I have boxes and drawers filled with piles of letters. Some of them may not be worth keeping, but for others there is no doubt. For example, I have a couple of letters my mother received from her father when she was in college. His words of encouragement to her are a part of our family story that we cherish.
If letter-writing is a lost art, that would be a tragedy. Because even though they are set in particular times and circumstances, the subjects of letters are often timeless. I am so glad my mother saved those letters from her father, making them a part of our story. And I am so glad the church saved this letter from Paul because it is an important part of our story.
Unlike most of his letters, this is one that sounds almost like a letter we would write. It is not written to a church, but to an individual, a friend. It is short – only a couple of pages long. It is personal – very personal.
Paul is writing to an old friend, Philemon. He is writing about a third person. Onesimus, a man who has been held in slavery by Philemon.
We don’t know why Onesimus is with Paul. Paul is currently imprisoned – something not all that unusual for Paul. And Onesimus is with him in his prison cell, although not a prisoner himself.
It is possible that Onesimus has been sent there by Philemon. Perhaps to care for Paul. Prisoners in the Roman empire were sometimes permitted to have servants. It is also possible that Onesimus was sent with a message, and then didn’t want to return to Philemon. And it is possible that Onesimus had run away and came to Paul looking for sanctuary. In fact, Paul hints in the letter that Onesimus may have wronged Philemon in some way. Indeed, running away would be considered a grievous wrong.
But whatever the circumstances are that brought Onesimus to Paul, it is quite unimportant. The letter Paul has chosen to write to Philemon is concerned with looking not backward, but forward, to reconciliation.
And the shape of this reconciliation Paul wants is for Philemon to regard Onesimus as a brother in Christ, equal and free.
His request of Philemon is peculiar for the time and place. Slavery was so common. It was not restricted to one particular tribe or race. It was simply what powerful people did to powerless people.
We know that the people of Israel were enslaved by the Egyptians for hundreds of years before they were led out of slavery by Moses. And we know that the people of Israel, once they were established in their own land, also practiced slavery. We know this because the law of Israel addressed it – not as a question of “if” it was acceptable, but “how” it was acceptable.
We know that in the Roman Empire slavery was normal. Some of the stories in the book of Acts talk about it, such as the woman who had a spirit of divination and was used by her owners quite profitably. Some of the epistles have instructions pertaining to how the enslaved should behave, and from this we see that at least some Christian households “owned” other people. All of this seems far away and strange to us. And that is why it seems odd to us that Paul treads so delicately around the question.
But treading lightly and artfully was probably the only way for Paul to approach the matter if he wanted to be heard.
He chooses his words carefully. He is complimentary; he is encouraging, humble, and threatening, all at the same time. Paul is using whatever he has at his disposal to bring about the result he is bold enough to ask for.
It would be easy for him to ignore the problem, like so many others have done. Slavery was so much a normal part of life, they failed to notice that it is in glaring contrast to the gospel of Jesus. It was a convention so ingrained in their day-to-day activities that they chose to remain blind to a problem that would be so very, very hard to change.
We don’t have to go back too far to know this is true. In our nation, founded on principles of freedom, slavery was a critical part of our culture and our economy for a long time. Most Christians were comfortable enough with the contradiction between slavery and gospel. Some helpfully identified scripture verses that could be used to support the institution of slavery.
In recent decades, in the fight for equality for the LGBTQ community, we have become familiar with the term “clobber” verses, a small set of scriptural citations that some folks have used to argue against equal rights. Back in the days of legal slavery in our nation, supporters of slavery had a set of such verses, too, that they could use to clobber the enslaved into submission.
And most of the rest of us remained silent. Because we have decided conflict is not nice, perhaps not even the Christian thing to do. In its stead, we have been placated by a false sense of peace.
So there’s outright conflict and there’s false peace. A tough choice. But reconciliation usually requires something else – a third way.
Listen to the way Paul speaks to his friend Philemon. He speaks with authentic love – for both Philemon and Onesimus. He does not shy away from truth – even though it will provoke Philemon to anger. He states clearly what he would wish to see Philemon do – while he never presumes to force it. If Philemon is going to take any steps toward reconciliation it must be done freely.
But the most profound move Paul makes is one that we might not even see. He is asking Onesimus to go back.
Paul is asking his dear friend, new brother in Christ, Onesimus, to freely walk back to the man who claims to own him, and has the power to oppress him, to enslave him.
And when I see this I don’t know what to think. I am shocked that he would ask such a thing. I am angry that Paul would do this to his beloved brother. I am afraid for Onesimus, that he might be in grave danger. I am wary and suspicious of Philemon’s intentions, for we know absolutely nothing about where he is in his faith and his thoughts about slavery. Will he be able to hear his brother Paul with an open heart? Or will he allow this matter to become a barrier between him and the gospel of Christ?
When it comes to reconciliation, Paul is showing that everyone must be willing to take a risk. Philemon will have to take a risk – possibly to be impoverished, if freeing one person leads to freeing all the persons he might hold in slavery. Paul will have to risk his reputation and friendship with both Philemon and Onesimus because of what he is asking. Onesimus, even, will be asked to take a risk, the biggest risk of all.
In reconciliation there is always a risk of losing something. But in reconciliation there is the gain of everything.
As Paul wrote in another letter, “Whatever gain I had, I count as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”
It’s like this: Any barrier between you and a brother or sister in Christ is a barrier between you and Christ. Paul is calling on you and me to reboot, to reconcile for the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus.
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