Wednesday of the Sixth Week of Easter
Acts 17:15, 22—18:1
Paul arrives in Athens and sees a city full of idols.
Temples. Altars. Statues. Religion everywhere.
And yet, something is wrong.
Because a city can be full of religion and still be far from the living God.
That is the first shock of this reading.
Athens looked spiritual. It looked cultured. It looked wise.
But Paul sees through it.
He sees a hunger that has not found the truth. He sees worship, but not freedom. He sees many gods, but no one who can truly save.
That is not only Athens.
It is also our world.
We may not bow down before stone statues, but idols are still everywhere.
Money. Image. Success. Pleasure. Power. Technology. The need to be admired. The fear of being nobody.
These things ask for our attention, our trust, our time, our hearts.
And whatever takes the place of God becomes an idol.
Paul does not begin by insulting the Athenians.
He begins by noticing something.
He says, “I see that you are very religious.”
Then he mentions an altar with this inscription:
“To an unknown god.”
That is where he begins.
It is a beautiful moment.
Because Paul sees that even in confusion, even in false worship, there is still a longing.
A search. A question. A reaching out in the dark.
And then he says, in effect:
The one you are looking for without knowing him— this is the God I proclaim to you.
This God is not one more god among many.
He is the Lord of heaven and earth.
He does not live in temples made by human hands.
He does not need to be carried, fed, protected, or managed by us.
He is the one who gives life and breath and everything else.
That changes everything.
The true God is not a product of human imagination. He is not something we create and then control.
He is the source of our life.
We do not keep him alive.
He keeps us alive.
That is why idols are so dangerous.
An idol always becomes smaller than us. Something we can use. Something we can shape. Something that will never challenge us or set us free.
But the living God is not like that.
He is greater than us. Closer than us. More alive than us.
And he is not unknown anymore.
For Christians, the unknown God has a face.
Jesus Christ.
If you want to know what the living God is like, look at Jesus.
Look at his freedom. Look at his truth. Look at his mercy. Look at his cross. Look at his risen life.
Athens was full of idols.
Our world is too.
But deep inside, many hearts are still carrying that same hidden altar:
to an unknown god.
And the Christian message is this:
The God you are searching for has already come near to you in Jesus Christ.
Scripture Attribution
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993
the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of
Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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