Acts 9:4 And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying
to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”
We read in the end of chapter 7 and the beginning of 8 about
how Saul was happy with the death of Stephen and how he started to persecute
the church. We look at him as a villain but we can read that he was a young man
and had learned the Torah from Gamaliel. He was faithful to what he had
understood and what he had learnt. Paul was in fact very happy that he was
serving Yahweh and so he proceeded further to Damascus (around 350 km) from
Jerusalem to bind men and women who were of this Way.
But when we read the emotion in “Saul, Saul, why are you
persecuting me?” we can see a similar phrase in “Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani”
where Jesus was actually forsaken by God the father because of the sin Jesus
was carrying. A similar pain Jesus receives when the church, his body was
persecuted. We need to remember that Jesus did not complain once during his
suffering on and before the cross. But here when the church is offended, Jesus
comes to defense. This is the importance of the Church to Christ and us. We
need to honor this body of our Lord. Even when Jesus had allowed Saul to
destroy the church in Jerusalem because of its immovability from Jerusalem,
Just before Saul could make one step in Damascus, Jesus had spoken with Saul so
that this church would not be hurt in anyway by Saul. We also have to
understand that it is His church and we have to honor it. Christ will do the
protection.
Jesus calls names twice in four occurrences: with Martha in
Luke 10:41, Peter in Luke 22:31, God the Father in Mathew 27:46 and here in Acts
9:4. All these four instances mention how Surprised Jesus was at the other
person’s actions. He could not understand how Martha could ignore the word from
God to please God. He was worried that Peter would obey the devil and deny
Christ. Similarly, Paul’s persecution was not expected by Jesus and that’s why
He asks “why?” Even though Paul was trying to please God with the knowledge he
had, Jesus received that as persecution. We can try to please God with our
knowledge but still can hurt Him.
Salvation from this situation comes when light comes to
our life. Here God, instead of the metaphor uses the object light itself in
Paul’s way so that Paul sees the glory of Christ. That’s why Jesus says “I am
Jesus, whom you are persecuting”. When this Light (Jesus) has come into Paul’s
life, he starts seeing things differently about Jesus. As in John 3:19-21, we
have to come into this light so that we clearly see us comparing with the glory
of Jesus. This presence of Jesus in our life changes our attitude, ambition and
pursuits and we progress towards glory. We should allow this light to come into
our life.
The first instruction Jesus gives Paul is to “Arise”. We
read the same phrase given to Ananias in Acts 9:11. We have to rise from this
situation we are in and obey God so that He will work in our life. But if we do
not rise and stay put, Christ cannot come into our lives and cleanse us. This
is unfortunately required for ministers too. They have the tendency to stay in
their homes. Unless men of God rise, there is no revival.
We read the phrase “It is hard for you to kick against
the goads” in verse 5. Here, Jesus mentions that He has already placed the yoke
on Paul’s shoulders but he is kicking the goad causing pain to himself and his
progress. This should be compared with Peter’s call where Jesus already had
planned his future in “Come, I will make you fishers of men” in Mathew 4:19. We
never understand that Jesus has already planned our future and placed
responsibilities and at many times suffering on our shoulders to glorify us in
the end. We read this sentence in Acts 9:16 when God speaks to Ananias. In
Mathew 24:6, Jesus Himself says that the persecution must happen so that the
kingdom of God would come. We should pray
for the government so that we would live a peaceful and quiet life, godly and
dignified in every way 1 Tim 2:1,2. We should not pray that these sufferings
should not happen at all. We are like a woman that’s waiting for her child’s
birth and should not pray to escape labor pain.
Let us try harder to come to Christ, the light so that
this transformation happens in our life. When we pass through the light, we
actually start God’s will in our life.
Amen.
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