God’s Word for You
Acts 20:13-16 The fingertips of Asia Minor
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Thursday, December 3, 2020
13 We went on ahead to the ship and sailed for Assos, where we were going to take Paul on board. He had arranged this because he was going there on foot. 14 When he met us at Assos, we took him on board ship and sailed to Mitylene. 15 The next day we set sail from there and arrived off Chios. The day after that we approached Samos, and on the following day we arrived at Miletus. 16 Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus to avoid spending time in the province of Asia, since he was hurrying to reach Jerusalem by the day of Pentecost, if he could.
In one sense, this passage is simply the itinerary of a sea voyage down the west coast of Asia Minor. If you hold your right hand so that the palm faces you and your fingers point to the left, you have a nice little map of Asia Minor. Paul was sailing along your fingertips.
Troas (Troy) is on the farthest knuckle of your index finger up on top. Assos is the lower corner of your index finger’s tip. This was the first day’s travel, when Paul walked overland (about twenty miles by a good Roman road). Why Paul wanted to walk after the all-nighter with the Trojans and the miraculous raising of Eutychus is immediately clear to some of us who need morning exercise to clear our thoughts and to find time for prayer and reflection, but many commentators spend a lot of ink wondering about it. Some of Paul’s traveling companions might have been a little chatty, and he needed time to think and to pray. A good brisk Monday morning walk in May might be just the thing. By the time the ship arrived at Assos, Luke remembers the scene vividly: “Here comes Paul meeting us.”
Mitylene is the capital city of the island of Lesbos (between the tip of your index finger and your middle finger). This is the only reference to that city or island in the Bible, but many Christians fled there and planted churches around the island in the ninth century during the iconoclastic controversy. A later church in Mitylene is St. Athanasius’ (Hagios Athanasios) with its beautiful gothic bell tower in the center of town. Perhaps the people of Lesbos look on this reference as their private connection with the Holy Scriptures, the way that the Romans had their connection through Alexander and Rufus, whose father Simon carried the cross of Christ (Mark 15:21; Romans 16:13).
Chios is a long island shaped like an upside-down J off the tip of your middle finger. It was famous for exports of mastic gum in droplets known as “Tears of Chios.” The gum was used as a spice, a flavoring in food, a scent in soaps, ointments and perfumes, and as chewing gum (good for bad breath!). The caravan that bought Joseph from his brothers may have been carrying mastic, often translated “balm” (the second item in the list in Genesis 37:25).
Samos is an island off the tip of your ring finger, north of Patmos (where John saw his Revelation, Revelation 1:9). Both islands are close to Ephesus, with Miletus the city on the top of the tip of your pinky. (In fairness, your hand should have two more small fingers to account for the peninsulas with Halicarnassus and Cnidus, Acts 27:7, but we’ll let this pass). Paul didn’t want to get stuck in Asia Minor and miss getting back to Jerusalem for Pentecost in June, and May was slipping by. Pentecost was the Old Testament “Feast of Weeks” (Exodus 34:22; Numbers 28:26) carried over into New Testament celebrations because of the Pentecost miracle (Acts 2:1-11). But it was also a time of giving freewill offerings “in proportion to the blessings the LORD your God has given you” (Deuteronomy 16:10), and this is what Paul had in mind. We should remember that Paul’s companions were carrying a large sum of money, a collection that had been gathered to help with the famine in Palestine (1 Corinthians 16:1-3; 2 Corinthians 9:1-5). Paul was trying to balance his love and concern for people he would not see again for a very long time, if ever, and his need to get help back to Jerusalem to people who were in need. On top of this, he wanted to carry the gift from the remote churches back to the “mother” church in Jerusalem at the proper time to display their fellowship and love to the glory of God. We have to commend the apostle for doing all of these things, for being sure he did the one thing without losing sight of the others. A great deal of what a pastor does is to balance the needs of his congregation with the needs of his family and the needs of others outside the church, all of whom need to hear about Jesus. Pray for our pastors, whether it is a busy season like Advent or just a regular old week in the year. While he juggles his responsibilities, the devil is waiting to punch him in the stomach, and we need the Lord’s holy angels to clout the devil across the jaw. “The Lord will protect him and preserve his life” (Psalm 41:2), and he will proclaim the true word of God to you and to me whether he sails the fingertips of Asia Minor, or whether he rides, drives, flies, climbs into the pulpit, or walks with you along the side of the road.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.