Acts 17:30-31 came up in my readings this week. The NRSV translation puts it this way:
While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.’
Here Paul is making the case that the Greeks have an altar to an unknown god. Paul proclaims that the God they do not know is in fact known in Jesus Christ. This is among the great sermons in the Bible since is pulls the logic of the audience to a place where they are more inclined to hear the message. In fact verse 32 says, “When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed; but others said, ‘We will hear you again about this.’
What stood out was not the cleverness of Paul’s sermon, but the Good News he shares: the one who will judge the world is the one raised from the dead - Jesus.
If you were to choose what sort of judge you might desire would you desire the one who is harsh and demanding or the one who has been on the relieving end of mercy herself? Paul is saying, that the judge of all people at the end of everything is one who had been raised by God. Meaning, the judge of all life is one who would have remained dead had it not been for the work of God.
Can you imagine how delighted Jesus Christ the judge must be? How thankful? How much he would want to “pay it forward” to the rest of humanity? Can you imagine the mercy that must come from this judge?
While the Greeks knew of gods who judged out of wrath and condemnation; gods who were willing to throw bolts of lightning and tidal waves around because they did not like the offering given by mortals. Paul says that perhaps the reason they do not know of the “unknowing god” is because mercy was unknown to them in the realm of the gods. It may not just be that there is an “unknown god” but that mercy is a god they do not know.
Paul says that mercy is what God uses to judge.
No wonder some scoffed and others desired to hear more. Chances are if you are reading the idea that mercy is the standard Christ uses to judge might make you feel one of those two things as well.