Mammon-19

April 9, 2020 Grace Covenant Church

Mammon-19

Now after these events Paul resolved in the Spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem, saying, “After I have been there, I must also see Rome.” And having sent into Macedonia two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while. About that time there arose no little disturbance concerning the Way. For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen. These he gathered together, with the workmen in similar trades, and said, “Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth. And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost all of Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods. And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship.” When they heard this they were enraged and were crying out, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” So the city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed together into the theater, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul's companions in travel. But when Paul wished to go in among the crowd, the disciples would not let him. And even some of the Asiarchs, who were friends of his, sent to him and were urging him not to venture into the theater. Now some cried out one thing, some another, for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together. Some of the crowd prompted Alexander, whom the Jews had put forward. And Alexander, motioning with his hand, wanted to make a defense to the crowd. But when they recognized that he was a Jew, for about two hours they all cried out with one voice, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” And when the town clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, “Men of Ephesus, who is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple keeper of the great Artemis, and of the sacred stone that fell from the sky? Seeing then that these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash. For you have brought these men here who are neither sacrilegious nor blasphemers of our goddess. If therefore Demetrius and the craftsmen with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts are open, and there are proconsuls. Let them bring charges against one another. But if you seek anything further, it shall be settled in the regular assembly. For we really are in danger of being charged with rioting today, since there is no cause that we can give to justify this commotion.” And when he had said these things, he dismissed the assembly.

Acts 19:21-41

One of the striking features of this story in the book of Acts is how little we see of Paul and other Christians. In verse 21 Paul expresses his Spirit-led desire to preach the gospel in Rome and he has sent two of his companions as missionaries into Macedonia, as he stays behind in Ephesus. And then after this almost all of the action in these 20 verses happens by godless men, both Jews and Ephesians. Paul gets one more mention in the middle of the story where he wants to jump into a crowd that had just arrested his friends, and he is wisely counseled to not go there. And I’m sure if Paul did jump into that crowd and was able to have an audience with those thousands of rioting ruffians, that we would have once again a remarkable proclamation of the gospel. That would be a welcome voice of clarity in the ruckus of their confusion. But that doesn’t happen, and it’s hard to see that likely to have happened, thus that’s why he was counseled not to go there.

But what do we see in this scene? Idolatry. Great confusion. Crowds of people chanting their vain worship, as if to convince themselves it must be true since they are yelling so loudly and for so long. If truth were determined by who shouts the loudest and the longest, the Ephesians were winning. Too bad for them that they didn’t have modern social media. Shouting loudly for a long time is not an uncommon strategy today too, just turn on the news for a few minutes, but maybe the better part of wisdom would tell you to not go there.

And what is at the heart of their idolatry? What are they worshipping? What throws this city into such a frenzy? They are worshipping their economy. Demetrius the silversmith has this complaint against Paul that he is persuading people that gods made by hands are not gods and thus they would lose their business. The profit that Ephesus received from all of Asia that worshipped Artemis would diminish, if Artemis was to be seen as not really a god. So, let’s shout loudly to convince ourselves that our lies are true, because if people stop believing it, then we’ll lose our jobs and economy.

And we can sympathize with the threat. No one wants to lose their job. Our lives and livelihoods depend on the economy. The god of the economy is being confronted now too. The God of the universe is using Covid-19 to confront our economic idolatries. Our pride in our economic power is in direct conflict with God’s infinite power. It might mean that we lose our jobs. But if God is revealing an idolatry of our hearts, isn’t that worth it?

God is revealing a particular wickedness now that may have been unseen before, and he is casting it to the ground, revealing the idol for what it is, just a carved rock. There are many who think that one of the worst things that could happen is for our economy to crash and this is the evil to which all other evils are compared. In reality though, the greatest evil is not worshiping God. Although this particular virus was discovered in 2019, the evil that we face with covid-19 is nothing new. Maybe you’ve also discovered an idolatry of economics in your life. Being in a state of economic need is a humbling position to be in. But in combating our love of money, that’s not such a bad place for us to be. James 1:9-10 states “Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away.” With this in mind, here’s a slightly modernized version of Jesus’ famous warning, “No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Mammon-19.”