An Encounter with Jesus
“An Encounter with Jesus” – August 13th, 2023 (Acts 9:1-31)
We are continuing our walk through the book of Acts today with a well-known narrative in chapter 9 that is most commonly titled in various English translations either “The Road to Damascus” or “Saul’s Conversion”, or some combination of those two phrases. The CEV puts it simply to emphasize the main point – “Saul Becomes a Follower of the Lord.” The narrative we’re about to read describes what occurred about four to seven years after Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. To quote Pastor Nancy from last week, “at some point God could call us to places that weren’t expected.” This was certainly true in Saul’s life!
Before we read today’s passage from Acts chapter 9, I want to mention that there are two additional accounts of Paul’s conversion in Acts 22 and Acts 26. You might notice some differences in the three accounts, an intentional act on the part of Luke, the author of the book of Acts, as all good rhetoricians of that day wrote with variation (instead of using bland repetition) to three specific audiences. In Acts 9, Luke continues his “well-ordered account” of “the events that have been fulfilled among us” that he began in Luke and continues through Acts, the second part of his two-book series. In Acts 22, Paul has just been arrested amid a violent uproar by an angry mob and is now speaking to the Roman tribune and crowd on the steps outside the barracks at the Temple in Jerusalem (likely the Antonia Fortress). In Acts 26, Paul is pleading his case before King Agrippa, his sister Berenice, and Porcius Festus (procurator of Judea), in the Eastern Mediterranean city of Caesarea, the civilian and military capital of the Roman Empire. Let’s read what happened on the road to Damascus that day in each of these three accounts of Saul’s encounter with Jesus.
Acts 9:1-9 (NRSV) – “Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 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. Now as he was going along and 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 do you persecute me?’ He asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ The reply came, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.’ The men who were traveling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one. 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. For three days he was without sight and neither ate nor drank.”
Acts 22:4-11 (NRSV) – “I persecuted this Way up to the point of death by binding both men and women and putting them in prison, as the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify about me. From them I also received letters to the brothers in Damascus, and I went there in order to bind those who were there and to bring them back to Jerusalem for punishment. While I was on my way and approaching Damascus, about noon a great light from heaven suddenly shone about me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ Then he said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth whom you are persecuting.’ Now those who were with me saw the light but did not hear the voice of the one who was speaking to me. I asked, ‘What am I to do, Lord?’ The Lord said to me, ‘Get up and go to Damascus; there you will be told everything that has been assigned to you to do.’ Since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, those who were with me took my hand and led me to Damascus.”
Acts 26:9-16 (NRSV) – “Indeed, I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things against the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And that is what I did in Jerusalem; with authority received from the chief priests, I not only locked up many of the saints in prison, but I also cast my vote against them when they were being condemned to death. By punishing them often in all the synagogues I tried to force them to blaspheme, and since I was so furiously enraged at them, I pursued them even to foreign cities. With this in mind, I was traveling to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests, when at midday along the road, Your Excellency, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and my companions. When we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It hurts you to kick against the goads.’ I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ The Lord answered, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But get up and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you to serve and testify to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you.”
Paul’s conversion is so well known that American theologian Willie James Jennings describes it this way: “The long history of the church has turned the Damascus Road into shorthand for a life-changing experience.”
Thirteenth century Italian theologian Thomas Aquinas says of Paul’s conversion, “. . . suddenly when Paul was in the midst of sin, his heart was perfectly moved by God to hear, to learn, to come; and hence he received grace suddenly.”
Nineteenth century German theologian Justus Knecht says, “Our Blessed Lord prevented Saul with His grace, enlightened his understanding, moved his heart, and prepared his will to do all that was commanded him. In the very midst of his sinful career grace called to Saul to stop, and changed his heart so completely that the bitter enemy of Jesus Christ was transformed into an apostle, all aglow with love; and the persecutor of the Christian faith became its indefatigable defender and advocate.”
Argentinian Pope Francis says that “the experience the apostle Paul had after his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus . . . radically changed his outlook on life, and he received baptism. God transformed his heart! . . . In the end, the Saul who wanted to kill those who proclaimed the Gospel gave his own life to proclaim it.”
English New Testament scholar N. T. Wright offers this brilliant insight: “Everything possible had to be done to stamp out a movement that would impede the true purposes of the One God of Israel, whose divine plans Saul and his friends believed were at last on the verge of a glorious fulfillment—until, on the Damascus Road, Saul came to believe that these plans had indeed been gloriously fulfilled, but in a way he had never imagined.”
Prior to his conversion, Saul had thought that the Temple and Torah were the ultimate realities. But on that day he learned that they were only pointers to Jesus, who is the one ultimate reality, God. Now Saul had had a personal and transformative epiphany and an encounter with Jesus, later writing, “there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist” (1 Corinthians 8:6, NRSV). What happened that day led Saul to immediately cease persecuting Christians and to become a follower of Christ Jesus. It changed his life! It eventually changed his name from Saul to Paul (even though Saul isn’t called Paul until Acts 13, I will mostly use the name Paul when referring to Saul/Paul today, for simplicity and clarity). Let’s look at what happened more closely.
Paul valued knowing Jesus and wanted to know Jesus. Knowing Jesus is not an all-or-nothing thing. Even though it is possible to not know Jesus at all, it is not possible to know Jesus perfectly and completely because Jesus is God and therefore infinite, and we are human and therefore limited in knowledge and experience. But it is possible to be on the journey of knowing Jesus. Our journeys may or may not begin with a Damascus Road experience. We might have had a sudden conversion, but sometimes our journeys and experiences are more gradual. But our journey of knowing Jesus always begins with an encounter with Jesus.
Philippians 3:8a,10-12 (NRSV) – “I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord . . . I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal, but I press on to lay hold of that for which Christ has laid hold of me.”
In the first century AD, conflict between various Jewish groups was not uncommon and sometimes became violent. Paul wasn’t just harmlessly handcuffing people and hauling them off hush-hush in the back of a police van. Acts 8:3 says that “Saul was ravaging the church.” He was captaining a cruel crusade in which Christ-followers were callously cleared from their homes and both men and women were constrained publicly with coldness and contempt. These Christian-catchers carried them back to Jerusalem where they would face the counterblows of the high priest, the Pharisees, the elders, and all of the court known as the Great Sanhedrin.
Paul had gone all the way to the top, to the high priest, to ask for letters of introduction. He had connections. Being the bearer of official letters of recommendation meant that Paul could expect the full support and cooperation of local synagogues wherever he went.
Luke says that “suddenly a light from heaven flashed around” Paul. Paul adds details in Acts 22 and 26 – “a great light from heaven suddenly shone about me” and “I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and my companions.” These later accounts also mention the time – noon, midday – when, as we know, the sun is at its brightest. Don’t miss this important detail. At any other time, this light could have been mistaken for the light of the sun. But when it’s already at its brightest for the day and suddenly gets brighter, something else is going on. This light from heaven refers to God’s presence, God’s glory. The Old Testament gives us several examples of people directly experiencing God’s presence and glory through a bright light or fire.
There are also many examples in both the Old Testament and Jewish literature of people who, during an encounter with God or angels, fell to the ground. These encounters are usually followed by a command to stand, for example, when Ezekiel saw “the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord,” he fell on his face, and then heard someone speaking, “O mortal, stand up on your feet, and I will speak with you.” On this particular day, Paul fell to the ground, but what’s notably absent is an instruction to stand up. This tells us that his behavior was not pleasing to God.
Another detail to notice in this narrative is that when God calls to someone in Jewish literature, names are often repeated, so as to draw special attention to what is about to be said. When Abraham reached out his hand to sacrifice his son, he heard God say, “Abraham, Abraham!” Abraham replied, “Here I am.” As Jacob traveled with his entire family on the way to Egypt, he heard God say, “Jacob, Jacob!” Jacob replied, “Here I am.” When God called to Moses out of the blazing bush, he heard God say, “Moses, Moses!” Moses replied, “Here I am.” While Samuel slept one night in the Temple where he ministered as a child, he heard the Lord call him four times, twice with repetition, “Samuel, Samuel!” Samuel replied, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” On this day when Saul heard a voice say, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” he replied, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” Paul had heard Jesus speaking to him but didn’t understand who Jesus was. Sometimes God has to get us in a place where we stop fighting against him for us to be able to hear his voice. Now Paul has had an encounter with Jesus, and now Jesus tells him to get up.
Notice that here Jesus identifies with those whom Paul was persecuting. Jesus says, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” In essence, Jesus is saying that the pain of his followers is his pain. We see other examples of this in both the Old and New Testaments, that sometimes God equates loving people (or not) with loving God (or not). In Exodus 16, when the people complained to Moses and Aaron in about the daily provision of manna, Moses said, “Your complaining is not against us but against the Lord.” In 1 Samuel 8, when the elders of Israel demanded that Samuel appoint them a king to govern them, like other nations, the LORD said to Samuel, “they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.” In Proverbs 19, we learn that “whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord and will be repaid in full.” In Matthew 25, Jesus describes both acts of compassion and the absence of compassion by equating how we treat others with how we treat him: “I was hungry and you gave [or didn’t give] me food, I was thirsty and you gave [or didn’t give] me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed [or didn’t welcome] me, I was naked and you gave [or didn’t give] me clothing, I was sick and you took care [or didn’t take care] of me, I was in prison and you visited [or didn’t visit] me.” This challenges us to consider where in our lives do we need an encounter with Jesus?
Let’s consider for a moment the men who were traveling with Paul that day. Acts 9:7 says that they “stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one.” In Acts 22:9 when Paul is retelling what happened to him that day, he says that they “saw the light but did not hear the voice of the one who was speaking to me.” The Greek word used in each of these verses (ἀκούω, akouó), the root of both “acoustics” and “audio”, carries with it the connotation of both listening and comprehending. It is possible to hear God’s voice and not understand what he’s saying to us. If you’ve ever sat in a class or sermon that did not grab your attention, you know it’s possible and even probable for people like me who are easily distracted that you can listen to someone speaking without getting what they’re saying. It might be because you’re bored or inattentive. But it might be because you’re unable to understand the words due to language, accent, education, discernment, or other reasons. The late New Testament scholar Richard Longenecker argues that first century readers might have understood these two versions of Luke’s account to mean that everybody heard the sound of the voice, but only Paul comprehended the articulated words. We can go through the same life experiences as someone else and still be in need of an encounter with Jesus because God meets each of us personally.
We may not understand all the reasons why God caused Paul to lose his eyesight that day, but it certainly got Saul’s attention and literally stopped him in his tracks, so much so that he didn’t eat or drink anything for three days. That’s a really long time to not drink anything! As a Pharisee he was accustomed to fasting twice a week, which incidentally was not a commandment of God, but a tradition that Pharisees upheld in their well-meaning but mistaken belief that it would make them purer in God’s eyes. Paul could not have known that his eyesight would be restored after three days, but this extreme fast of Paul’s demonstrates that he was absolutely undone, entirely grief-stricken, and utterly repentant. To repent is to turn and go the other way – everything about his life changed that day. Later when he was filled with the Holy Spirit, he would be filled with love, peace, joy, and all the other fruits of the Spirit.
There’s so much more to this Damascus Road story. We haven’t even talked about the faithful follower of Jesus called Ananias who had learned to listen to God’s voice and walk in obedience, even when it seemed different, dangerous, or even deranged to do so. May we also practice faithfulness, humility, and obedience, and simply do what Jesus tells us to do. As a result of Ananais’s obedience, Paul regained his sight and strength and was baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit. Ananais likely had no idea at the time that his seemingly small part in this story would have such far-reaching consequences. Paul, as we now know, became a forerunner and a father in the faith as a follower of Jesus in joining God’s mission to announce and demonstrate the good news, God’s all-comprehensive and mind-blowing plan to rescue, renew, and transform all of humanity and, indeed, all of creation!
That’s the story of Paul and his encounter with Jesus. In coming weeks we’ll be looking at what happened when Paul and other followers of Jesus joined God’s mission here, there, and everywhere. We can celebrate that because of each one’s faithfulness, humility, and obedience to Jesus and God’s unending faithfulness to all, “the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and was built up. Living in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers” (Acts 9:31, NRSV). Let’s never forget that announcing and demonstrating the good news of God’s plan to rescue, renew, and transform all of humanity and all of creation always begins with an encounter with Jesus!
In closing, I’d like to read this short poem by English poet, priest, and academic Malcolm Guite entitled “Apostle,” a sonnet for St. Paul:
An enemy whom God has made a friend,
A righteous man discounting righteousness,
Last to believe and first for God to send,
He found the fountain in the wilderness.
Thrown to the ground and raised at the same moment,
A prisoner who set his captors free,
A naked man with love his only garment,
A blinded man who helped the world to see,
A Jew who had been perfect in the law,
Blesses the flesh of every other race
And helps them see what the apostles saw;
The glory of the lord in Jesus’ face.
Strong in his weakness, joyful in his pains,
And bound by love, he freed us from our chains.
