Before he had that life-transforming encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, Paul was a fierce persecutor of those who followed Jesus. Paul, one could say, had a real problem with Jesus. What, exactly, was it about Jesus that bothered Paul so much?
He was born in the Greek city of Tarsus, a prosperous city that was a center of learning and philosophy. His father was a Roman citizen, due to either wealth or some meritorious service he had performed for the Romans. When Paul was born, he inherited that Roman citizenship.
The name Paul is a Roman name. However, that’s not the name his parents gave him. They gave him the Hebrew name Saul, naming him after King Saul, who, like them, was of the tribe of Benjamin. Even though Paul grew up in a Greek city as a Roman citizen, he was raised in the Hebrew faith. In fact, his father was a Pharisee, one of the strictest adherents to the Hebrew faith, and Paul himself would also become a Pharisee.
The Pharisees were but one of a number of different parties within Judaism. All of these parties were, more or less, reactions to the kingdom of Rome, which was the dominant, controlling power, having taken the place of the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah. None of these parties liked the kingdom of Rome. They viewed it as oppressive, and they longed for the day when God’s kingdom could be re-established in Israel.
One of these parties was the Zealots. The Zealots were a group that wanted to launch a revolution by force. It is possible that Peter, the disciple who once cut off the ear of a Roman soldier, was a Zealot.
The Zealots knew that the odds were against them. Rome was a giant superpower, heavily armed, and they were but a ragtag group of rebels. Nevertheless, they believed that if God could give David victory over Goliath, then perhaps God would also give the Zealots victory over Rome.
Other groups – the Herodians and the Sadducees – believed that rebellion was suicide. They had, in fact, seen rebellion after rebellion crushed by the Romans, with devastating results. They insisted that it was better to conform, to go along with the Romans, play their game.
I would have expected Paul’s family, with their status as Roman citizens, to fall into this category, rather than align themselves with the Pharisees.
Another group, the Essenes, believed that the best course of action was to create a new society away from Roman influence; and the only place they could do that was out in the desert, far from the hustle and bustle of the towns and cities. So they established communities among the cliffs and caves in areas around the Dead Sea.
And then, there were the Pharisees. The Pharisees did not advocate a violent overthrow of Rome, like the Zealots; the Pharisees did not acquiesce to Roman ways like the conforming Herodians and Sadducees; and the Pharisees refused to abandon their homes and their cities, like the Essenes. Instead, the Pharisees believed that it was more important than ever, in the face of Roman occupation, to recommit oneself to the ancient faith, to uphold and defend the Jewish Law, temple, and traditions. And in defending the Law, temple, and traditions, the Pharisees emphasized purity, righteousness, and strict adherence to holy codes of conduct, believing that God would respond to their purity and righteousness by sending the Messiah, who would end Roman domination and reestablish God’s kingdom, the kingdom of David.
And so, like all Pharisees, Paul believed in the importance of the Law, the temple, and the traditions of the faith.
I mention all this, because I think it helps us understand why Paul was so adamantly opposed to the followers of Jesus; why he dedicated his work to persecuting them, imprisoning them, and even seeking to have them killed.
Jesus, as far as we can tell, did not align himself with any of these parties. At one point, he openly admired the faith of the Pharisees, insisting that his followers must be even more righteous than the Pharisees. Of course, this comment bordered on hyperbole; no one is more righteous than the Pharisees!
But Jesus did other things that the Pharisees did not. He had a different view of things like ritual cleanliness and observance of the Sabbath; he frequently associated with people the Pharisees would not, people who were unholy and unrighteous, like tax collectors and prostitutes; and he ventured to places the Pharisees dare not go, places where lepers lived, places where demons dwelled … even to the land of the Samaritans.
Jesus’ followers continued his ministry, proclaiming the good news of God’s kingdom to all sorts of people in all sorts of places: Jews and gentiles, circumcised and uncircumcised, slaves and rulers. For the most part, they stayed away from the temple, apparently believing that God was just as present outside the temple gates as he was inside.
For Pharisees like Paul, who valued the Law, the temple, and the traditions, this Jesus-movement seemed like one great big free-for-all. It incorporated all sorts of unholy and unrighteous characters, which of course meant that Jesus himself could not have been the Messiah. Jesus himself often compared the kingdom of God to a banquet or a party where, as Brian McLaren has pointed out, “even the most notorious outcasts and sinners were welcome.” And look where it got him! Humiliation, and death by crucifixion. Surely God would not allow such a thing to happen to the Messiah!
Nevertheless, after Jesus was crucified, a great number of his followers began preaching that he was, in fact, the Messiah. One Jesus-follower, whose name was Stephen, got into a debate with some leaders of the synagogue and temple. Debates between the various parties were common, just as debates between political parties are today. However, these leaders accused Stephen of blasphemy. They accused him of saying things against the Law, the temple, and the traditions of the faith.
They brought him to trial and insisted that he defend himself. Following ancient tradition, Stephen began his speech to the council by reciting the history of his people, pointing out their many rebellions against God. But then he boldly declared that God does not dwell in the temple; and he accused the religious leaders of continuing the pattern of their ancestors, who persecuted and condemned God’s prophets.
Well. When they heard these things, the leaders became enraged with Stephen. They dragged him out of the city and stoned him to death; and, using his Hebrew name, scripture says that Saul approved of their killing him.
In fact, Paul became a chief persecutor, one of the most feared men among the Jesus-followers. He saw their movement and their message as a threat to the temple he loved. Their willingness to accept anyone, their message that God can be worshiped outside the temple, and their belief that even those who do not have the law, the ancient teachings and traditions, can worship God were, Paul believed, a vicious attack on the faith he cherished.
But then, with papers giving him permission to arrest Jesus-followers in his hand, Paul saw the light. What exactly happened on that road to Damascus is hard to say. How Jesus actually appeared to Paul is difficult to determine. The incident is mentioned four different times in scripture, and there is some inconsistency in the accounts of what really happened.
In one account, it says that those who were with Paul saw the light but heard nothing. Here in Acts 9, it says that they heard the voice, but didn’t see anything. When Paul later writes about it in his own words, all he says is that God was pleased to reveal his son to him, and I suppose it’s possible that such a revelation could take place entirely within one’s mind.
Nevertheless, it was a dramatic revelation. Perhaps Paul said so little about it because he found it hard to explain. Some of you have had encounters with God that you have found hard to explain, so you know what I’m talking about.
But whatever it was that happened out there on that road, it changed Paul forever. It opened his eyes to the truth of what the Jesus-followers were saying. It made him realize that he was denying the truth of his own tradition, which repeatedly emphasized the importance of showing hospitality to foreigners, reaching out to outcasts, and encountering God in the world – even in the lives of strangers.
Paul’s faith was not wrong; his efforts as a Pharisee to strive to be holy were not wrong. But his effort to close the doors to those he considered unrighteous and unholy was wrong. That’s what Jesus showed Paul. Instead of separating oneself from all that is unholy in the world, and instead of seeking to destroy all that is unholy, the way of Jesus is to become one with all that is unholy, to embrace all those who have been told they are unrighteous, to welcome them and love them so that, through you, God might bring about their transformation. Christ is present in them, just as he is in everyone, working among them to take their broken lives and make them whole.
A number of years later, Paul wrote a lengthy letter to some Jesus-followers in Rome. You see, there had been some debates. As the Jesus-movement grew and evolved, those debates centered on whether or not Gentiles needed to become Jews in order to be followers of Jesus, the Jewish messiah; whether or not they needed to become holy like the Jews, following the Law, worshiping at the temple, and adhering to all the Jewish traditions.
Paul said: “Look: I’m a Pharisee. I’m proud to be a Pharisee. And I know the value of the Law, the temple, and the traditions of our faith.
“But this Jesus-movement is bigger than that. Yes, it is much bigger. There is room for both Jews and non-Jews.
“You Jews who think you are holier: you’re not. All have sinned. All have fallen short of what God desires. Be thankful for your law, your temple, and your traditions, but don’t think you are better than others because of them, and don’t use them to exclude others.
“You Gentiles: yes, there is room for you. You are welcome at Christ’s table just as you are. You do not need to become something you are not in order to follow Jesus.
“The kingdom of God is big enough for all people. It is bigger than any nation, even Rome. It is bigger than any religion, even Judaism. It is bigger than any class or race or party. So welcome one another, just as Christ has welcomed you.”
That’s a message we still need to hear today; and for some, embracing that message may require a transformation as great as the one that took place on the Damascus road. Because only when we experience a similar transformation, a similar rebirth, will we understand that the kingdom is bigger than any party… bigger than any race… bigger than any nation… bigger than any denomination… bigger than any religion.
The kingdom begins at our doorsteps, but it extends all the way to the ends of the earth. It is a kingdom where no one is excluded because there is no oppression. It is a kingdom where no one is made to be someone they’re not, because there is freedom. It is a kingdom where even the outcast is welcome, because there is justice.
The walls that divide have crumbled. The curtain that separates the holy from the unholy has been torn apart. All people, all of creation, is holy, because how can anything created by God not be holy?
In between the story of Stephen and the story of Paul’s encounter with Jesus, there is a story about an Ethiopian eunuch. Is there room in the kingdom for a black, sexually-different royal officer from Africa? Scripture’s answer is yes.
Right after the story of Paul’s encounter with Jesus, there is a story about a Roman officer, a centurion, from Italy. Is there room in the kingdom for an unclean gentile such as this? Scripture’s answer is yes.
So surely, surely, there is room in the kingdom for you, no matter who you are. Room at the table of the Lord. Room among all those who dwell in the love of God. Room among all those who, as imperfect as they are, have been called by God to make the kingdom come on earth, today, as it is in heaven.
You don’t have to be holy to come into God’s presence. Come just as you are, and God will make you holy. God will transform your life, and make you whole.
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