Monday of the Fifth Week of Easter
May 8, 2023
Daily Reading from the USCCB: Acts 14:5-18
Paul and Barnabas left Pisidian Antioch and went on to Lystra. There they cured a man lame from birth, just as Peter and John had cured a lame man in the temple at Jerusalem.
The reaction of the pagan crowd was different from that of the Jews in Jerusalem. Far from seeing Paul and Barnabas as blasphemers, the Lystrians thought that they were gods and prepared to offer them sacrifice. The apostles tried to discourage this behavior with indifferent success.
The apostles used different approaches in addressing different publics. Their approach to Jews was different from their approach to well- disposed Gentiles. Still different was the way they addressed fervent pagans in Lystra. God’s agents have offered his salvation in many ways, then and now.
