A Year in Luke/ActsNäide

As usual, Paul stirs up quite the commotion when he arrives in Thessalonica. Three groups are persuaded by Paul’s preaching: some Jews, devout Greeks, and prominent women. In that last group: we see many such women embracing the gospel throughout Acts and becoming key leaders in the movement, such as Lydia in chapter 16. However, some Jews became jealous and stirred up trouble. They were not willing to accept Paul’s message of Jesus being Messiah, they were not ready to have their world turned upside down and they say as much. In fact, they would even rather stay under Roman rule, positioning the followers of Jesus against the emperor by claiming that Jesus was king.

Of course, there is a sense in which they were saying that Jesus was kyrios (the Greek word for lord and associated with Caesar). This was not, however, the same kind of lord as Caesar. Jesus’ message was one about the launching of a kingdom that would leave the world a different place and was founded on peace and sacrificial love. Through this, Jesus was turning the world the right way up, but those unprepared to repent and accept the message were unable to see this.