From Greek to Gringo

In most European cultures, the phrase “It’s all Greek to me” is used to express something that we cannot understand. It originally comes from the Latin phrase Graecum est, non legitur or Graecum est, non potest legi (It is Greek; it cannot be read). Medieval Latin scribes in monasteries would write that phrase if they had trouble translating Greek alphabet and language, which was dwindling in use by the Middle Ages.

The phrase most likely entered modern English usage when Williams Shakespeare used it in 1599 in the play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. The Spanish equivalent was hablar en griego (or speaking Greek). The word “gringo,” which is Spanish slang to denote foreigners or non-native speakers of Spanish, comes from this phrase.

Today, as we continue our series “Going Viral” we will see how Paul went from being seen as a Greek god to a simple gringo in a very short time.

In Lystra a man without strength in his feet, lame from birth, and who had never walked, sat and heard Paul speaking. After observing him closely and seeing that he had faith to be healed, Paul said in a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet!” And he jumped up and started to walk around. 

When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they raised their voices, saying in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in the form of men!”And they started to call Barnabas, Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the main speaker. Then the priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the town, brought oxen and garlands to the gates. He, with the crowds, intended to offer sacrifice. (Acts 14:8-13, HCSB)

Last week we saw Paul and Barnabas sent out by the church in Antioch to go serve as missionaries. They first went to the island of Cyprus. Now they have moved back to the mainland and are in Lystra, which is a city in Lycaonia located in modern Turkey near Greece. Their culture, like many nations in the region, was influenced greatly by Greece.

Now notice, the miracle that God performs through Paul. A lame man, that has never walked, that has no strength in his feet or legs, is told by Paul to: “Stand upright on your feet!” The man jumped up and started to walk around.

That is just impossible. There is no scientific way that legs that have never walked could instantly be used for walking. It would take months for muscles to develop the strength to hold him upright. It would take weeks for his brain to teach his feet how to maneuver properly. Even the ability to balance would take practice.

But God does miraculous things that are well beyond our ability to understand or prove through science. God created a fully-grown man and woman in an instant and they immediately had the ability to walk and talk. God created a world that has the appearance of being billions of years old, but the Bible says that He did it in 6 days.

Understanding just how impossible this feat was, we can understand why the people of the area thought that Paul and Barnabas must have been gods. Paul told the man to stand and he does it. Not only does he stand, but verse 10 says “he jumped up and started to walk around.” Suddenly, the locals believe that Zeus and Hermes must have come to their city.

According to Greek mythology, Hermes was the son of Zeus. This tells us that Barnabas must have looked old enough that the people thought he could have been the father of Paul. But Luke wanted us to understand that they thought Paul was Hermes because he did most of the talking. Hermes was believed to be the messenger god.

The news of what these “gods” had done spread quickly. In the excitement, the people of Lystra started to prepare an impromptu sacrificial ceremony to these Greek gods. Paul and Barnabas could have lived it up like gods, literally. But they knew they had a mission to fulfill. So they tore their robes, which was a sign of great distress, and then Paul shouted to the frenzy of people:

“Men! Why are you doing these things? We are men also, with the same nature as you, and we are proclaiming good news to you, that you should turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and everything in them. (Acts 14:15)

Paul was never one to beat around the bush. He tells the priest of Zeus and the many acolytes of the Greek gods that were with him that they should “turn from these worthless things.” Paul was letting them know that their current religion was worthless. Their devotion to fake gods, to idols of the imagination, to man-made religion, was worthless.

This is a message that the world still needs to hear. Billions of people today worship false gods. Many people know the names of some false gods, such as Buddha, but according to the most recent studies we can find that the people of earth worship more than 320 million gods.

Billions of people worship idols every day. We have made idols of everything imaginable: money, power, sex, drugs, fame, children, our nation, even religion. When you take something that is common, not holy, such as religion, and elevate it to a position where it is more important to us than Jehovah God, then it becomes an idol. For some, what their Religion teaches is more important than what God has actually said in His Word.

So Paul tells them that their religion of false gods is worthless and that they need to turn from it to the living God, the One God, Jehovah, Yahweh, the God that created everything. Even with these strong words, Paul is barely able to stop the people from continuing with their plans to sacrifice the oxen in honor of these men that they believed to be Zeus and Hermes.

Paul and Barnabas went from being seen as Greek gods in their eyes to simply becoming gringos. It was all Greek to them, but not the Greek that they understood. They were foreigners that spoke foreign things. There is nothing shown in these passages that give us any indication that very many people of Lystra believed and accepted the message that Paul and Barnabas were sharing.

It is easy for us to get discouraged when we tell others the story of how Jesus changed us and they don’t respond positively. Sometimes people do not want to hear what we have to say. Sometimes they misunderstand what we are saying. Sometimes they try to fit what we have said into their own religious mindset.

Everywhere we go we can find churches today that have heard the Word of God, yet it appears that they choose to ignore certain parts of it. Churches that will tell you that certain parts of the Bible do not apply to society today. These churches have chosen to simply fit God into their own mindset of religion rather than follow God’s command to teach everything that He has commanded us.

Just as the followers of Zeus tried to fit this miracle into their own religious views, millions of people have taken parts of other religions and adapted them into their mindset of God. Christian churches have taken the beliefs and values of Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and even such things as democracy and have made those fit into their mindset of God. They are molding God into their own image rather than allowing God to mold them into His image. 

The news of what had happened in Lystra spread far enough that some devout Jews came to town and convinced the people of Lystra to stone Paul. How easy it was to convince them to kill the man that they just recently thought was a Greek god. After they stoned him, they dragged him outside of the city and dumped him with the trash. But those disciples of Jesus that were in Lystra stood around Paul praying for him and he got back up and went back into the city.

Just because people won’t listen to us, just because they treat us as if we are all Greek to them, just because our message seems to have gone unnoticed, even if people someday want to hurt us because of our message to them, we cannot give up. When we are put down, we need to call out to God, get back up, and go right back to work.

Paul and Barnabas were not very successful in Lystra. After they left Lystra they saw many people come to the Lord in other towns and made many disciples. Eventually they came back to Lystra and helped plant new churches and see growth because of the disciples that were there.

There are times when it seems that people in our community are not willing to accept the message that we have for them. Some may even resent us being here. Elevate Church may seem to only have a small handful of followers of Jesus, but look what happened when a small handful of disciples surrounded Paul. He got up and walked after being stoned to death. Our hope is that one day we will see God making a large impact into this community through us. One day people won’t see us as Greeks or gringos, but as friends and family. Our ways won’t seem foreign to them at all.