Paul in Prison and the Demons that Conspire to Separate Us

This morning, I'm thinking about Acts 16:16-34. You may or may not remember this passage where Paul is irritated by the fortune telling, demon-possessed slave girl who follows them around, hollering for people to pay attention to them, and then after he heals her, he's thrown in jail, there's an earthquake, and he saves the jailer's whole family. It's an interesting juxtaposition of stories; why does the jailer merit Paul's attention, but the slave girl doesn't?

I continue to ponder the poor slave girl, who now won't be very valuable since she can't tell fortunes anymore. That’s why the men throw Paul and Silas in jail—Paul and Silas have ruined a valuable economic asset.

Most of us, if we consider this story at all, come to this story at the end. Paul and Silas could escape from prison, but they don’t. This decision leads the jail keeper to salvation—that’s the way it was taught to me when I was a girl.

Now that I’m older, I see this story through an economic lens. The jailer might lose his job or even his life from his failure to contain the prisoners. But he’s saved—in more ways than one.

I wish I could feel that the slave girl might be saved too. I wish I could believe that she would make a new life, free from her demons.

But I know what’s likely to happen to her. I know that she lived in the Roman empire, where women didn’t have those kinds of opportunities, especially not women who had once been enslaved.

I think of this story in terms of slavery and prison. I think of all the demons that torture us and make us easy to dominate, easy to control. I think of all the demons that make us irritate the people around us.

I think of that slave girl who doesn't warrant Paul's time. I think of all the ways I'm rushing through my life, too busy for those who irritate me, too busy for true intimacy that comes when we live in community. My own demon: that irritating feeling of always having too much to do in too little time, that feeling of being stretched too thin, and thus, I'm not of much use to anyone.

I return to this story and think about how Paul’s time in prison gives him the space to slow down, to make a connection with the jailer. I grieve for the slave girl, and all the ones sacrificed to the demons that conspire to separate us.