THE LENS OF THE PAST

DAY 121

Acts 16:27 The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped.

After reading today’s text, I had to search for “what is the punishment for jailers who lose prisoners?” In modern times, the answers I found ranged from simple non administrative action, being dismissed from the role or criminal prosecution with imprisonment if there was a degree of intentionality. In the era this jailer found himself, the answer was the ‘jailer would bear the punishment meant for the prisoner’.

So while it might seem extreme for him to have gone straight for his sword, the sight of all the prison doors open, and the fact that Paul and Silas had been beaten with many blows before being entrusted to his prison meant he knew the outcome for him would certainly have been death.

However, his quick decision was made purely on the basis of seeing the prison doors open. In his line of work, he had attributed unmanned and open prison doors to escaped prisoners, hence the connection. He didn’t think any other outcome was possible. Had Paul not intervened, the jailer would have taken his own life because he made a seemingly factual assumption even though the reality was different.

Our mind will always create links to past experiences, events and memories even when things might be new and different. So we might respond or react to new people and situations from the lens of old experiences. While this can be good in cases, it can make you respond wrongly if the experiences were bad. ‘The past is meant to be learnt from, not lived in’ – don’t respond to the present purely from the lens of the past.

#sly