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The Conversion of St. Paul
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| Loving God, you come to us in grace and love, offering us salvation through your Son, Jesus. Help us to realize what a precious gift we have been given, and strengthen and renew us by the power of your Spirit so that we might pass on that gift to others, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. |
Whether you realize it or not, most of you have probably heard quite a bit of what Saul, who is also known as Paul (cf. Acts 13:9 ), had to say following his conversion. What we have heard about in today's readings is Saul's conversion, as he changes from a violent persecutor of those who follow Jesus to a firm believer in Jesus Christ as his Saviour, and as the Saviour of the world. What we hear on most Sundays, usually in the second reading, are excerpts of Paul's letters, written in the first century to some of the earliest Christian congregations. So most of us have heard a fair bit of what Paul has to say, even if we didn't know at the time that he was the one who was saying it.
However, today, I'd like to back up a little bit and raise an important question about why Saul was acting the way that he was before he was converted. We are told that he was "breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord" (Acts 9:1) and that he "was violently persecuting the church of God" (Gal. 1:13 ). What was it that had made Saul so angry that he believed that he was quite righteous in wanting to imprison or even to murder the followers of Jesus?
One commentator named Brian Stoffregen proposes the following:
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I don't think that Paul found it too offensive that the Christians claimed that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah. That was open to discussion. Besides that, there had been many so-called Messiah groups before. Paul didn't try eliminating them. They usually just disappeared on their own. The Christian's belief that Jesus was the Messiah wouldn't have upset Paul all that much. What, I think, got Paul so stirred up, was the Christians' claim that God's Messiah was sent to them. What kind of group were these early Christians? They were led by some fishermen, who could hardly understand Hebrew, who didn't understand or keep the Law too well. There were some tax collectors in the group. They certainly didn't deserve any of God's blessings. They had defiled themselves by working for the Romans and cheating their own Jewish neighbors. It was reported that there were even some prostitutes in the group of Christians. We all know that God would have nothing to do with people like that. The fact that this group of unfaithful, law-breaking people claimed that God had come to them and chosen them is what stirred Paul to great anger. Paul was a devout keeper of the Law. He knew how God worked. What would this righteous God want with such a group of sinful people? Just to think that God would choose such a group of disrespectful people would have been blasphemous. Paul was going to eliminate the blasphemy against his righteous God. (http://www.crossmarks.com/brian/luke21x10.htm) |
Although this is just one person's opinion, it makes a lot of sense. Paul himself tells in today's second reading from Galatians about how he had advanced in Judaism much further than others who were the same age, and about how he was far more zealous than any of them for the traditions of his ancestors (1:14). It would have angered him to no end that this group of sinners and uneducated people were claiming that the long-awaited Messiah had chosen them to carry on his ministry!
And so, when Saul does meet Jesus on the road to Damascus, it is a dramatic change indeed that occurs in Saul's life. Not only does Saul discover that this "misfit" group of Christians is right, but he also discovers how great the grace of God really is. Saul had always believed that God would only save those who deserve it. That's why he had always worked so hard at trying to keep the law perfectly in order to earn God's favour. However, Jesus appears to Saul at the time when he least deserves God's favour - when he is actively working against God by persecuting the followers of Jesus. Paul comes to view himself as the chief of all sinners (1 Tim. 1:15), which is a huge change from his belief that he was perfect in God's sight. What Paul comes to understand is that none of us could ever actually deserve to be saved. "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23).
It would seem, though, that many people (Christians included!) are still of the same mind that Paul was before he became a follower of Jesus. We are quick to condemn, slow to forgive, and somehow comforted by the thought that other people are far worse sinners than we are. In fact, somewhere along the line people seem to have gotten the idea that the church is only for "respectable" people. If you don't believe that, consider for a moment how you would react if somebody came to church one Sunday quite obviously dressed as a prostitute. Or what if a homosexual couple walked in and sat down in the front row? How about a few homeless people - or maybe a known drug dealer? Would you assume that these people have just as much right to be here as you do, or would you immediately be judging them?
The truth is that for any person who walks into the church, we don't have any idea what might have just transpired between that person and God. We don't know the status of their heart. We don't know what the Holy Spirit might be doing in their lives. We don't know how things are between them and Jesus right now. What we do know is that each and every person is loved by God and is offered salvation through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It doesn't matter what might have transpired in our lives previously. Whether we have led the most mistake-filled and evil life imaginable or have led a life that looks faultless to others, we are saved by only one thing: faith in Jesus Christ. This is the truth that Paul learned following his conversion experience on the road to Damascus.
Of course, later on, when Paul emphasized how we are saved by grace through faith, there were people who misunderstood him (cf. Rom. 6). They said, "Oh, good! That means that we can do whatever we want and we will be forgiven." However, to do this is to willfully deny Jesus Christ as Lord, for to follow Jesus means to have a changed heart and mind, and to leave our sinful, self-centered ways behind, and to live instead out of love for God and for the people around us. Those who truly believe that Jesus Christ died for their sins and has won forgiveness for them do not simply keep on living as they did before. Rather, we live as imitators of Christ, offering lives of loving service to those for whom Christ died.
There was a stunning example this past week of how quickly people will jump on the bandwagon crying for vengeance and punishment and justice. There was a great outcry when a university student was given "only" a conditional sentence for having violently beaten another student with "The Club." Many people are of the opinion that justice has not been done unless this student is sent to jail. Yet, an entirely different perspective on this case was presented by Gordon Sinclair in yesterday's Free Press. Some of the facts had been twisted by the media. The young man who was convicted has been haunted every day since the assault by the knowledge of what he has done to the life of Michael Marasco and his family. It is also the case that his conditional sentence ends up lasting longer than any jail term would and gives him some hope of living a productive life in the future. Yet, in spite of these facts, I'm sure there are still those who feel that he has not paid enough for his crime and that he has not been given the punishment he deserves.
I mention this case because it is the same sort of legalistic thinking that Paul used prior to the revelation to him of the good news of God's grace. And, it is the same sort of thinking that many of us still like much better than the grace and love of God. We still like to think that people should get what they deserve. And yet, we would all be in trouble if God actually operated that way.
No - God does not save us because we deserve it, but because he loves us. We are saved as an act of pure grace and love, through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Thanks be to God for this marvelous gift of grace! Amen.
The Conversion of St. Paul Acts 9:1-22 January 25, 2004 Galatians 1:11-24 St. Luke's Zion Lutheran Church
? 2004 Lynn Hutchison All Rights Reserved