Daily Scripture Reflection & Prayer: May 27, 2025

Tuesday of the 6th Week of Easter

Scripture Text:  Acts 16:22-34

The crowd in Philippi joined in the attack on Paul and Silas, and the magistrates had them stripped and ordered them to be beaten with rods. After inflicting many blows on them, they threw them into prison and instructed the jailer to guard them securely. When he received these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and secured their feet to a stake.

About midnight, while Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God as the prisoners listened, there was suddenly such a severe earthquake that the foundations of the jail shook; all the doors flew open, and the chains of all were pulled loose. When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, thinking that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted out in a loud voice, "Do no harm to yourself; we are all here." He asked for a light and rushed in and, trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" And they said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you and your household will be saved." So, they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to everyone in his house. He took them in at that hour of the night and bathed their wounds; then he and all his family were baptized at once. He brought them up into his house and provided a meal and with his household rejoiced at having come to faith in God.

Breaking the text open – background and summary:

The first reading for today from the Acts of the Apostles recounts human imprisonment and divine release of Paul and Silas in Philippi and the impact of faith on their jailer. The jailer, moved by both the miraculous freeing of the prisoners and the prisoners’ concern for his well-being, asked the essential question, “What must I do to be saved?” His openness to salvation marked the pivot in his life. He turned from jailer to a caring servant of those in need through the power of the Spirit expressed in the words of Paul and Silas. And he brought his entire household with him into this relationship with Christ.

Meditating on the text with personal questions:

“Believe in the Lord Jesus.” Do I recognize that the path to my salvation isn’t earned on merit but rather opened through a relationship with Christ?

Praying:

LORD, Almighty Father, You sent your beloved and only-begotten Son to reveal your great love for us and to redeem us of our sins through His embrace of your will even though it meant His willingness to give His life upon a cross so that we might have life. Your ways, oh LORD, challenge us. Send your Spirit, LORD, to open us fully to your love for us expressed most fully in your Word made flesh, in your beloved Son, Jesus Christ. Grant that we may escape the snares of this world through our belief in Jesus Christ and in You who sent Him. We ask this in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You and Spirit, one LORD, forever and ever. Amen.