Read the high drama in Acts 19:23-41. Ephesus was the zenith of ancient culture, featuring one of the seven Wonders of the World: the temple to the fertility goddess Artemis. Little remains of this Wonder that was once massive and magnificent – just the stump of one of its 127 columns. Artists have reconstructed what the sanctuary would have looked like (click here to see!).

Not surprisingly, when Paul showed up, chaos erupted. The wild public riot was instigated by the silversmiths, whose profit margins in their cozy business crafting figurines of the goddess Artemis were getting squeezed. As people turned to Paul’s Jesus, they stopped buying silver Artemis figures! {Incidentally, little figurines of Artemis, like the one pictured above, are still sold as souvenirs to tourists in Ephesus!}

The chief silversmith, Demetrius, sounds like a modern businessman: “From this business we have our wealth. This Paul has persuaded and turned away a considerable company of people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods. And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may count for nothing.”

In the ancient world, temples were also the banks, hosting lenders and merchants, who sealed deals with sacrifices to the Roman gods. Christians, obviously, dared not enter the precincts of a place dedicated to false gods; they refused to ink a contract guaranteed by an oath to Jupiter, Minerva, or an evil emperor who was executing Christians.

And so clients and merchants who converted to Christianity lost a lot of business. Buyers, sellers and bankers thought you’d lost your mind by worshipping a Galilean carpenter. The rich grew reluctant to wheel and deal with you. Instead of spending your leisure time pandering to a potential investor, you found yourself in small gatherings of people who generally could do you no economic favors: they were your brothers and sisters in Christ, generally drawn from the lower classes.

So we can see that to be a Christian was foolish economically. To sign on to follow Jesus was to become poorer, to miss out on business opportunities. At the same time, the Christians also had an adverse impact on the business of others and the overall economy of the city. No wonder they were harassed.

Bishop Will Willimon wryly pointed out that “devotion to Artemis is… a cover for simple greed. Her worship was a mix of idolatrous religious devotion and economic interest. Artemis has her devotees in every town, even today.” For us, are our earnings, the economy, retirement portfolios, political policies, tax cuts, or my private property more sacred than God? Shouldn’t there be more open tension between the claims of faith and what happens in the marketplace – and with our checkbooks? What thriving businesses would suffer if the Christians were serious? Do our lives echo the shout of the Ephesians, “Great is Artemis!” – or are we a danger to her temple, turning others away from her?

Once more, the frequent theme in Acts – that Christians show up and “disturb” the city or come to be accused of being “unpatriotic” or dangerous to the economy, and then confrontations and even riots occur – raises questions for our sleepy churches nestled neatly into neighborhoods and cities, more a part of the pretty landscape than an uncomfortable alternative to the world.