Blind spots revealed
This week's study is on Acts 9:1-12:
Last week, we talked about God encountering Moses with a bit of shock and awe. This week, he takes things one step further with Saul of Tarsus (who we know already under a different name.) He could have just shown Saul the light and used it to start a conversation, like he did with Moses. Instead, this time, God takes the light and hits him with it. It is sudden and violent.
If Moses was a murderer, at least he was an amateur at it. Saul, on the other hand, was a professional. He was participating in a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing against Christians. But he wasn't just participating -- he was actually leading it! He was like the Pharisee version of Heinrich Himmler. It's no wonder Ananias was less than thrilled about going over to his house to pray for him!
Saul, for his part, seemed 100% convinced he was on the right path. He may even have thought he was doing God a favor by engineering this final solution to the "problem" of Christianity. He was all-in on his activism!
We see this kind of attitude today with modern activists. They become 100% sure of their solution to a problem they maybe understand 25% of. They go out of their way to hunt down fascists, or racists, or whatever the bogeyman of the day is, even finding them where they don't exist. Saul was a fanatic of this worst sort.
You can't blame him for believing what he believed though. Saul studied in prestigious Pharisee schools under big name teachers. He was likely bombarded with Pharisee messaging his whole life. If he was alive today, he'd be totally "bubbled" in Pharisee-only media: only following Pharisees on Twitter, only friends with Pharisees on Facebook, only the Pharisee-leaning channels on TV. A lot of us live in similar bubbles today.
Being a Pharisee was all Saul knew, and he excelled at it! When you're only hearing one side of the story, it can make you think you understand a lot more of what's going on than you do, and that can make you dangerous. This is how ISIS recruits. Beheading infidels isn't really something done by people who are on the fence. Blind activism can kill.
So God basically knocks him down. He doesn't just show him the light; he blinds him with it. It's a brilliant bit of street theatre on God's part: "Oh you think you see the whole picture? This is how much you actually see. Try it out for a couple days and then tell me how things work."
If you look at what Jesus says about the Pharisees and teachers of the law, he constantly refers to them as blind people who not only think they can see, but think they should be guiding everyone else. Prideful people always want to be leaders so they can get rid of all of the infidels. Saul was no exception.
God tells him that if he is persecuting the church, he is persecuting God himself. To God, an attack on us is an attack on his kingdom, and his family and friends. We are that valuable! If you are in opposition to God's kingdom and those under its protection, you are in for a very unpleasant surprise. When we pray "let your kingdom come," there's a lot of power in that kingdom!
When he asks who is speaking, Saul calls God "Lord." That's respect! Had God had tried to reach out to him before? Or did he only get the one chance? In any case, Saul is very lucky he is paying attention now. The captive puts his hands up.
The question that gets me is, why didn't God just kill him? How many Christians did Saul kill? How many lives ruined? How many people were probably praying that he would just disappear? Yet despite Saul being obviously very misguided, and despite some major character flaws, God saw something he could use. Saul is redeemed. (And to be fair, how many Christians were probably praying for his conversion?)
The ironic thing is that God ultimately used Saul to reach the Gentiles. That's kind of like turning Adolf Hitler into a civil rights activist for people of color. It's a testament to God's comprehensive forgiveness and to his ability to make unimaginable change that Saul became Paul, who wrote a good chunk of the New Testament. Maybe there's hope for us as well?
Maybe we have blind spots too. Maybe we've been on a crusade about this issue or that one, hounding our friends and family and coworkers, starting fights with disinterested third parties so that we can root out the evil from among us. Could there maybe be an easier way to come to that realization and repent? Without being stunned, captured, and interrogated in front of our friends by God himself? Something to consider at least. While I'd love to hear God's audible voice sometime, those aren't the circumstances I'd choose.
God is love and forgiveness, but he also means business. If we ever find ourselves condemning others and punishing them based on their beliefs, we should be very careful. We could be waging war against God's side without realizing it. His kingdom is the greatest superpower that will ever exist. You'd better be very sure of your blind spots before you take that shot.
Meanwhile Saul, still breathing out threats to murder the Lord’s disciples, went to the high priest and requested letters from him to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, either men or women, he could bring them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he was going along, approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” So he said, “Who are you, Lord?” He replied, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting! But stand up and enter the city and you will be told what you must do.” (Now the men who were traveling with him stood there speechless, because they heard the voice but saw no one.) So Saul got up from the ground, but although his eyes were open, he could see nothing. Leading him by the hand, his companions brought him into Damascus. For three days he could not see, and he neither ate nor drank anything.
Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias,” and he replied, “Here I am, Lord.” Then the Lord told him, “Get up and go to the street called ‘Straight,’ and at Judas’ house look for a man from Tarsus named Saul. For he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and place his hands on him so that he may see again.”
Last week, we talked about God encountering Moses with a bit of shock and awe. This week, he takes things one step further with Saul of Tarsus (who we know already under a different name.) He could have just shown Saul the light and used it to start a conversation, like he did with Moses. Instead, this time, God takes the light and hits him with it. It is sudden and violent.
If Moses was a murderer, at least he was an amateur at it. Saul, on the other hand, was a professional. He was participating in a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing against Christians. But he wasn't just participating -- he was actually leading it! He was like the Pharisee version of Heinrich Himmler. It's no wonder Ananias was less than thrilled about going over to his house to pray for him!
Saul, for his part, seemed 100% convinced he was on the right path. He may even have thought he was doing God a favor by engineering this final solution to the "problem" of Christianity. He was all-in on his activism!
We see this kind of attitude today with modern activists. They become 100% sure of their solution to a problem they maybe understand 25% of. They go out of their way to hunt down fascists, or racists, or whatever the bogeyman of the day is, even finding them where they don't exist. Saul was a fanatic of this worst sort.
You can't blame him for believing what he believed though. Saul studied in prestigious Pharisee schools under big name teachers. He was likely bombarded with Pharisee messaging his whole life. If he was alive today, he'd be totally "bubbled" in Pharisee-only media: only following Pharisees on Twitter, only friends with Pharisees on Facebook, only the Pharisee-leaning channels on TV. A lot of us live in similar bubbles today.
Being a Pharisee was all Saul knew, and he excelled at it! When you're only hearing one side of the story, it can make you think you understand a lot more of what's going on than you do, and that can make you dangerous. This is how ISIS recruits. Beheading infidels isn't really something done by people who are on the fence. Blind activism can kill.
So God basically knocks him down. He doesn't just show him the light; he blinds him with it. It's a brilliant bit of street theatre on God's part: "Oh you think you see the whole picture? This is how much you actually see. Try it out for a couple days and then tell me how things work."
If you look at what Jesus says about the Pharisees and teachers of the law, he constantly refers to them as blind people who not only think they can see, but think they should be guiding everyone else. Prideful people always want to be leaders so they can get rid of all of the infidels. Saul was no exception.
God tells him that if he is persecuting the church, he is persecuting God himself. To God, an attack on us is an attack on his kingdom, and his family and friends. We are that valuable! If you are in opposition to God's kingdom and those under its protection, you are in for a very unpleasant surprise. When we pray "let your kingdom come," there's a lot of power in that kingdom!
When he asks who is speaking, Saul calls God "Lord." That's respect! Had God had tried to reach out to him before? Or did he only get the one chance? In any case, Saul is very lucky he is paying attention now. The captive puts his hands up.
The question that gets me is, why didn't God just kill him? How many Christians did Saul kill? How many lives ruined? How many people were probably praying that he would just disappear? Yet despite Saul being obviously very misguided, and despite some major character flaws, God saw something he could use. Saul is redeemed. (And to be fair, how many Christians were probably praying for his conversion?)
The ironic thing is that God ultimately used Saul to reach the Gentiles. That's kind of like turning Adolf Hitler into a civil rights activist for people of color. It's a testament to God's comprehensive forgiveness and to his ability to make unimaginable change that Saul became Paul, who wrote a good chunk of the New Testament. Maybe there's hope for us as well?
Maybe we have blind spots too. Maybe we've been on a crusade about this issue or that one, hounding our friends and family and coworkers, starting fights with disinterested third parties so that we can root out the evil from among us. Could there maybe be an easier way to come to that realization and repent? Without being stunned, captured, and interrogated in front of our friends by God himself? Something to consider at least. While I'd love to hear God's audible voice sometime, those aren't the circumstances I'd choose.
God is love and forgiveness, but he also means business. If we ever find ourselves condemning others and punishing them based on their beliefs, we should be very careful. We could be waging war against God's side without realizing it. His kingdom is the greatest superpower that will ever exist. You'd better be very sure of your blind spots before you take that shot.
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