A life changing encounter
12th May 2023
Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.
“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
The men travelling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus.
Acts 9
Last week we were thinking about the appearance of Jesus to Peter and the others by the Sea of Galilee. Today’s reading is another encounter with the risen Lord, which is both similar and different.
Saul was never one of the followers of Jesus. Instead we come across him first when Stephen, one of the early Christians, is being stoned to death. Saul holds the coats of those throwing the stones. Then we hear about his own campaign to end this new religious group, dragging people out of their houses and throwing them into prison.
He’s on his way to round up more followers of this new Way when he has his famous ‘road to Damascus’ experience. This is not a moment of delighted recognition, as it was when the disciples met Jesus again. Saul is stopped in his tracks by a blinding light and he hears a voice addressing him.
There is an uncomfortable intimacy in this short conversation, a little like Peter and Jesus by the lakeshore. It seems that Jesus knows Saul well – he calls him by name – he knows everything he has been doing. Saul doesn’t know who Jesus is, but he recognises that he is in the presence of his Lord.
He is led off by the others into the city, and later, having regained his sight, he is baptised, and he becomes the most incredible missionary and Christian teacher – travelling all round that part of the world, telling people about Jesus, founding new Christian communities -and writing letters to those churches when he moves on.
The story of his conversion is so important to Saul – or Paul, as he became known – that in the book we call The Acts of the Apostles we hear it three times – twice in speeches that Paul gives explaining his beliefs. In one speech he adds an extra detail. He recounts how when Jesus spoke to him on the road he also said ‘It is hard for you to kick against the goads’. A goad was a stick with a sharp point used to prod an animal like a donkey or an ox to make it move.
Jesus has already been prodding Paul to go in a different direction, but Paul has been resisting – and hurting himself in the process.
There’s something in all of this that feels familiar to me. When we encounter Jesus – maybe in less dramatic ways – when we make space to hear him – that often begins with us realising that we are known. And then we may realise that we too have been painfully resisting God’s loving nudges to move us into a different way of being.
What happens next to Paul is interesting too. Paul has been full of passion – a sense of righteous anger – a zeal for what he felt God wanted. This is why Jesus calls him so dramatically – only this would make him change direction. God doesn’t then take away his passion – he redirects it. Now instead of being fired up to stamp out Christianity, Paul is fired up to spread the faith. Now he sets off to new places with a very different mission. God uses him as the person he is.
When we read Paul’s letters in the New Testament Paul comes across as a very human man, someone who struggles with himself, but who returns to this intimate encounter with Jesus again and again – not just in his memory, but in his ongoing life of faith.
Think for a moment about your own encounters with Jesus… about the way that God knows us so well… about the ways God has given you new directions in your life – about the way God uses us as the people we are…
Lord Jesus, you know us through and through. You long to draw us away from ways of living that hurt us, and into your new life. Help us to open ourselves to you.
Lord Jesus, you are always alongside us in the journeys of our lives. Guide us on our outer and our inner journeys – help us to feel the gentle loving nudges of your spirit, and not to resist, but to respond.
Lord Jesus, take us as we are – with all our personality, our gifts, our passions and our longings – and use us in the service of your kingdom of love.