Day 129 — Charges Brought by Tertullus (Acts 24:1-9) | September 1

Five days after Paul’s escort galloped out of Jerusalem, the high priest himself came down to a Gentile port to ask a corrupt pagan governor to do what God’s law would not let him do. He hated Paul more than he loved the dignity of his office. He brought a hired lawyer, Tertullus, who opened with flattery everyone in the room knew was theater, then leveled three charges built for a Roman ear: Paul is a plague and an agitator, the ringleader of the Nazarene sect, a man who tried to desecrate the temple. The charges are nearly identical to the ones leveled against Jesus before Pilate. Luke is not recording two unrelated trials. He is showing a pattern. The gospel itself is on trial, and the gospel keeps making its way through hostile courtrooms.