What Happened to Saul

          In the meantime Saul kept up his violentthreats of murder against the followers of the Lord. He went to the High Priestand asked for letters of introduction to the synagogues in Damascus, so that ifhe should find there any followers of the Way of the Lord, he would be able toarrest them, both men and women, and bring them back to Jerusalem.

Inlast Sunday’s blog post, I mentioned a guy named Saul. He was born between 5 BCand 5 AD to a devout Jewish family in the area of Tarsus and was a Romancitizen by birth. He was well-educated in Jewish law but became a tentmaker bytrade.

Asbelief in Jesus as the Messiah spread through his area, Saul, along with manyother Jewish leaders, began chasing down these new believers. They harassed,arrested, and tortured the men and women who attested that Jesus Christ wastheir Savior.

Andthen something happened.

As Saul was coming near the city ofDamascus, suddenly a light from the sky flashed around him. He fell to theground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul! Why do you persecute me?”

“Who are you, Lord?” he asked.

“I am Jesus, whom you persecute,” thevoice said. “But get up and go into the city, where you will be told what youmust do.”

The men who were traveling with Saul hadstopped, not saying a word; they heard the voice but could not see anyone. Saulgot up from the ground and opened his eyes, but could not see a thing. So theytook him by the hand and led him into Damascus. For three days he was not ableto see, and during that time he did not eat or drink anything. (Acts 9:3-9, GoodNews Translation)

Ifyou are familiar with the Christian faith, there is a very good chance that youknow how this story ends. But let’s stop here for a minute and pretend we areviewing this cliffhanger for the first time.

Whatwould be going through your mind if you were Saul and were suddenly blinded? Ifa voice without a body was speaking to you, asking you what you were doing andwhy you were doing it? If the voice answered that He was the One who Hisfollowers believed in? And you remained blind and didn’t eat or drink for threedays? What would you believe?   

(The picture above is from my third trip to Kenya, in 2015. Maybe the road to Damascus looked a little bit like that.)