Reflection
Memorial of St. Barnabas
At times, the Acts of the Apostles presents a romanticized Christian community that is unified and without friction or factions. Acts 2:42-47, for example, opens with an idyllic summary of a harmonious community.
Today’s reading from Acts 12 might lead us into such an idealized interpretation with the story of Barnabas.
Beneath the surface, however, lurks a narrative of a community that is frequently divided by messy human conflict.
The historical and biblical context reveals a deeply turbulent, and crisis-ridden environment where internal and external struggles were the norm for the early church.
With Herod Agrippa’s persecution of Christians, including the execution of James and the imprisonment of Peter, many followers of Jesus scattered from the dangers of Jerusalem to the safety of Antioch some 300 miles away.
As a result, Antioch became, in a sense, the new epicenter of Christianity, and a rapidly growing Christianity at that.
It might be comforting to read that the Jerusalem leadership sent Barnabas to Antioch to encourage and validate the new and exciting expansion of the Jesus movement there.
But given the dangerous and critical times, Barnabas, more likely, was sent to investigate the unpredictable and fluid situation in Antioch, and perhaps to control the leadership of that rapidly growing Gentile Christian movement there.
The Antioch community was anything but traditional. It was led by a diverse and multicultural group. They included Simeon Niger, likely an African, Lucius, a Libyan, Mandan, Herod’s courtier, Saul, a Pharisee, and Barnabas, a Cypriot. Not exactly, a leadership that would have given comfort to the Jewish Christian Jerusalem church. Nevertheless, Antioch’s precarious and apparently freewheeling diversity, would come to mirror the scope of the Gospel, and the global reach of the Holy Spirit.
Jerusalem served as the birthplace of Christianity, but Antioch became the launching pad for taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth. And Barnabas was uniquely equipped for this pivotal mission. As a Hellenistic Jewish Levite from Cyprus, he possessed the cultural and linguistic bridges necessary to minister in culturally diverse and bustling Antioch, while his Jerusalem connections and reputation as an encourager made him the perfect unifying figure during a time of crisis.
Barnabas did not insist on rigid conformity from the Antioch community. Rather, he supported its Gentile leadership. As a result, the church there flourished under Barnabas’ leadership of encouragement.
What do the conflicts and tensions of Barnabas’ times have to do with us today? The parallels are rich. As in the early church at Antioch, we Gentiles of today come from wide and wonderful diverse backgrounds and viewpoints. As Barnabas understood then, and we are to understand today, God’s love is not restricted to a specific background or group. The church is meant to be an inclusive, supportive community — no exceptions. And finally, like Barnabas, we are called to be a community that encourages all, and lifts and supports one another in faith.
