The story of Saul, turned Paul, is one of the most
amazing transformations in the Bible.
Saul starts off a Jesus hater and persecutor of the early church, first
watching over the clothes of Saul as they drag Stephen out of Jerusalem and
stone him because he testified about Jesus as the “Son
of Man standing at the right hand of God,” identifying Jesus as the
promised Messiah and Son of God. Saul is there, “giving
approval to his death.” Luke then tells us, “Saul
began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and
women and put them in prison.” Saul then goes to the high priest to ask
for permission to go to Damascus and go after the Jesus followers and believers
there too.
Then Jesus steps in, stopping Saul on the way to
Damascus, revealing himself to Saul, claiming Saul as “his instrument to carry his name before the Gentiles and
their kings and before the people of Israel.” Jesus reveals that Saul
will suffer deeply for his name. Saul is blinded in his encounter with Jesus,
and when he arrives in Damascus, a man Ananias is sent to Saul and when he lays
hands on him, the Holy Spirit heals his physical and spiritual blindness,
showing Saul that Jesus truly is the Son of God, the Messiah.
Now we learn later in Paul’s letter to the church in
Galatia that he doesn’t hang around Damascus, instead he goes
to Arabia to study how Jesus fulfills the Old Testament, Galatians 1:17–18, “I did not go up to Jerusalem to see those
who were apostles before I was, but I went into Arabia. Later I returned to
Damascus. Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with
Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days.” Luke skips over that and gets into how Saul begins to preach in
Damascus that Jesus is the Son of God. A church is planted here and grows so
quickly that news of it reaches Jerusalem and the apostles.
When Saul tries to join the disciples, it doesn’t go well because they haven’t forgotten how
he persecuted the church. This is where Barnabas enters the story. Barnabas is
a good man, full of the Spirit, and as Luke tells us a couple of chapters
later, he had been sent to Antioch to look for Saul. Because of Barnabas’
generosity and character; he had sold a field he owned and gave all the money
to the church to help the poor, he was deeply trusted by the leaders of the
church.
Barnabas takes Saul and brings him to the apostles and tells them Saul’s story of how he met Jesus on the
road to Damascus and now preaches Jesus fearlessly, even though it placed him
in danger and the Jews there even tried to kill Saul. Barnabas sees the
potential in Saul and he puts his own reputation on the line with the leaders
of the church so that Saul has the opportunity to fulfill Jesus’ call and claim
on his life. Barnabas becomes an advocate for Saul and helps the apostles to
deal with their anxiety and fear of Saul.
Anxiety and fear can keep us from seeing how God is working in and among the faith community. Fear and
anxiety are powerful, as we’ve seen over the past few years, and each of us had
to deal with fear and anxiety, whether it was from the virus, fear of the
government, fear of losing friendships over different ways of understanding
what was happening, fear of the unknown, and much more. Many youths and
children deal with anxiety because of the conflict all around them,
especially when it happens in the church and their families, places they hope are
safe places from fear. Fear and anxiety
either cause us to retreat and become suspicious and even more fearful, or it
leads to fighting against what your fear has determined is an enemy and enemies
need to be defeated, leading to breaking of relationship and almost constant
distrust of the other. Not healthy.
We live in a time when so many live in a state of fear
and anxiety, especially many of our youth and young
adults. As our youth and young people transition into adulthood, there’s
anxiety about the future, can I find a job, can I find a spouse, how will we
support ourselves in such turbulent times, fear that we might not be able to
have a family. Then there’s all the conflict they see around them, too many families
are feeling the pressures of the past few years. Our health workers and law
enforcement workers are seeing more family violence and breakdowns, then
there’s been the conflict within the churches and if the place where they are
learning about Jesus is fighting, where do they find the joy and peace in
faith, then there’s the political world which has an increasing hold on many
people and it’s becoming more polarized and harsher and unforgiving all the
time. How do we as followers of Jesus model his love for all people, his grace
and forgiveness, and his call to go sin and no more but
embrace his call to repent and believe in ways
that bring healing and hope?
Fear and anxiety can stop us from acting, can lead us to see others who are different in “them
and us” terms which seemingly gives us permission to reject that person.
This is what is happening with Saul and the apostles, as Luke writes, “When Saul came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples,
but they were afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple,”
“him and us” thinking and acting. This is why what Barnabas does is so
powerful, he steps up for Saul and stands by him and affirming both that he is
a follower of Jesus and that Jesus is using Saul in powerful ways to reach the
Gentiles for Jesus. The church was still having a hard time accepting that
Jesus came for all people, that he went to the cross for those so different
from themselves.
How do we relate to those who have hard backgrounds and have been changed by Jesus, do we even really believe
that people can change? Do we really believe that Jesus can come into someone’s
life and completely change them? Do we give up too quickly on people, even
though we know that their only hope lies in Jesus rather than whatever they are
looking to right now? Change and transformation can take a long time. If you’ve
been going in one direction a long time, you may begin to change direction, but
in most cases, it’s going to be a long curving turn with many trips down side
roads. Change happens best when someone walks alongside you, or you walk
alongside someone else: mentoring.
We can often have a hard time seeing the change or wanting to see the change in others because we
then have to change how we see the other person and how we see Jesus and his
Spirit working in our world. It takes away all our excuses for not reaching out
with the gospel news to everyone in our lives; it means embracing more deeply
Jesus’ call to truly love our neighbours as ourselves because Jesus can change
their hearts!
Barnabas goes another step forward; he goes with Paul on his first missionary journey to
the Gentiles; bringing the good news of Jesus to the Greeks and Romans. Saul
spends a lot of time with Barnabas, being encouraged by Barnabas’ belief in
him, learning in his own life the important of having someone come alongside of
us; someone of character who shows us through their own life what it means to
be a follower of Jesus, sharing what they’ve learned. Even the greatest people
need someone to invest in them, to believe in them, to help us on the life
journey of becoming who Jesus is calling us to be, offering second chances in
life, not giving up on us. Barnabas is willing to believe in Saul even after
Saul had been so wrong and so far from Jesus.
Barnabas and Saul have a successful journey. On the second journey, Barnabas wants to take along
John Mark, but Paul doesn’t since John Mark had bailed the first time. Saul,
whose name now changes to Paul takes Silas while Barnabas takes John Mark,
giving him a second chance. Later on, Paul asks for John Mark to come to him; both
Paul and John Mark are given second chances by Barnabas because he sees the
potential in them, just like Jesus never gives up on us, giving us one opportunity
after another to come back to him; giving us his Spirit to guide us back to him.
Whose
life can you make a difference in by believing in them, by walking with
them? You may be part of Jesus’ plan to grow his kingdom in unexpected and
amazing ways. C.S Lewis wrote, “God became man to turn creatures into sons;
not simply to produce better men of the old kind but to produce a new kind of
man.” He uses us to be part of their change!
No comments:
Post a Comment