Transformation and a Mission – Acts 9

A text – Acts 9:1-20

9 Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest ² and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. ³ Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. ⁴ He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” ⁵ He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. ⁶ But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.”

⁷ The men who were traveling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one. ⁸ Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. ⁹ For three days he was without sight and neither ate nor drank.

¹⁰ Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” He answered, “Here I am, Lord.” ¹¹ The Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. At this moment he is praying, ¹² and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” ¹³ But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem, ¹⁴ and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name.” ¹⁵ But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; ¹⁶ I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” ¹⁷ So Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” ¹⁸ And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored. Then he got up and was baptized, ¹⁹ and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

For several days he was with the disciples in Damascus, ²⁰ and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.”

A reflection:

This story is often entitled “The Conversion of Saul.” It is a conversion for sure, a huge change. But Saul, renamed Paul by the Lord, is still a good observant Jew at the end. The change was that he also believed that Jesus is the Son of God. His conversion was about how he treated people of The Way, as Jesus’s followers were called. His conversion was to see their faith in Jesus not as something to be eradicated in order to purify the holy Jewish faith (a heroic aim to save Judaism from the stain of a false Messiah) but instead as a sign of God’s presence, Jesus’s divinity, and the redeeming of the whole world.

Jesus (and later Ananias and the followers in Damascus) convince Saul that Jesus is indeed the Son of God come to earth and raised from death to save us all. Jesus chose Saul as an apostle precisely because he was strong and persuasive and dedicated. Jesus gave him a mission that he was uniquely qualified for: missionary to the ends of the earth. It utterly transformed his life.

Saul’s transformation to Paul the missionary for Jesus involved being knocked off his horse, humbled, blinded, and left to the mercy of the very people he was on his way to arrest. He went from certainty to limbo to accepting something totally new. He began on a hero’s quest to preserve the old faith and finished in the adventure of a lifetime, proclaiming Jesus as Lord. He was transformed by God to do something God knew only he could do. It turned out his old certainty was his enemy, preventing his seeing the Lord.

This makes me wonder what certainties I have that might be preventing me from doing what I might be called to do. It makes me wonder why I don’t humbly ask God each day what should be my priority.

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for the story of the amazing Paul. Help me to see that his transformation could be my own if I just listened for your voice each day, sending me out. Amen.