I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the conversion story of Saul/Paul. It’s really a fascinating picture of transformation. Here’s this guy who is uber-religious! I often think we see Saul, pre-conversion, as this hateful, vindictive, bad-guy, who’s soul purpose was to destroy the faith. The reality is that Saul was a God-Loving, passionate worshipper who was convinced that people were falling away and leaving the God who loved them. He felt it was his duty to go-after these who were terrorizing the faith he loved. I obviously don’t think his tactics were cool, but He wasn’t evil – he was convinced of his “right-ness” and he was hell-bent on protecting God.
So Saul goes off to arrest some of these “wrong” folks and bring them back for purging. On the way, Saul gets quite an awakening! God knocks him off his donkey and on to his hind-quarters. Jesus speaks to Saul and tells him that he’s gotta wake up and see what’s really going on. Saul was blinded by God but in reality this physical blindness was the tool to reveal Saul’s true blindness. For 4 days, Saul laid in bed. He wrestled with what had happened, with his encounter, with the voice, with his “right-ness”.
Meanwhile, the real hero of this story comes into play. There’s this follower named Ananias who gets a Prayer-mail come his way.
“Dear Anny, I really love your devotion and worship of me. Because of your heart, I have a very important job for you. A couple blocks away, there is a man who has had a vision that you are going to come to him and introduce him to ME. He’s someone that I’m going to use mightily to reach sections of this world with my message and the hope you now live in. So, get up, go over and lay hands on him that he may regain his full sight.”
Love ya tons,
Jesus
“ps. in case you were wondering, the man’s name is Saul and he’s kinda a big deal right now. He’s they guy who came to arrest you, but it’s cool. I’ve talked with him and it’ll be okay, just go and you’ll see too.”
Now as much as we think that Saul is this villain prior to his conversion, I also think that we woefully neglect the courage of Anny. This guy was a whole-hearted follower of Jesus and his prayer life shows it. Not only did he hear the voice of Jesus speak to him, but he wasn’t startled by it or freaked out in any way – it was a familiar voice to Ananias, he knew who was speaking to him. He wanted to make sure he hadn’t lost it completely! I mean who would want to go and visit the guy sent to arrest and potential kill you? Not this guy here!
But Anny goes and he prays with Saul and he baptizes Saul and he restores Saul to physical health and he introduces this zealous defender of “rightn-ness” to the other followers of the Way. Ananias disciples Saul! Saul, the man who would lead the church’s push to welcome all and to experience the freedom of Christ and to worry about Righteousness instead of right-ness, was lead and nurtured by a guy named Ananias who chose to follow the passion of Jesus.
This past week, our Senior Pastor, George Strunk, came and shared some amazing things with the Antioch community. He talked about what it meant to follow Christ and what it meant to take up the moniker of Christian. “Love God and love the things that God Loves!” George finished his time with us sharing that this Love of God and the love of the things that God loves, leads us to a place of Passion. Passion get’s a bad rap, kinda like pre-converted Saul. It’s often thought of as energy and often has this idea of being uncontrolled or at worst reckless. That’s far from the Passion that George was speaking about – it’s more a passion that invited a quiet nobody to take God seriously and visit a terrorist and pray for him to be restored to full health! Passion isn’t just energy – it’s where truth meets reality, it’s where the overwhelming truth of what’s been shared and done for me, invites me to LOVE even more and with even more purpose.
What I love about the story of Saul and Anny is that this passionate person like Saul was invited to see what passion was really all about. And Ananias was also invited to see that God’s passion is relentless and it has no stop. Saul was changed from a passionate defender of the Right to a passionate lover of God’s righteousness living in him and in the church. And Anny? He was invited to be a part of the beginning, to disciple and to show up.
I pray that this becomes our passion! May we be aware that God in Jesus Christ is inviting us to have our eyes opened. I pray that we might know the voice of our master as he invites us to share that Love that drove a nobody to share Jesus with a terrorist. I pray that the Love and Passion of Jesus might capture our hearts and invite us to a life of righteousness. May the passion of Jesus fill you and may your passion for him be intoxicating to those around you!