthy of arrest much less trial (or death) while at the same time trying to sneak-attack assassinate him.
The only way anyone can make sense of this is to conclude that Paul is in trouble because he disagrees with his countrymen about “a dead man named Jesus who Paul claimed was alive” (25:19b). But as a Roman citizen, he has appealed to the emperor so now this argument about the status of a local teacher must be heard by the Caesar of Rome!
As my teenagers would say: “What are we doing?!”
Friends, the powerful people in any society will wield a strength and voice that feels god-like at times. But Jesus and Jesus’ Kingdom is not in the great pomp and circumstance. It’s in the mustard seed, in the bread and wine, in loving our neighbor as ourselves, giving a cup of cold water to someone in need, visiting a prisoner, caring for the sick, providing shelter to someone far from home.
And even in the midst of all these distracting, exhausting, dangerous political machinations—in Paul’s time as well as our own—Jesus’ Kingdom is still moving forward not in the loud conversations and power grabs but in the quiet acts of compassion, love, and mercy.
Questions for reflection and discussion:
- What is happening in this story on a political plane—and on a Kingdom plane?
- Are you more inclined to follow Jesus or powerful people in your community or government?
- What does following Jesus look like in your time and place, do you think?
Church Reading Plan: Deuteronomy 21; Psalm 108-109