5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied.
Sometimes the unexpected hits us right when we are not looking for it. We have our mind set in one direction and we get hit in the back of the head by the object we were seeking. Saul has spent his young life seeking the truth about God. He thinks he is on the righteous path while he is persecuting these Jesus-followers. He started in Jerusalem, the religious capital, and now he is moving to the commercial capital of that area. He is going there to enforce the truth. But while he is on his way there, the man he thinks is dead confronts him. There is a supernatural light from the sky and a voice that pokes its finger squarely in his chest. The voice does not ask why Saul is persecuting the Jesus-followers, but why he is persecuting Jesus. When Jesus’ followers are persecuted, Jesus takes it personally. Saul has no idea who is speaking. In fact, Jesus is the last person he expected. To Saul, Jesus was a false teacher, a deceiver, a blasphemer. There is no way he could be speaking after he is dead. But speak he does! I can imagine Saul’s brain going through a reset at this point. Perhaps the famous Microsoft “blue screen of death” happens. Everything he once believed now comes into question. The reality of the resurrection of Jesus turns his world upside down. Every conclusion he once found is in question. The logic of his arguments crumbles in an instant. The impossible has happened. Jesus died and rose again. All those reports he had heard were correct. The miracles were real. He did walk on water. He did heal the blind and deaf. Crippled legs were strengthened. It all flashed through his mind in an instant. Have there been moments in your life when everything you believed came to an end? Maybe it happened when someone you loved nearly died in a car accident. As you rush to the emergency room and wait for the doctor to come out and give you news, you question yourself and everything you trusted. I have the privilege of sharing the journey with some widows of soldiers. In an instant their world as they knew it came to an end. Their husbands were not coming home to kiss them. Now they are, like Saul, having to figure out how to live in their new world.
The Arnold Journey 