Monday, January 26, 2015 (Conversion of St. Paul)

Monday, January 26, 2015 (Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle)

Acts 9:1-22

These days, it seems, a “Damascus Road experience” can come almost anytime people change their minds, even in trivial ways, not remotely resembling the profound, life-changing experience Paul had the day we read about in today’s scripture.  Sometimes “Damascus Road” is used just because it sounds nice.  In a short search, I found websites for, among other things, a Damascus Road pop band, a Damascus Road summer camp, Damascus Road dog breeders, a Damascus Road coffeehouse, Damascus Road marketing consultants, and a Damascus Road art gallery!  Even politicians often have a Damascus Road experience as soon as they see a new opinion poll.

Today we read about the authentic, original Damascus Road Experience all the others want to mimic.  Saul (also called Paul) was a rapidly-rising young leader among the Pharisees, helping to stamp out those pesky Jesus followers who refused to fade away even after their leader was put to death.  Saul had hoped stoning Stephen might have convinced the others to forget that messiah-pretender, but it didn’t.  Now Saul had a bigger mission: go to Damascus, arrest the Jesus followers, and bring them back to Jerusalem for trial and punishment.  But suddenly, right out on the Damascus Road as he and the people with him approach town – wham!  A light from heaven flashed so brightly it threw Saul to the ground and left him totally blind.  Saul heard a voice, but he didn’t know whose.  So he asked and was totally confounded to learn Jesus was speaking to him – alive! –  and asking why he was persecuting him.  Saul had to be led blind into Damascus, confused and overwhelmed by the discovery that obeying God (as he always had done) now meant he had to spin around completely and become a Jesus follower himself.

As amazingly powerful and life changing as Saul’s Damascus Road Experience is, I can’t really identify with it myself.  I suspect many of the rest of us can’t either.  I’ve never had an experience of the heavens suddenly torn open with an overpowering vision of Christ.  From infancy I grew up in a Christian home, and I can’t point to any moment when I first started to believe in Jesus.  When I change my mind on important matters, it usually happens little by little, one small change at a time, as I pray and study and talk with people.  Often it takes years.  So, as I read today’s scripture, I am indeed amazed at God’s lightning bolt from heaven that instantly brought Saul to his knees and spun him around into one of the most dedicated and influential Jesus followers of all time.  But I’m not like that at all, either in the radical change or the immense ability and energy Paul demonstrated.  

For my own model and inspiration, I look instead at the supporting character in today’s drama, the ordinary disciple Ananias who ministered to Saul in Damascus.  Ananias has lots to teach us too, in a more quiet kind of way.

Acts 22:1-16 gives another account of Paul’s conversion, this time as Paul speaks to a Jewish audience.  Verses 12-16 tell us more about Ananias: Ananias was a devout Jew, faithful to the Torah, and with a good reputation among all the Jewish people in Damascus.  At the time of Saul’s conversion (very early in church history), the Jesus followers were all Jewish.  Ananias was being consistent and faithful in living and worshipping as a Jew while he, at the same time, recognized that Jesus was God’s Messiah, whom he calls the Righteous One (a very Jewish way of speaking).

Back to today’s account.  In Acts 9:10, Ananias too has a vision, and he recognizes that the Lord Jesus is speaking to him.  Yet, when the Lord tells him that Saul is in Damascus, praying and waiting for someone named Ananias to come and restore his vision, Ananias is so shocked by the news that he seems to doubt the Lord, or at least he doubted the Lord’s wisdom.  Ananias reminds the Lord (rather presumptuous, you’d think) that Saul has already done much evil to the Jesus followers in Jerusalem and has now come to Damascus to arrest the Jesus followers there.  Ananias, like all the disciples, is really frightened of what will happen and if the church in Damascus will be completely destroyed.  The Lord’s instruction to perform the miracle of restoring Saul’s sight seems like nothing compared to the immense fear that Saul’s reputation has brought.  But, with reassurance from the Lord Jesus, Ananias regains his composure and obeys his instructions.  He goes to the address the Lord told him, finds Saul there, and – surprisingly, in view of Saul’s reputation – addresses him as “Brother Saul”: acceptance and brotherhood for the church’s great persecutor.  What grace and love Ananias shows, together with his faithful obedience to the Lord Jesus.  So Ananias restores Saul’s vision, baptizes him, and helps him in the first steps of discipleship as a new Jesus follower.

How about us?  Not many of us have totally life-changing visions like Saul’s Damascus Road Experience.  Very few if any of us have even quiet visions like the one Ananias had.  But the Lord Jesus does call all of us, his followers, to do his bidding.  Rarely, this might come through a vision or a special word spoken by someone else, but far more often the Lord’s bidding comes to us only as a quiet conviction or in ordinary conversation or even just as a hunch as to what God wants us to do.  Sometimes the Lord bids us to do something challenging or difficult, perhaps speaking truth to power or to the hostile.  At such a time, we, like Ananias, may be filled with fear and doubt.  The Lord doesn’t reprove Ananias for his fear and doubt, nor does he reprove us.  Instead, he gives us the additional information, confirmation, and reassurance that, as we trust and obey, we can take on the work we are given, we can face the challenges to which we are called.

One important disclosure is still needed.  The outcomes of our work and the challenges we face as we walk in the Way are not within our control, and the results are often not what we, or the Lord, would want.  Our efforts, with God’s help, may prove successful, but often they do not.  Our efforts may instead result in rejection and other injury.  The Lord Jesus told Ananias concerning Paul [9:16], “I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”  This message, so strange in view of the Damascus Road, is the central prophecy for the whole of Paul’s life and ministry.  Paul became a leader who stood strongly for the Way of Jesus, and he had many adversaries.  Great rejection and suffering followed him the rest of his life.  If we too learn to accept our Lord’s bidding, we too will find that rejection and suffering will follow.  Very often, our rewards await us later but not in this life.  2 Timothy 3:12 puts it succinctly, “Indeed, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”  But life doesn’t end there.  2 Timothy 4:8 concludes instead, “There is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”

Let us live in the light of this scripture.

– Robert Kruse