“FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT”
Acts 9:1-22. Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. As he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” So he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” Then the Lord said to him, “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” And the men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice but seeing no one. Then Saul arose from the ground, and when his eyes were opened, he saw no one. But they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank. Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias; and to him the Lord said in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” So the Lord said to him, “Arise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he is praying. And in a vision, he has seen a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him, so that he might receive his sight.” Then Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name.” But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.” And Ananias went his way and entered the house; and laying his hands on him, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Immediately, there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once; and he arose and was baptized. So when he had received food, he was strengthened. Then Saul spent some days with the disciples at Damascus. Immediately, he preached Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God. Then all who heard were amazed, and said, “Is this not he who destroyed those who called on this name in Jerusalem, and has come here for that purpose, so that he might bring them bound to the chief priests?” But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus, proving that this Jesus is the Christ.
Lord, this is Your Word, and these are Your words. Sanctify us by the truth. Your Word is truth. Lord, You are the Light of the minds that know You, the joy of the hearts that love You, and the strength of the wills that serve You. Grant us so to know You that we may truly love You, and so to love You that we may freely serve You, for to serve You is perfect freedom. Amen. (St. Augustine)
Dear people loved by God in Christ, who also turns our darkness into light: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God the Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
The conversion of Paul is one of the greatest things to happen in history. Before his conversion, the good news about Jesus was mostly confined to the people of Israel; only a handful of non-Jews, Gentiles, were told. But this man Saul of Tarsus, who became Paul, was specifically sent to preach Jesus, to bring the true faith, to the Gentiles – people of other nationalities.
The reason this is one of the greatest events in history, is that it’s from this point that salvation goes around the world, eventually to wherever your ancestors were, when they first became Christians, and handed down the faith generation by generation, and as they came to America, it means that Paul’s conversion is the original source for why your parents brought you to be baptized, why you believe in Jesus and have salvation.
We heard the ascended Christ say this to Ananias about Saul of Tarsus, that “he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles …” When Paul retells the story of his conversion, he says that Jesus told him on the road to Damascus, “I now send you to the Gentiles” (Ac 26:17).
This was always the Lord’s plan. In the Old Testament it’s there even in God’s first words to Abraham, that “all people” would be blessed through him – through his descendant, the Christ. During Jesus’ ministry, although there were some Gentiles who believed in Him, the time for the Gospel to go forward to the Gentiles was not yet: Jesus said: “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But at His ascension, Jesus told the apostles they would be His witnesses “to the end of the earth.”
But those apostles didn’t yet include Paul. At that stage he was Saul, a Pharisee who sponsored the stoning of Stephen, who was “breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord [Jesus].”
St. Paul said that what he did in these days was to get Christians to speak the name of Jesus so he could arrest them, bring them to the high priest, and cast a vote for their death sentence. In Philippians 3, he recalls that this came from a desire to be faithful to God and His Law. He equated being zealous for God with persecuting the church. On the Damascus road, he was sure he was in the right, on God’s side, the side of light and truth.
But he was actually in the dark, refusing to believe in Jesus as the Son of God, the promised Lamb of God, and Savior of the world. This is what we see when the light shines all around him, all of a sudden, and he is struck blind. Where did the light come from? He found out when he heard a voice saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”
Who caused the light? Jesus did. Jesus spoke to him. He then said to Saul, “I am Jesus,” the name Saul up to now hated, but then Saul said: “What do you want me to do, Lord?” He called Jesus “Lord.” This is a miracle! What did St. Paul later write in one of his epistles? “No one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.” What was Jesus doing with the light and with His words? Sending the Holy Spirit to Paul to do this work of changing his heart, converting him, and giving him faith in Jesus.
We even hear the Lord say to Ananias concerning Saul, “Behold, he is praying,” as proof of his new faith, that it’s real. The Holy Spirit did all this for Paul by means of Jesus’ words. Then he was baptized; in Paul’s retelling of this in Acts 22, we learn that Ananias said to him, “Arise and be baptized and wash your sins away.” Paul had all his sins washed away in baptism.
You can imagine how Paul would struggle to believe he could possibly be forgiven of these sins, bringing Christian men and women to be put to death, and how he could be worthy to preach the gospel to others. But then you could also ask how someone filled with such hatred and opposition to Jesus and to faith in Him, such a stubborn heart, could have his heart so changed, not by his own doing but only by the power of Jesus’ word?
This is the good news for us today. Don’t we struggle with this too? You know what your own sinful heart is like, how stubborn you can be in going your own way. Also, you too struggle to feel worthy: you wonder how the sinful things you’ve done and thought can really be forgiven and erased.
The good news is that what Jesus did for St. Paul, He does for you. What Jesus did on the Damascus road, He does whatever road you’re on.
The first thing He has to do, like with Paul, is to show you the darkness in which you exist. This is what He was doing when the light shone around Saul of Tarsus and he was struck blind: showing him that in his opposition to Jesus he was in the darkness of unbelief. He had the best education and was bright intellectually, but Jesus revealed that he wasn’t enlightened as he thought he was, but instead was really in the dark, even blind. St. Paul writes later about those “whose minds the god of this age has blinded, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ should shine on them” (2Cor 4:4).
So also the Law of God, the Ten Commandments, reveal to you that you trust your own wisdom, trusting in your own goodness. Isn’t this why you often find yourself in the darkness of sadness or grief, or of fear and worry, the darkness of envy and harboring resentment, the darkness of what the future holds, the darkness of guilt or shame, and why you get provoked into anger and judgment at what others do, which is its own darkness?
But this is just the first part. Once the Law does its work and we see our blindness, then Jesus is able to do His real work: to save and comfort.
Jesus speaks to you as He spoke to Paul. He says: “I am Jesus,” to you! Not only that, He says: “I am your Jesus, I am Jesus – “He who saves” – for you.” He shows you in His Word how He came onto your road. He took all your sins to be His own, and He paid for them and shed His blood for them. As St. Paul wrote, “He died for all.” There is no sin so bad that it’s not forgiven. There aren’t too many sins to be forgiven. There are no sinners of any nationality, regardless of their history or their present, who are not included. This is the Gospel. It’s the true light that shines on you.
This happens when the risen Jesus appears to you, which He does. Just like He spoke directly to St. Paul, He speaks directly to you in His Word and He comes into you in the Lord’s Supper. Just like with Paul, this changes you. You’ll have to just believe that it does, for this is His promise.
His Word changes your heart, gives you a soft tender heart, to listen like a child and trust Him. He loves you into loving Him. He opens your eyes to see your Savior. He shines in your heart, in fact shines all around you. Jesus turns you from darkness – whatever that darkness is – to light, His light. He turns your darkness into the light of His forgiveness. This is the best road to be on, where He shines on you.
Amen!