Rēad to Read …Again
Daily Reading: Acts 21-23
Acts 21:16
There went with us also certain of the disciples of Caesarea, and brought with them one Mnason of Cyprus, an old disciple, with whom we should lodge.
As a boy in elementary school there was that one day. Only one per year, but every year that day would come. It was the day that our school district would attend the performance of the symphony orchestra downtown. We would load up on those yellow school buses, get to the concert hall, and take our seats. I tried to always be in the middle of the row. I couldn’t wait. About an hour before the actual concert one, two, three or more of the musicians would find their seat and begin their pre-concert ritual until all the musicians found their place. Tuning up, inserting their reeds into the wind section instruments, dusting off their horns, making sure their music was in order, all of it. It was amazing to watch and hear.
The individual sounds of all those instruments of various sizes, unique appearances, and distinctive sounds. The brass section, the woodwinds, the percussion instruments. High sounds, low sounds, short sounds, or long, hearing them tune up was a concert in and of itself. Then they took their place, the conductor walked to his podium, lifted that baton with significant hand movement and it all began. At that moment, all of those various instruments that alone sounded peculiar now sounded together in one key, in rhythm, with their volumes increasing and decreasing in concert. My, what a sound! All different yet producing something so fantastic.
That is how Christianity is. It is how this writer sees Mnason of Cyprus. He is named once in Scripture; just at the right time, adding a little “note”, if you will, in the concert of faith. His singular mention puts him in the orchestra of the faithful. He adds that little something extra to the whole. Most of that which will be read today in these three chapters is self-evident. But Mnason, that is a detail that increases the richness of it all. Concerning him, observe three things.
He was a disciple of long standing. The events of Acts 21 took place in either 57 or 58 A.D. about thirty years after the death of Christ. Mnason was a convert to Christ early on in the New Testament story. No one can know from Scripture when he became a disciple of Christ, but it is certain that it was at the beginning. He may have heard John the Baptist preach, he may have been a disciple that Jesus taught, he may have been there on the day of Pentecost and participated in the foundational days of the first church in Jerusalem. Longevity as a disciple has its own stamp of approval. For with the passing of time many stray away. Not Mnason, he was there at the beginning and still faithful three decades later.
He was still serving in his later years. The lifespan of a person on average was probably much shorter in the time of the New Testament events. Being sixty years old was arguably old. If Mnason was twenty upon trusting in Christ, he is now at least fifty years old. An older man. Matthew Henry wrote of him as being “an honest old gentleman.” In his aged state, he still was bearing fruit as a faithful child of God.
Lastly, he did what he could. He opened his house to lodge Paul and his companions. This would have taken time, money, and energy. Three attributes that this fine man offered to assist a great man of the faith. Paul being told of his demise in Jerusalem perhaps found a peaceful rest of his soul at the hospitably of an old disciple of Christ.
Mnason may have been a seldom noticed note that sounded in the concert of the New Testament symphony, but he completed the whole. The whole would have been less without his input. The same is true with the unheard of, and seldom mentioned believers in churches today. Especially the long time and faithful disciples.
Dr. William T. Howe
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