In Acts 8, we read: 3 As Saul drew near to Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?”
5“Who are You, Lord?” Saul asked.
“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” He replied…
This passage of Scripture has always given me “goosebumps.” I think about the thundering voice of the Lion of Judah coming out of the “unapproachable light” that dropped Rabbi Saul to the dirt and I am humbled and amazed.
If I were tasked with “psychoanalyzing” Saul of Tarsus with nothing but about a half dozen college courses in psychology under my belt, I would first make these observations:
He is an unmarried Jewish Rabbi
This is a curious thing for a Rabbi. Saul was educated at the “feet of Gamaliel” who we are introduced to in Acts 5 as a highly respected and reasoned voice within the Sanhedrin. His grandfather was the great Rabbi Hillel! The Sanhedrin was the religious supreme court made up of Rabbis and priests. Among the many qualifications required to serve in this capacity was to be married. Certainly Gamaliel was married. Why did his insanely ambitious “A-student” Saul not marry?
Also, what was the physical appearance of Saul? The Bible only gives us a few clues. He tells the Corinthians that he was let down in a basket outside of a city wall in order to escape a murderous mob. Was that a big basket or was Saul a very small man? He also quotes some of his detractors as saying; For some say, “His letters are weighty and forceful, but his physical presence is unimpressive, and his speaking is of no account.” 2 Cor. 10:10
And there are several non-canonical writings like “Paul and Thecla” that claim Saul was “"small in size, bald-headed, bandy-legged, well built, with eyebrows meeting; and rather long nosed."
Why would being a small man be a barrier as a learned Rabbi? Our popular fictions celebrate the idea of great power and wisdom residing inside of a small, seemingly unimpressive bodily form. Yoda from Star Wars and Master Shifu from Kung Fu Panda come to mind. But after finding a quote about qualifications for Sanhedrin members, some dots possibly connected for me.
Dr. Wilhelm Bacher and Dr. Jacob Zallel Lauterbach made this entry on the subject of the Sanhedrin in the Jewish Encyclopedia.
“R. Johanan, a Palestinian Amora of the third century, enumerates the qualifications of the members of the Sanhedrin as follows: they must be tall, of imposing appearance, and of advanced age; and they must be learned and must understand foreign languages…” Is there a connection here? Only God knows. But I think it is a fascinating possibility.
He did not meet Jesus during His earthly ministry
Where was Saul during this time? Jesus made a lot of waves. Someone as perceptive as Saul would have noticed. Also, having connections in the Sanhedrin would have given him inside information as well. Did he not “work and play well with others?” Was he sent away from Jerusalem back to Damascus? If so, why?
He is highly educated, yet knows tent making?
Why did he develop these skills? When would he have had the time? If he was the enterprising young go-getter that we can assume he was, he would have been following Rabbi Gamaliel and studying Torah full time. Jesus said that good disciples eventually become like the Rabbi they follow. Was there a disagreement with his teacher? Did a rift form? Saul’s attitude towards the growing nascent Christian church was radically different from that of his primary teacher, Rabbi Gamaliel. Gamaliel advocated tolerance towards the Christians, but one of his star pupils, Saul, was rabidly committed to violent persecution of Christians.
Saul talked to himself…about murder
Acts 9 opens telling us the Saul continued to “breathe out murderous threats” against Christians. And that toxic self-talk translated into violent plans after he asked for “arrest warrants” from the high Priest in Jerusalem to use in Damascus. Today, if I was walking through Walmart and saw a man muttering through clenched teeth about arresting, dragging people from their homes and possibly facilitating their execution for religious reasons, I would not assume he is a mentally well adjusted individual.
If I was looking at this profile, it might lead me to believe that the person in question was a high functioning paranoid narcissist with a Napoleon complex and a form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder that fixates on Religious Scrupulosity which leads to violence. In short, I would diagnose the man with this profile as in serious need of help.
Thank God, help came for Saul/Paul in the most glorious way imaginable!
The story of Paul’s conversion in Acts 9 is one of the most inspiring stories in all of the book of Acts, and in the entire Bible. It is a wonderful reminder that no one is out of God’s reach. I imagine the voice of the Lord thundering out of the heavens, knocking Paul off of his animal to the hard ground. And then, the skin on and around Paul’s tightly closed eyes crackled like frying meat in the intense heat of the glory emanating from the face of the Son of God.
“Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?”
“Who are You, Lord?” Saul asked.
“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” He replied.
“Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
In just moments of time, Paul’s life was changed forever. All the old had become new. He would never be the same again. And after being baptized in water, in the Holy Spirit, and healed of his blindness, Paul began to press forward in the opposite direction his life had been going up til that point. The murderer became the messenger. The persecutor became the preacher. The hunter became the healer. So much of the New Testament Scriptures were written by this changed man. So much of the then known world was reached with the Gospel through this man. So much of the revelation of Jesus Christ that we hang our eternity upon today flowed down to us through this one man.
Not only that, but the dramatic conversion of Saul of Tarsus stands out as exhibit A in a sort of cosmic court case proving, once and for all, that Jesus Christ transforms sinners into saints.
I believe that the devil is still angry about this.
Arthur Fredrick Ide, a radical atheist blogger wrote:
“Today, the American Psychiatric Association uses the term ‘Damascene conversion’ to refer to any abrupt change in personality, and as a personality disorder. In 1987, D. Landsborough, a psychiatrist, published an article in which he stated that Paul’s conversion experience, with the bright light, loss of normal bodily posture, a message of strong religious content, and his subsequent blindness, suggested ‘an attack of temporal lobe epilepsy, perhaps ending in a convulsion…The blindness which followed may have been postictal.’”
How utterly fascinating that the atheist psychologist diagnoses Paul the Apostle as having brain damage and psychopathy, but says nothing about the Saul of Tarsus who according to Luke;
Destroyed and wreaked havoc upon the Church.
Nodded in self righteous approval as he watched a brilliant young Christian man die during the barbaric practice of stoning.
Inhaled hatred and breathed out murderous threats.
Walked one hundred fifty miles, one way, just to try to find any Christian men or women to violently arrest and “drag” to Jerusalem to stand trial for their beliefs.
I’ll never forget the testimony of one of our Nepali pastors. He said there was a woman in their church who was a Christian but had an abusive non-Christian husband. He made her life hell with his drinking and physical abuse. She prayed earnestly that God would intervene and he would have a “road to Damascus” experience.
The Pastor told me that one night the man awoke from sleeping with the sense that someone was in the room. His wife was working and there was no one at home, but he did not feel alone. Suddenly a strong man’s hand slapped him across the face so hard that he was knocked out of bed to the ground. He frantically looked around trying to find his attacker. But then an invisible hand struck him again even harder. I am sure a thousand thoughts were rushing through his throbbing head at this time. A third time the man was slapped so hard he was reduced to a blubbering mess. Whether it was an angel or the hand of God Himself, we don’t know, but this man knew it was his time to “turn or burn.” He repented in tears, and apologized to his wife. He was born again and baptized in her church and the Pastor told me personally that the man has been completely transformed.
Paul was not the first and he will not be the last. Jesus is still in the business of transforming lives, and as we read Paul’s account in the book of Acts and how God used him for the rest of his life, we should become more confident in God’s ability to reach even the hardest hearts. So, this week, let’s pick out a particularly hard hearted person that we know personally, or even a well known celebrity that we will never meet, and let’s pray for a Road to Damascus experience for them. In fact, let’s do it now.
PRN: Gracious God, thank You for Your transforming power. Thank you for taking sinners and making them saints. Thank you for transforming us. We submit to that ongoing process. We pray for that hard hearted person that comes to mind right now. Lord Jesus…shine Your light into their eyes. Make them blind to deception and open their eyes to Your truth. And may we be like your faithful servant, Ananias, who was obedient to call a former enemy “brother” at your command and welcome him into Your Church. In the name of Jesus, amen.
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