Acts 28:30-31 - He [Paul] lived there two whole years at his own expense, and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.

This devotion pairs with this weekend's Lutheran Hour sermon, which can be found at lhm.org.

Imagine some rogue vandal, armed with a brush-load of burnt sienna paint storms into the Louvre in France, and gives the Mona Lisa a moustache (I know, she's behind bulletproof glass, but go with it a second). During the interrogation after his arrest, the vandal justified his behavior, saying that it was her grin that made him do it. He didn't know what to make of it. He said, "I couldn't decide if she were smiling at me or smirking, and it was driving me batty! A moustache will settle it," he said.

Mona Lisa's ambiguous smile is something like a "suspended ending." In a narrative, this type of ending that leaves you, the reader, in suspense. It leaves you hanging, wondering; is it a smile or a smirk? Maybe I should look again. The art of the "suspended ending" has been around since ancient times. The end of Acts, which we just heard, is that sort of ending, but there are others in Scripture, the book of Jonah, for example. It concludes with an open-ended question God puts to the pouting prophet: "Shouldn't I have pity on sinful people?" (See Jonah 4:11.) And ... then what happens? What does Jonah say? The narrative ends—leaves us wondering. So also, in Jesus' parable about the father with two lost sons, in Luke 15. The father welcomes his disrespectful younger son back home. But the older, respectful brother is furious at this. He refuses to celebrate with his sinful younger sibling. So, the father puts an implicit question to his firstborn (who's outside pouting). The father says, "Your brother was dead, now he's alive again. He was lost, now he's found. We had to celebrate ... [didn't we?]"

Why would the Holy Spirit inspire these Scripture writers to leave us wondering? Perhaps it's because He wants us to look again. Because our Lord is interested not only in providing information, but in prompting questions leading to conversations, and ultimately deeper relationships, with Him and with each other. As one educator put it, "Only when students have questions are they really learning." A suspended ending is an invitation to ask questions. The book of Acts ends, inviting us to wonder, "Does Paul ever testify before Caesar?" (See Acts 27:24.) "How will God keep working in Jesus to open the hearts of unbelieving Jews and Gentiles?" And given that Paul has suffered through a hurricane, a near mutiny at sea, a shipwreck, a lethal snake bite, and given that so many people have rejected his message, and he's under house arrest, and may face the death penalty—how can we say that his mission to share Jesus is unhindered? How can that be the last word? With such an ambiguous ending, we could just add a "moustache" and be done with it. Or, maybe we should look again? Start at the beginning and listen again? Venture back into the narrative to discover more, not just as readers, but as characters—real-life players on the stage God's Spirit has set for us?

WE PRAY: Holy Spirit, keep raising these questions in me so that I may know the Father more deeply, through Jesus Christ, His Son. Amen.

This Daily Devotion was written by Rev. Dr. Michael Zeigler.

Reflection Questions:

1. Read Acts 27-28. As you picture the scenes these words are describing, what do you see? If you were to make a storyboard of these chapters, how would you divide the scenes?

2. Have you ever had a harrowing experience on the water? If you were to write a short story about this, what would the title be?

3. What do you get to know more deeply about the God and Father of Jesus through Acts 27-28? How is this good news for you?

Today's Bible Readings: 2 Kings 22-23    Galatians 6

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