Mediator
26 When he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples, and they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. 27 But Barnabas took him, brought him to the apostles, and described for them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had spoken boldly in the name of Jesus. 28 So he went in and out among them in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. 29 He spoke and argued with the Hellenists, but they were attempting to kill him. 30 When the brothers and sisters learned of it, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.
Acts 9:26-30 (NRSV)
STORY
Many countries across the globe preside over colonies. After the close of any war, these colonies are often placed under a new political rulership. The country of Eretria was a colony under the rule of Italy. After Italy, an Axis power, lost to the Allies at the end of the Second World War, Eretria was incorporated into Ethiopia, the neighboring country to its south. In 1993, after a lengthy civil war Eretria secured its independence from Ethiopia and became an independent country. At the conclusion of this conflict the border between the two countries remined in dispute.
The focus of the dispute was the Tigray Province. The Tigray Province had no economic value, as there was no oil in the region. Additionally, there weren’t any diamonds mines in the region. Which country occupied the Tigray Province was really only a matter of principle, as each country only desired to expand its domain.
On May 6, 1998, Eretria invaded the Tigray Province and a two-year war erupted. When the hostilities ended on June 18, 2000, over 100,000 soldiers were killed in battle and millions of civilians became refuges. And two of the poorest countries in the world had spent millions of dollars purchasing used military equipment from Russia.
Sadly, at the end of the Eretria-Entropion War, also known as the Badme War, after the capital city in the Tigray Province, the border line separating the two countries was still in dispute. It wasn’t until twenty-years later, in 2018, with the signing of the Algiers Agreement, that the Tigray Province came under the rule of Eretria.
After the ratification of the Algiers Agreement, Ethiopia’s president made a diplomatic trip to Eretria to meet with the victorious country’s prime minister. On the tarmac at the airport in Asmara, Eritrea’s capital, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was embraced by Eritrea’s President Isaias Afwerki. During this greeting Ethiopia’s Prime Minister said, “There is no longer a border between Eritrea and Ethiopia because a bridge of love has destroyed it.”
DEVOTION
Saul, on the road to Damascus, heard the voice of Jesus and saw the Messiah in the heavens. As it would be for most anyone, this was a watershed moment in his life. He came to believe in Jesus as his Lord and Savior. Saul, the persecutor of Christians, was transformed and became Paul, the Christian evangelist.
An Apostle is an individual who knew Jesus personally. Paul believed that the reality of his experience on the Damascus Road was as authentic as the experience of the church leaders, the Apostles, who walked with Jesus and presently resided in Jerusalem.
Affirming the validity of his encounter with Jesus on the Damascus Road, Paul declared himself to be an apostle equal to the apostles of Jerusalem, and therefore he did not need their approval to authenticate the legitimacy of his vision and mission. Paul preached for three years in Damascus and Arabia before journeying to Jerusalem to meet with the other Apostles.
Paul arrived in Jerusalem in the year 36 or 37, though he was not a welcome visitor. During his two weeks visit he stayed in the home of Peter. The Jerusalem church leaders, led by James, the brother of Jesus, were suspicious of Paul. These men did not recognize Paul’s vision and calling to be authentic. Barnabas attempted to reassure them that Paul really had seen Jesus, and that in Damascus and Arabia he had been boldly proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah.
A debate between Paul and the others ensued, though to no avail. Paul, arriving just a few years after organizing and overseeing the stoning of Stephen, made the Jerusalem leaders skeptical of his conversion experience. They denied him the title of apostle. They then led him down to the sea at Caesarea and put him on a boat back home to Tarsus. Barnabas, in this contentious situation, can be admired for trying to be “a bridge of love.”
Every congregation, except none, has conflict. The range of hostile feelings among parishioners is limitless. The church that you attend is no different than what occurred in Jerusalem between Paul and James. The calling for you and me, for all of us, is to be a Barnabas in our congregations. During a dispute, in any situation where we may find ourselves, we are to be “a bridge of love” with the desire to solicit understanding and reconciliation. This, of course, can be applied to all of life’s situations.