They Tore Their Clothes Because the Crowd Got It Exactly Wrong

He has watched it happen twice and he could not stop it either time.

The first time he was twenty-six and it happened to somebody he loved. A man began to be talked about differently. The talking was admiring and it was mostly deserved, and over about four years it turned into something else, and the something else had a shape: people stopped disagreeing with him.

Nobody decided that. It just became the case that his opinion arrived already settled, and men who would have argued with anybody else did not argue with him, and eventually he could not get an honest answer out of a room.

He watched what that did to the man. It is not what people expect. It did not make him arrogant. It made him lonely, and then it made him careful, and then it made him unable to be wrong, which is a terrible condition for a person to be in.

The second time it happened to a man who is still alive and it is happening now and there is nothing to be done about it.

There is an afternoon in Acts where a whole town does this in about ninety seconds, and two men respond in a way nobody would.

The conclusion the crowd draws

Here is the scene, in the King James Version. A man who had never walked is healed in front of everybody:

And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men. And they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker. (Acts 14:11-12)

The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men.

That is a fast conclusion and it is not a stupid one. Something real happened. A man who could not walk was walking. The crowd is reasoning from evidence.

And notice the detail Luke keeps: Paul, Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker. They assign the roles based on who did the talking, which is exactly how it still works. The man with the words gets the larger portion of whatever is being handed out.

And then the priest of Jupiter brings oxen and garlands to the gate, which means this had gone from a shout to a procession before anybody could get in front of it.

You are seeing something the Bible already described and you were never imagining the shape of it. Acts 14:11 has a crowd move from a genuine event to a wrong conclusion in one sentence, and it is the Holy Spirit rather than a sharper eye who lets a man watch that happen without contempt.

What the two of them did

Which when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of, they rent their clothes, and ran in among the people, crying out, And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you. (Acts 14:14-15)

They rent their clothes.

That is not a gesture of modesty. Tearing your clothes in that culture is what a man does when something appalling has happened, and they do it about praise being directed at them.

And ran in among the people. They did not wait to be approached. They went into the crowd, which is the harder thing, and they did it while the oxen were on their way.

We also are men of like passions with you.

There is that word again. Also. And then a phrase that goes further than Peter's: of like passions, which does not just say we are men but says we are the same kind of men as you, with the same appetites, the same weaknesses, the same everything.

That is a man refusing the position by describing himself accurately, in public, at the top of his voice, in the middle of a crowd that had already made up its mind.

You have a description of what a man does with that and you were never left without a picture of the alternative. Acts 14:15 has two men run into a crowd shouting we also are men of like passions with you, and it is His Spirit who makes that a thing a man can do rather than a thing he can admire.

How fast it turns

And then the detail that tells you what a crowd's high opinion is actually worth, which is four verses later in the same chapter.

And there came thither certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people, and, having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead. (Acts 14:19)

The same crowd. The same town. The same men.

From bringing oxen to stoning him, and Luke puts the two events on the same page without comment, because the comment is the arrangement of the verses.

That is the thing worth knowing for anybody living on a room's approval, whether they are receiving it or handing it out. It is the same faculty in the crowd doing both. A group that can decide a man is a god in ninety seconds can decide the other thing just as fast, and the speed is not a sign that they were insincere the first time.

You have a warning about what that approval is worth and you were never meant to stand on it. Acts 14:19 puts the stoning four verses after the garlands, and it is the Holy Spirit rather than a better crowd who makes a man able to hold a room's opinion loosely.

What is actually in the men

And the sentence Paul writes later about what the arrangement is, which explains why the crowd got it wrong in a specific way.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. (2 Corinthians 4:7)

Earthen vessels. Clay pots. The cheapest container available, used and broken and replaced without anybody noticing.

And the reason given: that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

So the ordinariness of the container is not an unfortunate feature of the arrangement. It is the design. The pot is meant to be obviously a pot, so that nobody confuses the pot with what is in it.

Which means a crowd that starts calling a man a god has, in a sense, stopped being able to see the pot, and the man in that position usually cannot fix it from inside.

And a psalm on where to put weight:

It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man. (Psalm 118:8)

You have treasure in a clay pot and you were never meant to be mistaken for it. 2 Corinthians 4:7 says the vessel is earthen so the excellency may be of God, and it is His Spirit who is the treasure that verse is describing.