You may have noticed that in the Easter Season, the
lectionary exchanges our usual Old Testament reading with a reading from the
book of Acts. And today, we have a very
important one of those, telling us the story of the conversion of Saul.
Conversion is a change, from this, to that. From one kind of thing to another. We talk about conversion today when
exchanging one currency for another, or when converting a document to a pdf
file. Or maybe you convert your guest bedroom into a home office.
But theologically speaking, conversion is the mysterious and
miraculous action of the Holy Spirit of making believers out of unbelievers. And make no mistake, it is only God who does
this. Only he can convert us, we cannot
convert ourselves.
So as we consider Saul’s conversion today, we consider also
our own, giving thanks to God who has brought us out of darkness and into his
marvelous light, through the Gospel of Jesus Christ crucified and risen, and by
power of the Holy Spirit working through his word.
Saul was really quite a piece of work. Luke tells us he was “breathing out threats
and murder” or “murderous threats” against the Christians. And that’s a funny way of speaking. For remember that “breath” in the Greek is
the same word for “spirit”. When the
risen Jesus breathed on his disciples he said, “receive the Holy Spirit.” He literally breathed his Holy Spirit onto
them.
But Saul, here, is of another spirit, and it is not
holy. It is a murderous and threatening
spirit, concerned with hatred, destruction and death. He aims his murderous threats at Christians,
but Jesus tells it clearer when he meets Saul on the road to Damascus, “Saul,
Saul, why are you persecuting ME?”
You see it’s not really the Christians that Saul hated, it
was Jesus. Just so, today, as it’s
always been. Unbelief is enmity with God.
Like the old saying goes, Atheists usually believe two things, “One,
there is no God. And two, I hate him.”
So also Saul’s hatred for the Christians was really hatred of God, and
of Jesus.
Which reminds me of a little phrase that we use in our
catechism instruction, when describing the state of natural, fallen man. We are blind, dead, and enemies of God.
Isn’t it interesting that Saul is also struck blind for
three days? Besides the inconvenience of
it, besides the automatic disability and humiliation of having to depend on
others. God let him stew on it for three
days, this blindness. It’s perhaps a
powerful message in itself of Saul’s own spiritual blindness.
And yet, it is clear that God did let him see something in
those days of blindness: a vision of a
man who would heal him, Annanias of straight street. God was giving him a way out of his
blindness.
This picture is one any Christian can relate to. As the well known hymn puts it, “I once was
blind, but now I see.” God’s amazing
grace changes us, moves us, converts us, and restores us. Our spiritual blindness falls away like
scales when we come to clearly see Christ as our Savior.
Blind, dead, and enemies of God. Well we’ve covered the blind and the enemies
part, but was Saul really dead? Are
unbelievers just as dead?
Spiritually speaking, yes!
For even though Adam and Eve didn’t keel over the same day they ate the
forbidden fruit (as Adam lived to 930 years old!) Yet God’s word must be true: In the day you eat of it, you will die.
Spiritual death had certainly occurred. We can see it in his fear of God, hiding his
nakedness with a fig leaf, and blaming the woman for his sin. Spiritual death always bears the fruit of
physical death, and while not always contemporaneous, they always go hand in
hand.
So Saul, breathing out murderous threats, was a dead man
walking, as are all sinners apart from Christ.
As were you and I. And the fact that Saul had to wait until the third
day to see his new life in Christ is likely a hint pointing us to this very
fact. Nonetheless, Saul was baptized
then, and as he would later write, in Baptism we are buried with Christ and
raised with Christ! The new life begins
at the font. So for Saul, and so, also,
for us. And now, instead of breathing
out murderous threats, all his breath was dedicated to preaching and
proclaiming Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, and confounding the Jews and
any who would oppose him. Night and
day! From the greatest opponent of the
church to her greatest missionary. From
binding and murdering Christians, to freeing and preaching new life in Christ!
Now, here we might stop a moment and appreciate that not
every Christian has what we call a “conversion experience” Not everyone feels the night and day
difference of believe and unbelief. Many
of us were raised in the church and can’t even remember a time we weren’t a
Christian. Many of us were baptized as
infants, and may even be jealous of those who can remember their own baptism.
But the when of it isn’t as important as the what. Whether you recall it, or experienced it, or
even knew it at the time doesn’t much matter.
What matters is what God has done for you in Christ. You were blind, but now you see. You were dead, but now you live. You were an enemy, but now he calls you
friend, even more, family.
That’s not to say that everything is now perfect for us,
either. Saul’s life was about to get
harder. Jesus was going to show him how
much he must suffer. And indeed, Saul,
later known as Paul, would continue to struggle with his flesh – the man of
death that clings to all of us, even though we are a new creation in Christ. Add to that the thorn in the flesh, as well
as all the other physical and mental sufferings he periodically catalogues he
had to endure.
But God would work great miracles through Paul, and carry
his name to the ends of the earth. Paul
would preach to many, and through such preaching the Holy Spirit converted many
more. The gentiles, even kings, and
even, eventually, you and me.
Though you still suffer, and you still struggle with sin,
too. Your flesh will cling to you until
death catches up to it, and only the new spirit remains. And then one day, we will all be called from
bodily death to a resurrection like unto Christ’s. And on that day, we will see, and live, and
be embraced as God’s family forever.
Saul’s conversion, though unusual in many respects, shows us
the way God works – bringing sight to the blind, making friends out of enemies,
and from death, bringing life, now and forever.
All for the sake of Christ, our savior.
All by the power of his Holy Spirit.
For Saul, for all Christians, and for you and me.
Christ is risen. Thanks be to God. Amen.
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