After horrible delays caused by crooked and incompetent rulers both Jewish and Roman, plus shipwreck and a winter spent as stowaway on an island, Paul is finally under sail on a ship that will bring him to Puteoli, Italy, the port closest to Rome:
“After three months we set sail in a ship that had wintered in the island, a ship of Alexandria, with the twin gods as a figurehead. Putting in at Syracuse, we stayed there for three days. And from there we made a circuit and arrived at Rhegium. And after one day a south wind sprang up, and on the second day we arrived at Puteoli. There we found brothers and were invited to stay with them for seven days. And so we came to Rome” (Ac 28:11-14).
No non-stop flights in those days!
What strikes me here is that this is the last we hear of the passengers and military regiment aboard the ship that was beached on Malta, except for a single soldier guarding Paul all the way to Rome. As the story proceeds, this soldier seems more like Paul’s valet than one charged with killing Paul if he were to try and escape! As a result, Paul is not dragged toward Rome urgently; rather, he has time to visit his Christian brothers in Puteoli for a whole week, before proceeding by land to Rome:
“And the brothers there, when they heard about us, came as far as the Forum of Appius and Three Taverns to meet us. On seeing them, Paul thanked God and took courage. And when we came into Rome, Paul was allowed to stay by himself, with the soldier who guarded him (Ac 28:15-16).
I will always remember my own tortuous three day drive home to Colorado from New York City, immediately after the tragedies of September 11, 2001. I was seriously depressed, unlike Paul; never had I felt lonelier. But when I walked into church the following Sunday, where my brothers and sisters received me with open arms, I collapsed in a tearful mess, so grateful for their love.
This is how it is for Paul, arriving in Puteoli and then in Rome. After the long, lonely journeys he has endured, falling into the arms of his Christian brothers is the sweetest medicine in the world.
What the brothers do for Paul, welcoming with open arms, is the perfect unity we seek as Christian brothers and sisters; we whom Jesus prayed for to be drawn toward it as a strongly as a magnet attracts metal filings:
“’…that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me’” (John 17: 22-23).
Yes, Jesus prayed this for Paul, who achieved it.
And he prays the same even now for us, who have not achieved it – yet – but who are beginning to understand its importance.