Lectionary Reflection for Easter 3C on Acts 9:1-6, (7-20)

A DISALLOWED CONVERSION

If you were asked to choose between the two apostles, Peter and Paul, which would you select? I prefer Peter. His story is raw, human, flawed, and oh so relatable. Paul, on the other hand, seems far less likeable and more distant. Peter feels like the older brother you turn to for comfort and practical guidance when you’ve really screwed something up. He’s been there, he knows how it feels, and he’s not going to preach or judge. But Paul is a little more like the priest who terrified you as a child. The one with the stern face and the pointing finger who was always quick with harsh words of correction and condemnatory Bible texts to quote at you when you stepped out of line. Perhaps this is why I’m a little relieved that the Easter Season Lectionary in Year C includes a lot of Peter’s story, and little of Paul’s.

I’ve been reflecting on these things because this week we read about Paul’s conversion. I’ve realised that the way Paul’s life and letters are often understood and applied, at least in my experience, makes it seem like Paul wasn’t really converted at all. He simply took his frown and his shaking finger with him from one belief system into another. When we first meet him, he watches approvingly as Stephen, a deacon in the young Church, is stoned (Acts 6:8-8:1). Then, as a zealous and legalistic Pharisee, he secures permission to hunt down, arrest, and imprison any followers of Jesus he can find. Then he encounters Jesus on the road to Damascus and becomes a Christ-follower. But in the way he is viewed by many Christians today, he didn’t stop being legalistic, Pharisaical, and judgmental. His words have often been found to be very effective weapons to use against women, LGBTQIA+ people, and anyone who embraces a faith that does not conform with conservative, biblicistic Evangelicalism. I wonder how Paul would feel if he could see how his teachings have been used to terrorise people in much the same way he persecuted the first Christian believers.

But what if we’ve misunderstood Paul? What if his conversion was authentic and truly transforming? What if he embraced the grace and love of Christ with a fervour that exceeded his legalistic judgmentalism? If we take a closer look at his conversion story, which is repeated three times in Acts (9:1-20; 22:3-21; and 26:2-23) and a referenced a few more times in the epistles (1 Corinthians 9:1; 15:8–10; Galatians 1:11–17; Philippians 3:2–11)^¹, we can begin to see the nature not just of Paul’s conversion, but of all transforming encounters with the Resurrected Christ throughout history and in our own lives. Three significant elements of the writer’s version in Acts 9 stand out. Firstly, Paul considered his encounter with Jesus to be a resurrection appearance on a par with those recorded in the Gospels.² Secondly, Paul was not the only one to be ‘converted’ or changed in this story. And finally, what happened to Paul and Ananias was not just about changing their minds and ideas; it was a calling into a completely different way of being.

THE DAMASCUS ROAD

The only information we have about Paul before his conversion is that he witnessed the stoning of the first Christian martyr, Stephen. The writer of Acts tells us that he watched over the executioners’ coats and approved of Stephen’s death. Then he began his zealous war against all followers of “the Way.” Amy Ogden invites us to view pre-conversion Paul with compassion, and she notes that “Saul is the classic example of the devout person who is so determined to do good that they are blinded (literally!) to the destructive consequences of their purity campaign. He does much harm as he is trying to do good.”³ You don’t have to look far to see devout people like this today, causing just as much harm in their purity campaigns as Paul did in his.

It seems that Paul didn’t manage to fulfil much of his purpose before he was interrupted by his encounter with Christ—and it is the nature of his Damascus Road experience that needs to be carefully examined. The first thing to note is that Jesus asked Paul not why he was persecuting Christians, but why he was persecuting Christ. In Matthew 25:31-46, the Son of Man in Jesus’ parable tells the sheep, “I assure you that when you have done it for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you have done it for me.” And to the goats he says, “I assure you that when you haven’t done it for one of the least of these, you haven’t done it for me.” The picture of Jesus we see in the Bible is of a messiah who identifies completely with the outcast, marginalised, vulnerable, and poor in the world. When we serve those who are rejected and threatened, we serve Christ. And when we ignore injustice against “the least of these”, we ignore Christ. As Jerusha Matsen Neal puts it, “…this Lord has enfleshed particularity, binding his name and his person in vulnerable solidarity to those harmed by abstract reductions of righteousness.”⁴

Paul’s meeting with the Risen Christ carries echoes of another ancient, transforming encounter with God: Moses’ burning bush.⁵ In both experiences, there was divine fire or light, God’s voice addressed the person using their name twice, and both men asked who the divine being they encountered was. But perhaps most significant is the fact that the appearance of God/Christ happened in response to injustice. “In both stories, the divine sees the suffering of the people and advocates on their behalf.”⁶ It wasn’t just that Christ identified with the victims of Paul’s violence. It was that Paul was being instructed to recognise God in the people he persecuted. The result of this encounter was that Paul was completely changed. It wasn’t just that he stopped persecuting followers of the Way or that he joined the new Jesus movement. It was that he became more and more welcoming, inclusive, gracious, and loving throughout his life. The harshest words in Paul’s letters are reserved for those who oppress, exclude, or force legalistic religious practices on others. Perhaps, as a result of his Damascus Road experience, Paul realised for the first time the truth that Marcus Borg points out:

God’s passionate love for those victimized by the systems of “this world” is the foundation of “the law and the prophets,” the core of the Old Testament.⁷