This morning, as is our custom, the boys and I were reading a short bit from the Bible. We’re reading through the book of Acts currently, and it’s really interesting. There are always lots of things I don’t remember, and some cool stories the boys like to hear. Paul definitely had a crazy life – always being accused of things that would start riots, being put in jail, beaten, having his life threatened. Crazy.
Well, today, we were in chapter 22, where Paul was arrested following another riot. He asked the commander who arrested him if he could speak to the crowd, and he was allowed to. He spoke of his heritage, his background, and how he was zealous for God, just as the crowd of Jews who were listening. And then he told the story of how, on his way to arrest more Christians, he was knocked to the ground by a blinding light, and heard a voice ask him, “Why are you persecuting me?” The voice was the man, Jesus, of Nazareth, and Paul was then given instructions to go ahead to Damascus, where a guy named Ananias would meet him.
All of this was obviously bewildering for Paul. He was on a mission for God. He was going to erradicate these “Followers of The Way” one at a time if he had to. But then, God met him personally, and caused a physical blindness to conceal his vision. For three days he could not see a thing, nor did he eat or drink. How could he? What an astonishing life change.
Well, Ananias reluctantly came by the place where Paul was staying (He knew this was the guy who was out putting Christians in jail, or worse! For all he know, this could have been a trap!) and when he got there, he did just as God had told him, laying his hands on Paul and restoring his vision. The account even says something like scales fell from Paul’s eyes.
But the sentence that stood out to me this morning was something Paul quoted Ananias as saying to him. Ananias said, “Saul, my friend, you can see now.” It may seem an obvious thing to say, but in the light of some recent reading and discussion I have been doing, I understood that at a different level.
For so long, Paul had been pressing and pressing to do what he knew to be right. He was relentless in his condemnation and complete anhilation of this cancerous new cult that was forming. He would not rest until these infidels were crushed. Forever.
What he did not know was, he was blind. He could not really see. What he saw as a threat, was really his very own freedom. These people were not a cancer, they were the cure. It took Jesus meeting him in person – albeit a super-bright, deified person – and actually physically blinding him for Paul to understand this.
I believe those three days he sat in darkness – humbled and broken, but given visions of hope – were a processing time for Paul. To understand where his zealousness had been completely misguided. Where he had actually been blind. It wasn’t a physical blindness, but it might as well have been. He could not see the reality of God’s kingdom, until God showed him, and through Ananias, removed his blindness.
“You can see now.”
Religious folk are often accused of blindly following some leader or antiquated book or doctrine. They must be blind to think such things. Can’t they see the evidence? Where is the evidence for what they believe? It’s just “blind faith!” And indeed, Paul was religious, and I’d agree that he was blind. But a lot of the very people who accuse “religious folks” of being blind are perhaps calling the kettle black.
I have been reading some discussions over the hot “Intelligent Design” controversies in various court rooms across the country. Some segments of our population would like schools to teach alternative theories to the well-entrenched theory of evolution. My understanding is that it would be “along side” – that there is no call whatsoever to eliminate the teaching of evolution. (Though, I am sure some ID proponents would wish such a thing.)
What has stuck me as both fascinating and even scary at the same time is the pro-evolution camp seems to be even more zealous than Paul in their quick and vigrorous defense of the Evolutionary faith. (I am obviously mocking with those words. I understand that it is not a religion, however, you can not deny that the characteristics of a religious zealot are quite present in nearly all of the supporters of evolution that make the news at least.)
I do not want to begin a debate as to which theory is more plausible, and certainly not which one is “right”. You may start your own blog if you’d like to do that. I would like to draw some comparisons however, based on my own assumptions.
There really seems to be truth to the fact that we can be very blind to God’s kingdom, until he reveals it to us. I have lived my whole life with God and around his people – but I did not understand the reality of his kingdom until my late teen years. It’s like he opened my eyes, and scales fell off. Now, I do not certainly understand everything, but I do understand the truth of the phrase, “I was blind, but now I see.” The world makes a lot more sense to me (for the most part) since my eyes have been opened to (and even, keep opening to) God’s kingdom reality.
And what I notice from people who either deliberately push God away, or who really, genuinely can’t believe in the reality Jesus lived and presented is that there is really no way for them to understand what I am saying. When I talk, it’s like they are hearing different words, or no words at all, based on the response I receive. Perhaps it works both ways as well. But, it is definitely a fascinating phenomena. And, I believe it can be found in Scripture. We can’t know or understand God’s kingdom until he opens our eyes to it. He says too that we can’t see his kingdom unless we come as little children, wide-eyed and perhaps, ready to learn.
I am not trying to prove some grand point here. Just my thoughts from a simple sentence, and an interesting discussion or two I have been involved in at Newsvine. I am certain that the words, “You can now see again!” were quite liberating to Paul – even if he didn’t know before that he needed liberation. They were for me today as well.
I hope they are for you, too.
Today is my daughter’s birthday. She’s two. I love her. 🙂