Acts 9. 1-6 [7-20]
Christ suffered for us so that we, too, might suffer for others!
Just a quick calculation. Without going into too much detail. I figure I’ve read this passage from Acts a dozen times over my time as a pastor. Of course, I read it before that. At Bible studies. Seminary. Confirmation. Bible school. Sunday school. It’s the perfect story to entertain. To amuse. Saul breathing threats and murder against the church. Chasing down renegades and turncoats. Doing his best, trying his hardest, to keep his religion holy and pure. Then, while on the way to Damascus, a lightning bolt knocks him to the ground. Blinds him. He hears a voice. “Saul, Saul, why?” He asks a question of his own. “Who are you?” And the voice answers, “Jesus! I’m Jesus.”
Of course, it’s perfect for after Easter. Perfect for the post-Resurrection. Easter morning, it was the women, at early down. Last week, it was Thomas, with the others, in the house. And today, its Saul. Soon to be Paul. On the Damascus Road. And frankly, it’s everything we could hope for. Supernatural. Otherworldly. Larger than life. We’ve heard it before. We know the story by heart. Or, at least, I thought I did. But this time through, I’d swear there was a verse that wasn’t there, before. One that had to have been added, this year.
It’s in the second half of the passage. The part about Ananias. Jesus has already spoken to Saul. Now he appears to a disciple in Damascus. Ananias. “Get up,” he says. “Get us and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Paul. Lay your hands on him. Heal him.” Ananias said, “Lord, you gotta be kidding!” Jesus said, “No. Seriously. I’ve chosen him to bring my name before the Gentiles!” And then, there was the verse I couldn’t remember having read before. Acts. Chapter nine. Verse sixteen.
I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name!
I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name!
And for the past week or two, I’ve been thinking about those words. Mulling them over. Chewing on them. Pondering them, as Luke might say. Pondering them in my heart. And today, I have to tell you, I wonder how I ever missed them, to begin with. They’re the key to understanding not just this passage. But to understanding the message and the mission of Paul himself! “I myself,” Jesus says, “will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name!“ You see, Paul – Saul – isn’t, simply, the apostle to the gentiles. But more than any other, he’s the apostle of the cross! He’s the apostle of Christ! Of Christ crucified!
“For the message about the cross
is foolishness to those who are perishing,
but to us who are being saved it is God’s power!”
“Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel,
and not with eloquent wisdom,
so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power!”
“I decided to know nothing among you
except Jesus Christ, and him crucified!”
A couple weeks ago, on goodFriday, I commented that it’s goodFriday – good Friday, not easter – that inspires us! That it’s goodFriday that has the assurance! GoodFriday that has the conviction! It’s the cross – not the resurrection – that anchors us, roots us, in Christ! I learned that from Paul! It’s the cross – Christ and Christ crucified – that sets Paul apart from the rest! It’s the cross – Christ and Christ crucified – that makes him different! It’s the cross that sets him free! Free from the assumptions that drove him as Saul! Free from the expectations that pushed him! Pushed him to go above! Beyond! It’s the cross – Christ and Christ crucified – that gave him the chance, the opportunity, to be who, what, he was! That cross became his gospel! That cross became his goodNews! And that goodNews became his calling! In the mercy of almighty God, Jesus Christ was given to die! That’s Paul! Jesus given not to rise. Not to ascend. Not to sit at god’s right hand. Not, even, to come to judge. But to die!
“But the Lord said to him, ‘Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; I myself will show him how much he must suffer ….’” Suffer for me! Suffer for them! Show him by showing how much I’ve suffered for him! My hands! My feet! My side! My wounds! My scars! And Paul says, “May I never boast of anything less! May I never boast of anything else! Only the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ!”
Paul wasn’t, simply, an apostle to the gentiles. He was – he is – the apostle of the cross! It’s the cross that inspired him to say what he said! The cross that moved him to do what he did! He was shaped by what he suffered for Christ. But even more so, he was shaped by what Christ suffered for him! By what Christ suffered for us all! And Paul understood that better than most!
It’s not the sun that’s the center of our universe! It’s Golgotha! GoodFriday! The cross! And to think, for all those years, I never heard it! For all those years, I never saw it! “I myself,” says Jesus, “will show him how much he must suffer!” Then, again, Jesus shows us what we must suffer, as well.
We’re not here because of the story’s end. We’re here because of the middle! We’re here because of the last heartbeat. Because of the last breath. Because of the last triumphant cry! It is done! It’s been completed! It’s been finished!
For Paul – and for us – believing is the sacrifice! For Paul – and for us – believing is suffering! For Paul – and for us – believing is the love! The being loved and the loving! No one has greater love than this! No human! No god! “I myself will show him,” says Jesus! “I myself will show them all!”