Out Our Way: And then there was Paul

"When you have eliminated all other possibilities, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."   

Sherlock Holmes

Out our way, we are taking a journey through the Book of Acts and have come to the ninth chapter when Saul, the great enemy of the church tumbled off his horse and found himself face down in the dirt. As one whom Goliath has often treated to that rare experience of being airborne for the briefest of moments prior to making a one-point landing on his head, I can understand Saul's sense of being somewhat dazed and mystified by the experience. In my case I got off with sore muscles, a few bruises and some cactus in the britches. Saul's experience, however, was life-changing.

Indeed, it was world changing for although Saul was blind for three days after the incident, he saw clearly for the first time in his life. Saul became Paul - transformed from the Church's greatest enemy into its greatest champion and the primary instrument of God to bring the gospel to all nations.

Now why would God choose Saul? Well, there are several reasons that come to mind.  First, Saul was a brilliant scholar.  He had come to Jerusalem to study under Gamaliel, one of Israel's greatest rabbis. Only the most brilliant and zealous students were accepted to study under this holy and honored man. As his student, all Jews held Saul in high esteem as a master of theology, a scholar of the Torah (Law) and an unquestioned man of God. Even his greatest enemies could not stand up in debate to such an intellect - and his reasoning and scholarship was proven faultless time and time again wherever he went.

A second reason why God chose Saul is that Saul was born in the city of Tarsus in what today we would call modern Turkey. Years before the people of Tarsus had been of such great aid to Rome that the Imperial Senate had decreed that every man born in that city would automatically be accorded citizenship as a Roman, regardless of his race, culture or ethnic background. Under Roman law, citizens were treated differently from the rest of humanity within the Roman Empire.  They were accorded a different legal status and had privileges denied all other peoples. As a Roman citizen, even the Roman governors and Imperial magistrates had to treat Saul with respect and allow him greater rights than most other people enjoyed. He did not need permission to travel the Empire and even in prison he was under the protection of Caesar.

Along with all this, Saul was raised in a cosmopolitan culture, for Tarsus was an international city filled with people from all nations and backgrounds. This Saul was familiar with many different cultures, customs and languages as he began to travel the world with the Gospel message.

But above all else, GOD CHOSE HIM. Though many would scratch their heads and wonder at Saul's conversion, they could not deny it, nor the energy, brilliance and zeal with which Saul became Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles.  Largely under Paul's leadership, the church expanded across Asia into Europe and then on across the face of the earth.

Over the years, especially in the last century, many skeptics have attempted to attack Christianity by denying the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Even fictional books like ­"The DaVinci Code," making use of some of these attempts to discredit the faith to come up with alternatives to the resurrection, have to change or ignore historical facts and even falsify scholarship to make their theories work.  Because the witness to the Risen Christ made by the early church stands as the foundation of the faith, they have to somehow deny it.

I recall some folks claiming Jesus' resurrection was merely a hallucination by the disciples ... or that the resurrection was merely symbolic language to refer to the philosophy of Christ continuing on after his death.  Every year someone comes up with another theory or explanation of the Easter event that would explain it in nonsupernatural terms. But then they run into Saul/Paul.

If the disciples and the crowds in Jerusalem who claimed to be eye-witnesses to the Risen Christ were deluded by mass hypnosis or victims of an incredible public hallucination back there three days after Jesus was crucified ... how do we explain Paul and the Damascus road incident so much later? Saul hated Jesus and the church. His whole focus was on stamping it out, yet three days later after the event, he was completely transformed for the rest of his life. He suffered hunger, thirst, danger, shipwrecks, rejection by his own friends and former allies, hatred, floggings, numerous attempts on his life, stoning, and imprisonment. Eventually he was beheaded for his refusal to give up his faith in the Risen Christ.

How do we explain away Saul becoming Paul unless what he claimed for the rest of his life and for which he suffered and died was actually true?

In this season of Lent as we approach the celebration of the Resurrection, which formed the foundation of the disciples' and Paul's faith, we have to address the question of the Empty Tomb.  Even nonbelievers cannot deny it is the turning point in human history that has impacted the entire world.

Why did Saul fall off his horse on the road to Damascus? Gopher hole? Loose cinch? Or the Risen Christ? Think about it.

(John Bruington and Goliath can be reached at [email protected].)