“Road Trip”

Acts 9:1-20

This past Tuesday, I had the first of two cataracts taken out. It was a very strange and fascinating surgery. How many of you have had cataract surgery? An optometrist once told me that overexposure to the sun can cause cataracts later in life. As a younger and somewhat foolish lad, I burned my retinas twice. The first time was when I went snow skiing on a very bright and sunny day. I had glasses when I began skiing, but at some point, they broke, and I skied the rest of the day without any protection against the bright sunshine. I remember my eyes aching as I drove home, but didn’t think much of it.  The second time was about 7 years later in Maui on our honeymoon. One afternoon, we went to the beach, and I forgot to bring my sunglasses. But I was young and indestructible on my honeymoon with this amazing woman, who is still amazing today. I didn’t need any eye protection from the sun! Burned retinas are no fun. These two experiences led me, decades later, to the first of two cataract surgeries. After my surgery prep, I was wheeled on the gurney with lights above me going by and ended up in the surgery room. I spoke briefly with the doc, who touched my shoulder and said, “I got you. Don’t worry. I’ll get you through and you will have better sight!” I was sort of out as I lay there, but not entirely. I stared at a bright light, and then my right eye started seeing psychedelic-like colors, kind of like when rock bands in the 60s used to put colors on a screen behind them when they played.  Somewhere during that experience, just like Saul, a scale fell from my right eye! Not really. The cataract, a hard substance inside the eye, was broken apart into many tiny pieces through ultrasound, which means the cataract eventually goes away, and does not fall off the eye.  So, even with just one eye being worked on, I was given new sight when all was said and done. In addition, I think I was given a pretty good opening for today’s sermon about Saul receiving new sight. We pastors will sometimes go to great lengths to find sermon illustrations, including operations!

Today’s story of Saul is about him being given new sight. In this case, however, Jesus is the Ophthalmologist. Saul, who would become the apostle Paul, had an encounter with Jesus, the heavenly ophthalmologist, on the road to Damascus, which eventually led to him being able to see in a new way.  Jesus wanted Saul to be his chosen instrument, to carry Christ’s name before Gentiles and Sovereigns and the children of Israel, as it says in Verse 15. Saul would become Paul, an apostle of Christ whose missionary journeys spread the gospel throughout the Roman Empire. Saul would become Paul, the planter of churches, the spreader of Good News to the non-churched, a prolific writer with some 12 letters attributed to him in the Bible.  But Saul had to have spiritual surgery on his sight to see the world in a new way before he would become Paul. First, he needed to be changed within.

Today’s passage tells the story of a spiritual assault upon Saul. There was nothing meek about Jesus’ actions here, in verses 3- 6, as Jesus’ light and presence caused Saul to tumble to the ground as he heard Jesus’ angry question of “Why are you persecuting me?”  Christ was angry at Saul at that moment. Saul, who had persecuted Jesus’ followers enthusiastically, who had carried out raids and taken part in the stoning of Christians, needed to be broken and humbled so that Jesus would be able to use him as his chosen instrument. As I first read this passage last week, I remembered a choral work Paula and I sang a few decades ago at Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian church, which I think portrays Christ’s anger at Saul very clearly. It is the piece, “Saul” by Norwegian composer Egill Hovland. There are a few other musical works based on Saul’s conversion by composers like G.F. Händel, but they are rather melodic, and I don’t think they truly capture what that encounter may’ve been like.  It took a lot of work to find this piece on the internet, but, thanks to YouTube and some very clever computer workings of my office manager, Susan, I have a recording of it here, which I would like you to listen to, after a brief commercial message, which I cannot get rid of unless I pay to subscribe to YouTube. Sigh.  You will get a true sense of Jesus’s anger in this moment as he questions Saul, especially in the discordant organ music. It begins by narrating some of Saul’s acts against the church as recorded in chapter eight of Acts, just before today’s passage, and ends with Jesus calling Saul’s name in a spooky whisper by the choir.

I wanted you to hear the power of that piece because it reminds me of the power of our Messiah, Jesus. Sometimes, when Jesus intervenes in our lives, He acts like a gentle Shepherd.  Sometimes, he intervenes in powerful ways to bring a new vision. I have experienced Christ both ways in my own life, and I am sure some of you have as well. What is the point of these encounters? Conversion. To be converted in the dictionary is “ the process of changing or causing something to change from one form to another.”  Jesus can change us from one thing into another, enabling us to see the world through the eyes of faith in Christ and follow his ways. However, it can take a lot of effort to convert someone from one thing to another. Consider Saul’s journey and how much work the Spirit of Christ had to do to change him to Paul.

Saul first appeared in Acts in the posse that stoned Stephen (8:1) and then ravaged the Christian church (8:2-4). While the Romans did not allow the Jewish people to administer capital punishment, they did permit synagogues to take harsh measures to prompt their members to repent of sin and return to faithful practice. The Gospel/Acts writer Luke thinks of Saul’s zealous persecution against Christians as such.

Luke exposed the depth of Saul’s mistaken zeal by describing Saul as "breathing threats and murder" against the disciples. Murder would violate both Jewish and Roman law. Yet Saul’s hatred of Christians was strong enough that he could verbalize wanting to see their deaths.  But Jesus had other ideas.

Jesus wanted this persecutor of the early church to change from one thing to another. He wanted to use him to spread the good news to new lands and peoples. In Acts 1:8, Jesus directed the disciples to witness in Jerusalem, then Judea and Samaria, and thence to the ends of the earth. The first three phases occur in 1:6,‑8:40. With 9:1, through Saul’s conversion, the gospel moved into even more distant gentile worlds.

After receiving a letter of introduction from a High Priest, Saul headed on the road to find followers of the Way. As the bright light from heaven dazzled before him, Saul fell to the ground. Saul asked, "Who are you, Lord?" Jesus told him it was He whom he had been persecuting. Luke used literary devices familiar to his audience to signal divine activity. The light from heaven recollects the heavenly light at Jesus’ birth, the brightness of the figures at the transfiguration, and the dazzling messengers in the empty tomb. Falling prostrate is a response to an epiphany from God, as in (e.g., Ezek 1:28; Dan 1:10). The double address ("Saul, Saul") derives from passages such as Genesis 22:11(Abraham! Abraham!) and Exodus 3:4(“Moses! Moses!). The scene is full of echoes of God’s divine activity and the heroes of faith.

Jesus then told Saul to go to the city, where further instructions awaited. As he rose from the ground, Saul realized he was blind.

I felt a bit like that following my surgery last Monday. Everything was blurry. I felt a bit like I was blind.

Blindness from a faith perspective refers to a spiritual blindness. Saul’s hatred for Christians spiritually blinded him. So, for three days, he fasted, thus following a time-honored method of preparing to receive instruction from God on the next steps.

The risen Jesus then directed Ananias, a disciple of the Way, to go to Saul and lay healing hands on him. However, Ananias was hesitant to go to Saul, and for good reason! Ananias knew of Saul’s reputation and feared he would also seek to harm him.

Then comes verse 15. This verse describes Saul, who would become Paul’s mission. Paul would carry the gospel message to the Gentile inhabitants of the Holy Land. The rest of the passage tells the story of Paul’s future of suffering rejection and prison (Verse 16), Ananias’ courageous laying on of hands, Paul’s healing, and finally his baptism into the Christian family. Paul’s conversion was complete. Christ changed, molded, and shaped his character to be used for God’s glory.  Paul spent a few days with the disciples in Damascus, then began his new life as a disciple of Jesus. Verse 20 tells us he went into the synagogues around Damascus and proclaimed that Jesus was the Son of God, a statement to which he would’ve screamed “Blasphemy!” had someone else uttered it just a few days prior.

This story is important because it tells us some important things about Jesus and us. Regarding Jesus, he will at times break into our lives, giving us a new vision of the world around us. Sometimes the leading is gentle, and sometimes it isn’t. Sometimes we understand an important nuance about Jesus as we look at the ocean or glimpse a majestic Redwood tree; Sometimes we understand a crucial foundational fact about life, death, struggle, and suffering when a loved one dies, when we lose a portion of our health, or find ourselves in some crisis