Read Acts 9:1-9, Luke 15 (extracts!) & Hosea 2:16
1 Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. 3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” 5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” 7 The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. 8 Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. 9 For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.
1 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” 3 Then Jesus told them this parable… 11 … “There was a man who had two sons… 25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ 28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ 31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”
16 “In that day,” declares the LORD, “you will call me ‘my husband’; you will no longer call me ‘my master.’
We are so familiar with Paul the maverick missionary, legendary letter writer and all-round faithful follower that it is easy to overlook the dark place that he came from. There is, however, something quite sinister about Luke’s opening phrase: “Saul…still breathing out murderous threats…” It is, I think, the imagery of breathing that stands out to me the most. It implies such a vast cesspool of bitterness and anger that the inevitable expiration can be nothing but hate.
How had he got there? We have to speculate somewhat but we do get some clues. You see Saul, we learn later, was a Pharisee and to us post-Jesus people we all know Pharisee’s weren’t great? Right?!
They were Jesus’ chief antagonists.
The ones he referred to as “unmarked graves,” “whitewashed tombs,” “blind fools”…
Those who tie heavy burdens onto others and lift not a finger to help them.
However, in Jesus’ day, the Pharisees were seen as the devout ones, the radical ones, those who tried the hardest to get it right.
So what was Jesus’ problem?
Well, the problem was that the Pharisees (at least those Jesus’ charges were directed against anyway) had become so preoccupied with getting it right, that they’d lost sight of God. In other words, they were so consumed with ticking all the right boxes of religious devotion that they had lost sight of the one it was meant to be for. Religion had become an idol to them. They had started to believe that God had to play by their rules. They had become the older brother in Jesus’ poignant parable: not reckless but still rebellious; the one claiming obedience whilst, ironically, disobeying his father’s desire that he come inside.
Thus I am encouraged by Saul’s testimony. You see, we are fairly familiar with stories of reckless people being restored. There’s Zacchaeus, the deceitful tax collector who ends up giving his money to the poor. There’s Mary Magdalene, possessed seven times over before becoming one of Jesus’ most courageous companions. There are the unidentified “sinners” who flock to Jesus and, we can imagine, have their lives turned around. But amongst the “religious” it seems a different story. Jesus’ harshest words seem reserved just for them. Where are the Pharisees who give up everything to follow Christ (okay, there is Nicodemus!)? Will that elder brother ever come inside?
Well, Saul was a Pharisee and Saul did come inside!
This is of great comfort and encouragement to us. For inside all of our hearts there is a younger son (a “sinner”) who rebels against God recklessly, outwardly, explicitly, deliberately. However, in most of us too – certainly in my heart – there is also an elder son (a “Pharisee”). A son who rebels against God more subtly. A son more concerned with outward compliance than internal love. A resentful son who sees others getting the things they want – the things they feel their goodness has deserved – and feels angry, aggrieved, overlooked. An elder son so blinded by self-righteousness that they cannot see that they too, like their younger sibling, desire their father’s gifts far more than the father himself. It is a different form of idolatry, but idolatry nevertheless.
And yet the father runs out to both his sons, just as Jesus reaches out to “sinner” and “Pharisee” alike. In the case of Saul the Pharisee, we see just how powerful a transformation God’s grace can bring.
What do we need to escape the shackles of our particular brand of lostness, whether it be younger-brother or elder-brother? How can the inner dynamic of the heart be changed from one of fear and anger to one of joy, love and gratitude[1]...We can only change permanently as we take the gospel more deeply in our understanding and into our hearts. We must feed on the gospel, as it were, digesting it and making it part of ourselves. That is how we grow.[2]
If you have a bit longer :-)
- Read the full parable of the prodigal son (in Luke 15). Which son do you identify with the most? Why? What might your response be?
- Why do you think Saul so aggressively persecuted the early church? Is there anything we can learn from this?
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