Daily Thoughts from Acts: Laughing at Ourselves (Acts 20:7-16)

On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight. There were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered. And a young man named Eutychus, sitting at the window, sank into a deep sleep as Paul talked still longer. And being overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead. But Paul went down and bent over him, and taking him in his arms, said, “Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him.” And when Paul had gone up and had broken bread and eaten, he conversed with them a long while, until daybreak, and so departed. And they took the youth away alive, and were not a little comforted.

But going ahead to the ship, we set sail for Assos, intending to take Paul aboard there, for so he had arranged, intending himself to go by land. And when he met us at Assos, we took him on board and went to Mitylene. And sailing from there we came the following day opposite Chios; the next day we touched at Samos; and the day after that we went to Miletus. For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that he might not have to spend time in Asia, for he was hastening to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost.  (Acts 20:7-16 ESV)

As Paul continues his journey toward Jerusalem he takes time to minister to the believers in Troas and knowing that his time is limited he spends the whole night and early morning teaching them.  But when sleep overcomes one young man, Eutychus (whose name means “lucky”), and he dies from his fall out the window, Paul is used by God to restore him to life, like Peter restored Tabitha (Acts 9:36-42).

There is nothing funny about a young man plunging to his death, but it is a little funny that Paul’s preaching could put someone to sleep.  Yes, he was waxing on for a long time and late into the night.  Yes, the fumes being put off by the oil lamps could well have contributed to Eutychus’ sleepy condition.  And wouldn’t we all have wanted to hear what Paul had to say?  But even as eager as they all were to hear Paul speak and as great a leader and expounder of the gospel as he was, Paul could put people to sleep.  It is good to laugh at ourselves.  The Christian journal, Christianity Today, ran, for many years, a column called Eutychus and His Kin, in which anonymous authors contributed humorous aspects of our faith (see a portion of the letter to the editor below that started that off).  We can’t take ourselves too seriously.

Paul knows that if he travels into the heart of Asian Minor it is going to delay his getting to Jerusalem in time for the feast of Pentecost, so he sticks to the coastal towns, walking (we’re not sure why he walks one leg of this journey) and sailing.  Pentecost was a pilgrimage festival for Israelites, one which they should try to make in Jerusalem, and Paul had this offering to present to the church there and wanted to participate in Pentecost.  Pentecost was a harvest festival and it would be appropriate for Paul to bring this harvest of money from the harvest of Gentile souls God had lavished on the church.

To the Editor:

Can you tell me, please, whether it is proper to launch an ICBM rocket with a bottle of champagne? Having flunked physics, I am somewhat unsure of myself in this atomic age. It would be great fun for an inveterate non-alcoholic to contribute some verbal pop and fizz to the launching of your new magazine, but I don’t know whether it would be appropriate.

I’m a little over-awed. Your magazine, you say, is “designed for worldwide impact.” Looking at your streamlined brochure and the impressive list of editors and contributors I can well believe it. The jet take-off of your first issue is going to be something to see!

But sir, you need a Pseudonymous Letter Writer, for which position I herewith make application. I can hear you muttering, “The pseudonymous, while not synonymous with the anonymous, is equally pusillanimous…” I wish you wouldn’t talk that way. Where would American literature be without Mark Twain? Besides, as that great master of pseudonymity, Soren Kierkegaard, has explained, using a pseudonym may show too much courage rather than too little! My nom de plume suggests not a personality but a picture. Easy slumber under sound gospel preaching was fatal for Eutychus. The Christian church of our generation has not been crowded to his precarious perch, but it has been no less perilously asleep in comfortable pews.

The resemblance to Eutychus does not end there. Eutychus prostrate on the pavement is more appropriate than we know as a symbol of Christendom today. To tap sleeping Eutychus on the shoulder, to embrace dead Eutychus in love, faith, and hope is your task. [October 16, 1956 in Christianity Today]