“A NEW VISION”
Third Sunday of Easter
April 10, 2016
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
Immediately something like scales fell from [Saul’s] eyes, and he
regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; and taking food,
he was strengthened.
Acts 9:18, 19 (ESV)
Just in case you haven’t picked up on it yet, the theme of this
entire Easter season is newness. The resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead proclaims “newness of life” (Romans 6:4) for those who
through Baptism belong to Him. We who are baptized in His name have a
share in both His suffering and His glory. But the New Life that
belongs to the people of Christ is not something that we receive only
when die or at the resurrection of all the dead on the day of
judgment. This New Life is something that we received as soon as we
started believing in Him and became united with Him in His death and
resurrection through Baptism, whether that miracle of the Holy Spirit
took place when we were infants or after we heard the Word of God as
adults. It is a “newness of life” (Romans 6:4) that frees us from sin
and guilt--frees us to live the life that He has called us to live to
His glory.
This morning’s First Reading tells us about the beginning of Saint
Paul’s New Life in Christ. No doubt Paul was one of the most
influential people in the Church of the first century. The Holy
Spirit used him to proclaim the riches of God’s grace among the
Gentiles and also to write most of the New Testament. But this bold
apostle of Jesus Christ was once just as bold in his opposition to the
Gospel. He was Saul of Tarsus, an early persecutor of the Christian
Church until the Holy Spirit Himself turned his life around and made
him new in Jesus Christ. But before He could convert Saul, the Spirit
of God first had to humble him, because only one who knows that he is
in need will be receptive to the Good News of Jesus. Saul was humbled
by being thrown to the ground (literally) and made blind for a few
days. Once humbled, the Lord lifted him up again and sent him on his
way with a new vision of discipleship and a new mission to fulfill.
Let’s try to identify with the apostle this morning as we consider
God’s cure for him and his response to the wonders that Lord had
worked in his life.
The problem for which Saul received a physical cure is relatively
easy to understand. He was blind. He couldn’t see. Very few of us
have ever been blind, so we can’t really appreciate what that
experience is like, but we can get a feel for that sensation simply by
closing our eyes. People who have been blind for a long time usually
become very good at overcoming their handicap by adjusting to it.
They often develop a keener sense of hearing and a keener sense of
smell than sighted people. But a person who has just become blind is
helpless in the beginning. Since he has to be led around by others,
he must be able to trust those who lead him. Saul had only been blind
for three days, we are told, so we can assume that he had to be led by
the hand. It was Ananias, a Christian, one of the group of people
which, up until now, Saul was trying to destroy, who led him around in
his blindness and through whom the Lord eventually restored Saul’s
sight. So who says that God doesn’t have a sense of irony?
But Saul’s physical blindness was only “the tip of the iceberg,” so
to speak. It was God who struck Saul with blindness, but not because
He wanted him to be blind. God stuck him with blindness because He
wanted him to see. There was another problem that Saul had that he
wasn’t even aware of. He suffered from spiritual blindness. He could
not see the reality of his own sin or the greatness of God’s
forgiveness in Christ. He took offense at the Gospel for the same
reason that most people take offense at it: It threatened his sense
of self-sufficiency and self-righteousness. It challenged him to see
himself as he really was--as a helpless and hopeless sinner who could
be saved only by the grace of God revealed in Jesus Christ. In Saul’s
case it took physical blindness for him to overcome his spiritual
blindness. Proud Saul, persecutor of Christians, had to rely on the
help of Christians to overcome his physical handicap. This enabled
him to see spiritually.
So that is the cure. The cure for Saul’s physical blindness is the
restoration of his sight and the cure for his spiritual blindness is
the love of Jesus Christ as it was expressed through acts of mercy
performed by those who believed in Christ. But what about his
response? How did Saul respond to the grace of God that he had
received? We are told in the passage before us that the first thing
that he did was that “He rose and was baptized.” For a lot of people
(perhaps most people) coming to faith and being baptized happen
simultaneously. That’s the way it happened with me. It was through
my Baptism at the age of only three weeks that I received the Holy
Spirit and His gift of faith in Christ. But with Saul it was a little
different. He received the Spirit and faith when Jesus spoke the Word
to him on the Damascus road. In his case his Baptism was God’s
confirmation of the faith that He had already given him through the
Word. Saul’s initial response to receiving the grace of God was to be
identified with the Christ who had extended that grace to him.
We are also told here that Saul took some food, which enabled him to
regain his strength. Saul had fasted during the three days that had
passed since Jesus had appeared to him. Fasting has always been a
sign of repentance, and it’s a shame that most Christians have gotten
away from that practice. When you fast, you become hungry and weak.
This serves to remind you that you are in need. Physical hunger helps
us to realize how hungry we ought to be for the means of grace, which
are our spiritual food. Now that Saul had been sufficiently humbled
to see his need for Christ, he resumed eating. Although the text does
not specifically say it, hopefully his eating of food and the
regaining of his strength also served as a reminder to him of the
strength and nourishment that God offers in Word and Sacrament to him
and to all who are in need of the grace of Christ.
The lesson that we have to learn from Saul’s experience is that God’s
love always responds to human need. This happens even when we aren’t
aware of our need--even if God has to make us aware of our need. Saul
went to Damascus asking God’s blessing on his persecution of
Christians, confident that what he was doing was in accord with God’s
will. But the Lord had something altogether different in mind for
Saul. In this world of independence and self-affirmation we like to
call the shots. We like to tell God what we need and we expect Him to
give us what we ask for. But sometimes He knows better. He often
gives us what we really need rather than what we think we need, and we
don’t particularly like that. But as the people of God in Jesus
Christ who walk in “newness of life” (Romans 6:4), “we walk by faith,
not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). The risen Christ has called us out
of the darkness of selfishness and self-sufficiency to daily see our
need of Him. And He leads us to respond to His grace by publicly
acknowledging Him and longing for the strength that He offers us in
the means of grace.
Amen.
May the God of peace, who brought again from the dead that great
Shepherd of the sheep, our Lord Jesus, by the blood of the everlasting
covenant equip you thoroughly for the doing of His will. May He work
in you everything which is pleasing to Him, through Jesus Christ, our
Lord, to whom be honor and glory forever and ever. He who calls you
is faithful, and He will do it. Amen.