And there was great joy in that city. -- Acts 8:8 (KJV)
Six verses earlier, devout men carry Stephen to his burial and make great lamentation over him. Both scenes are called great: the mourning in Jerusalem and the joy in a city of Samaria. Only a few sentences separate them.
Luke does not soften what lies between. Saul makes havock of the church, "entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison." The believers are scattered throughout Judaea and Samaria. Nothing in the account calls this persecution good. Houses are entered, a faithful man is dead, and those who loved him weep at his burial.
"Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word." They carry their grief out of Jerusalem, and they carry the message too. Philip, one of the seven appointed over the widows' tables, goes down to the city of Samaria and preaches Christ. The people give heed with one accord to what he says, "hearing and seeing the miracles which he did." Unclean spirits come out of many, crying with loud voice. Many taken with palsies are healed, and many that were lame.
Jesus had told His disciples to expect this. "In my name shall they cast out devils," He said, and "they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover" (Mark 16:17–18). In Samaria those signs follow a man who is preaching Christ. The people hear and they see, and what they give heed to is the things Philip spake.
Both in One Chapter
The chapter would be easier if it let us pick. We could call the scattering a blessing and hurry past the funeral, or stay beside the grave and distrust the joy. Luke writes down both. He calls the mourners devout. The gladness belongs to people who were bound or lame until Philip came preaching.
You may be carrying a loss into a place you never planned to live. Scripture does not ask you to rename it. What would it mean to speak of Christ where you are now, while you still grieve what was taken?
God did not need Saul's violence, and it did not stop Him. In Jerusalem there is a new grave. In a city of Samaria, people who could not walk are on their feet, and the city is glad.
