Paul’s Shipwreck

The Book of Acts finishes with a crackling good story of shipwreck.

Since the time of Homer 1000 years before Jesus, Greek sea-faring stories invariably included the great adventures of the perils of the sea travel. Such stories not only entertained well, but served as metaphors of the challenge and uncertainties of human life, especially the precarious risk facing human beings pitted against nature and whatever divine powers, friendly or sinister, were thought to over-lap with the natural world.

The Book of Acts takes it place alongside these stories.
After Paul’s conversion to Christ in Chapter 9, he keeps a low profile until we come to Chapters 13-20 and a series of three missionary journeys to dozens of cities travelling by both land and sea. We know him to be a well-seasoned traveler by Chapter 27 where we find him under military escort from Palestine to Rome to stand trial before Caesar.

The legal fiasco that led to this situation was a result of political opportunism by corrupt Roman officials Felix and Festus and the religious rivalry and hostility of Jewish temple authorities. Luke is at pains to show that Paul is honorable and upright both as a Roman citizen and as a religious Jew. He is not merely a pawn in the interplay of political adversaries. In fact he is God’s agent.

As such he is a vivid contrast to the Jewish prophet Jonah a few centuries earlier. Both found themselves in furious mid-Mediterranean storms, the kind that strikes terror in the heart of veteran sailors. Jonah was running away from his mission, trying to escape God’s calling to represent him in Nineveh. Paul, on the other hand couldn’t wait to get to Rome to share Christ in the heart of the empire.

When Jonah’s storm hit, he was asleep and had to be wakened by a desperate crew. Paul was actively engaged with the crew helping to secure lines and stow tackle, bolstering their spirits when they grew desperate and intercepting crew on the verge of abandoning the ship. Instead of having his witness dragged reluctantly out of him like Jonah, Paul takes the initiative to tell his fellow-travelers of his confidence in Jesus Christ. His faith, courage and poise in crisis reveal his deep and solid character.

The two-week long hurricane battered the ship and eroded all hope of survival, but when the gale and pounding surf and rocks eventually destroyed the ship, Paul and all 276 on board, made it safely to shore on planks and other debris. The shores turned out to be the island of Malta. It was cold and rainy but everyone on board survived. As F. F. Bruce says in his commentary on Acts, “the supernatural promise made to Paul in their darkest hour had been fulfilled to the letter: the ship and its cargo were lost, but every life on board had been saved.”

Luke’s description of the geography, the storm and the seamanship involved shows the marks of an astute eye-witness. The historicity of this account is unquestioned. But Luke has more in mind than just telling a riveting adventure story. Paul’s near-fatal shipwreck, like Peter’s miraculous escape from prison and execution in Chapter 12 are ‘stylized resurrections’ echoing the resurrection of their Master Jesus and demonstrating the dynamic power of God’s Spirit who accompanies the message of Jesus as it makes its way across the world. Both Peter and Paul went on the face martyrdom as Jesus had, but both were absolutely certain that death was not the end of the journey for them.

Luke’s story was written in part to assure the struggling church that the persecutions they faced, like the howling winds of the storm that assaulted Paul’s ship-voyage would not destroy them or the work of God around them. They will all make it safely to shore and one day “the entire earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” Isaiah 11:9

Image Credits:
Storm at Sea 1- William van de Velde the Younger
Storm at Sea 2 - Lorraine Foster
Shipwrecked - Edward Moran