Acts 26:24-32 “Get Agrippa”
Open up your Bibles to Acts 26:24-32 please and look at the first few lines of the passage. I would like to share with you this morning that this is a very special part of the scriptures. This is the only place in the Bible where a particular Greek word is used; that word is “manios,” and it is from this word that we get the English word “maniac” or “maniacal.” Festus just does not call Paul “out of his mind,” he calls him a maniac. He is not just “insane”; he is maniacal!
What does it mean to be a maniac actually? I heard a great explanation of this term in a very simple comparison: When you are driving down the road and you come up behind somebody who is going 20 mph in a 50 zone, you might call that person a little crazy. But, if you are driving 50 mph and someone crosses the double-yellow line and passes you at over a 100 mph, then you call that person a “maniac.” One can say that a maniac is the one who goes so fast with so little concern for him or herself that they leave you in the dust. Festus uses this word to describe Paul.
There is actually another word that Festus uses in this same sentence that is only used once in the Bible. That word is “peritrepho,” and it literally means to be turned around as if you were thinking that you were heading north but the whole time you were actually heading south. Festus tells Paul that he has not just mixed up his learning, but has completely turned it around in his head. It would be as if I were to read the alphabet backwards to you. Or, if you asked me for my phone number, I would start with the last digit and give it to you backwards. This is not just being insane, but somehow brilliantly insane!
Is it okay to be insane for Christ? Is it all right to be crazy for Jesus? Sure it is! Honestly, when we read all of Jesus’ words in the Bible and thereafter come to the realization that what he says turns the whole world upside down, everything that we thought seems now to be the exact opposite, then we must conclude that either we or the rest of the world are crazy! My point is this: it is okay to be a little crazy for Jesus, but don’t leave others in your dust! Don’t come across as a maniac!
Yet also know that there will be times when people will be left in the dust from what you tell them about Jesus Christ out of no fault of your own. I know that this is hard to accept because we have a passion in our hearts for Christ and would want the whole world to know the love that we have. But, I think of John 6:60 and on when Jesus was talking about eternal life with his disciples: “When many of his disciples heard it, they said, ‘This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?’ But Jesus being aware that his disciples were complaining about it said to them. . . .because of this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer went around with him.” Even Jesus, the Son of God himself, would have to leave some people behind because they just would not accept his teaching.
The other day I was out in Kekaha coming back towards Waimea, when I saw a young man in swim trunks riding an off-road motorcycle, no helmet of course, with the front tire raised off the ground so that he was only balanced on the back wheel. I slowed down to a crawl to pass him, thinking that I might have to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting him if he were to lose control. As I did pass him I could not help but wonder if his soul were reconciled to Christ in the event that he might have an accident and perish. I also thought that no matter how slow I went, his safety could not be my concern because he was choosing to ride his motorcycle in a very dangerous way. This is the truth about our witness in Christ. We cannot go so fast as to leave people in the dust, and we cannot go too slow thinking that we might be able to save a soul that just will not be saved.
In my own experience, Christians tend to go too fast. Think about your own life and whether you need to slow down a bit. Like with Paul defending himself before Festus, he just needed maybe to slow down a little to make sure that those who were listening could keep up with the truth he was telling about Christ.
Even King Agrippa makes the comment to Paul: “Do you think you can persuade me so quickly to become a Christian?” Do you see that in verse 28?! Don’t leave people in the dust. Slow down. Take your time to get your message across to them.
I wanted to lift out another interesting verse from this passage, that is verse 25, where Paul responds to Festus saying that he is in no way crazy or insane. Paul is not a maniac. Paul says that he is speaking the “sober truth.” I like this word “sober.” It makes me consider what “drunken” truth might look like! It may also be translated as “right-minded” from the Greek. Paul uses this very term again in his Second Letter to the Corinthians when he rights: (2 COR 5:11-15) “. . . Knowing the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade others: but we ourselves are well known to God, and I hope that we are also well known to your consciences. We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you an opportunity to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast in outward appearance and not in the heart. For if we are besides ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.”
I love this! Paul is saying, I AM crazy for Christ. If I am acting normal and sane right now, it is only for your sake that you might speak well of me. Otherwise, I am perfectly happy being crazy.
Do you remember the play and movie entitled Harvey? The film came out in the 1950’s with Jimmy Stewart playing the lead. The story was about an amiable character who has a six-foot tall white rabbit as his best friend and drinking buddy. His family tries to have him committed to an insane asylum, but in the last scene, the doctor at the asylum confesses that he, too, can see the six-foot tall white rabbit. The sister who is trying to have him committed is swayed by the taxi driver that brings her out to the asylum that it is much nicer to be crazy than sane. His monologue goes something like this: “Everyday I bring people out to this asylum. When I bring them in my cab to this place, and they are “crazy,” they seem happy and remark about the fields and trees and birds and things on the drive out. We have a most amiable time. They always leave me with a big smile and press a tip into my hands, thanking me for the pleasurable ride in my cab. Now, when I pick them up to take them back to the city, they are mean and grumbling. They no longer notice the trees and birds. They scold me for either driving too fast or too slow, complain about the fare, and never give a tip.”
I tell you that there is a release in admitting to being a little crazy. In Shakespeare’s play of King Lear at the denouement in Act IV when King Lear’s daughter finally finds him under doctor’s care as he has gone insane, we recall how the doctor assures the daughter Cordelia that it is okay to approach and talk to her father as his craziness had at least cured all of the rage he had known in his life.
In verse 29 of the scripture from Acts, we read Paul’s open invitation that everybody who hears the Word of God would also become a little crazy like him: “. . .I pray to God that not only you but also all who are listening to me today might become as I am—except for these chains.” Agrippa gets up after this and makes the comment that Paul is no threat to anyone and should have been released.
A huge amount of irony exists in the fact that Herod Agrippa II would want to let Paul go. The Herodian line of kings is famous for truly being sadistically insane. It would have been Agrippa’s forbears who killed all of the male children at the time of Christ’s birth fearing the Messiah. It would have been his forbear who had John the Baptist beheaded. It would have been his forbear who okayed the crucifixion of Jesus.
I like to think that like King Lear, King Agrippa is getting a little bit touched in the head in a softer and gentler craziness. He does not rage against Paul as would have been absolutely expected. Instead, he listens and sees no harm in the truth of Christ! Not that he fully accepts it either.
Listen again to this confession of Paul’s, keeping in mind that most people would probably tell you that they have somebody in their life whom they would want to emulate. Paul does not say this at this time. He says the exact opposite. He says: “I want you to be like me.”
How many of us could go up to somebody else and say similar words? “I want you to be like me.” That sounds almost as crazy as that book title by Stephen Colbert I Am America and So Can You. But, when you realize that Christ has truly changed your life, then of course you do want others to experience that change and that new life in Christ!
Paul repeats his life-changing conversion story over and over again. In the Book of Acts we have heard it now three times! He seems to never get tired of telling that same miraculous story. I want you to think back about that time when you experienced Christ for the first time as being more than just a name from the Bible. Maybe that was just five minutes ago! I don’t know. At some point in each one of our lives, there is a change when we realize who Christ is. We begin to see the world differently. The world may even see us differently. So, we try to change the world for Christ.
Amen.