Several years ago I traveled to New York City for a work trip. One evening a colleague gathered a group to visit a trendy restaurant. I joined the party, looking forward to the culinary excursion. We started our meal sharing a variety of appetizers. My friend ordered one featuring beets, long forgotten but once again in vogue.

As a kid I hated beets. I thought they tasted like dirt. Now after many years, I spooned a few on my plate. I thought, Why not? I’m a grown man and enjoys lots of different foods, so maybe beets aren’t so bad. One bite brought me back. Same grainy mash of soil. I scraped the remaining beets onto my neighbor’s plate and reached for a chicken wing to kill the taste.

It’s easy to let a crowd pull you where you don’t want to go. At a restaurant it’s actually a lot of fun, but in life the wisdom of the crowd sometimes turns to madness.

Paul and Barnabus experienced such madness as they carried the good news of Jesus to a town named Lystra. Paul miraculously healed a man lame from birth, and when the crowd saw the man jumping around, they went wild. They shouted, The gods have come down to us in human form! Thinking Paul and Barnabus were Hermes and Zeus, they hung wreaths in their honor and wrangled cattle to sacrifice.

Paul responded: Friends, why are you doing this? We too are only human, like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God.

The crowd roiled around them. Deprived of their gods, they eventually turned on the evangelists. They stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, leaving him for dead. Only by the good hand of the Lord did Paul survive.

In the chaos, the crowd lost the message of a Savior. One minute euphoria, the next minute dashed hopes morphing into rage. Hope lay trampled under the madness of the mob.

Paul and Barnabus moved on, leaving the people of Lystra with the empty myths of Hermes and Zeus. But amazingly, months later they returned. Not everyone missed out on their message of Jesus. Among the believers they met Timothy, who joined them on their missionary journey.

Gobs of people chase popularity. But behind the masses are folks quietly considering the truth. Worry less about appealing to the crowd and more about connecting with those seekers of the Way.

Acts 14 in Through the Bible in 2024

Photo by Farhad Ibrahimzade