Acts 9:1-22
Saul was still breathing threats to slaughter the Lord’s
disciples. He had gone to the high priest and asked for letters addressed to
the synagogues in Damascus, that would authorise him to arrest and take to
Jerusalem any followers of the Way, men or women, that he could find. Suddenly,
while he was travelling to Damascus and just before he reached the city, there
came a light from heaven all round him. He fell to the ground, and then he
heard a voice saying, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ ‘Who are you,
Lord?’ he asked, and the voice answered, ‘I am Jesus, and you are persecuting
me. Get up now and go into the city, and you will be told what you have to do.’
The men travelling with Saul stood there speechless, for though they heard the
voice they could see no one. Saul got up from the ground, but even with his
eyes wide open he could see nothing at all, and they had to lead him into
Damascus by the hand. For three days he was without his sight, and took neither
food nor drink.
A disciple called Ananias who lived in Damascus had a vision
in which he heard the Lord say to him, ‘Ananias!’ When he replied, ‘Here I am,
Lord’, the Lord said, ‘You must go to Straight Street and ask the house of
Judas for someone called Saul, who comes from Tarsus. At this moment he is
praying, having had a vision of a man called Ananias coming in and laying hands
on him to give him back his sight.’
When he heard that, Ananias said, ‘Lord, several people have
told me about this man and all the harm he has been doing to your saints in
Jerusalem. He has only come here because he holds a warrant from the chief
priests to arrest everybody who invokes your name.’ The Lord replied, ‘You must
go all the same, because this man is my chosen instrument to bring my name
before pagans and pagan kings and before the people of Israel; I myself will
show him how much he himself must suffer for my name.’ Then Ananias went. He
entered the house, and at once laid his hands on Saul and said, ‘Brother Saul,
I have been sent by the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on your way here so that
you may recover your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.’ Immediately it
was as though scales fell away from Saul’s eyes and he could see again. So he
was baptised there and then, and after taking some food he regained his
strength.
He began preaching in the synagogues, ‘Jesus is the Son of
God.’ All his hearers were amazed. ‘Surely’ they said ‘this is the man who
organised the attack in Jerusalem against the people who invoke this name, and
who came here for the sole purpose of arresting them to have them tried by the
chief priests?’ Saul’s power increased steadily, and he was able to throw the
Jewish colony at Damascus into complete confusion by the way be demonstrated
that Jesus was the Christ.
Food for thought!
Today, we mark Paul's turn around; his conversion. The First
Reading of today tells us of the incident. Every time I read this story, I
stand amazed at the grace of God. When I see the Lord taking this great sinner
and transforming him into the great saint, I realize that there is hope for
people like you and me. The truth is, Saul was a very unlikely candidate for
the service of the Lord. Here was a man who was feared and hated by Christians
and one who did everything in his power to destroy the name of the Lord Jesus.
Yet, God reached down and took this man from where he was and used him to
change the world. God used him in such a great manner that Paul's ministry is
still reaping fruit today.
When we look at Paul, we may be tempted to think that he was
some kind super saint. We may feel that there is no possible way that the Lord
could use us like He did Paul, or that God could even use us at all. Some of
you may have asked the question, "Can God really use my life for anything?"
The answer is YES. And he wants to use you in your world, your place of work,
your neighbourhood, your family, and according to your skills and talents. He
will not remove you from your world; he will send you to your world. Did you
notice that Paul still went to Damascus? That Paul stood among the people he
was going to imprison and arrest and kill? He went to the same people, not to
imprison and arrest or kill them, but to proclaim to them good news. Yes, he
still went there, but he went there a different man, with a different message,
and different mandate.
You too can proclaim good news to the same people you have
known until now, people like your spouse, your children, your neighbours, your
colleagues at work. If you have held some resentment against any of these
people until now, you can change and hold, not resentment anymore but love and
forgiveness. You can change from being a carrier of bad news to carrier of good
news. You can and should still go to your Damascus; but take there not hurt but
heart; not hate but love.
Let us be another Paul in the world we happen to be. The
First Reading says, "And all who heard him were amazed and said, ‘Is not
the very man who harassed and overthrew and destroyed in Jerusalem those who
called upon this Name? And he has come here for the express purpose of
arresting them and bringing them in chains before the chief priests?’ 22 But
Saul increased all the more in strength, and continued to confound and put to
confusion the Jews who lived in Damascus; Paul turned around from hate to love.
So can we.
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