His Witness to All the World

 

Chapter 22

Chapter 21 left us on the edge of a cliff. Paul was, once again, in grave danger and he was given a chance to rescue himself with his words. He is on the verge of speech, with a hushed crowd who will, apparently, give him one chance to convince them he should not be killed. Chapter 22 is, for the most part, his effort to do just that.

Paul begins, in Hebrew: “Brothers and fathers, listen to the defense that I now make before you.” From the start Paul wants them to see him as a brother, a fellow Israelite. He makes his case by first telling them who he is – a Jew, from Tarsus, raised at the feet of a respected Pharisee, Gamaliel. He tells them about his zeal for God.

In these first verses of his speech Paul is saying to his listeners: I am one of you.

Then he begins to tell them about his particular experience on his way to Damascus. Here he retells the story that we first heard in Chapter 9 – but don’t skim over it, because Paul has his own way of telling the story.

Paul places emphasis on the intensity of the light. This light was so great, so bright! How bright was it? So bright that it was intense even at high noon! So bright that everyone around him could see it (although the narrator says in Chapter 9 that they didn’t see it.)

Paul says he actually had a conversation with Jesus. Unlike the telling in Chapter 9, where he was essentially left dazed and confused.

He tells the audience about Ananias. Recall from Chapter 9 that Ananias was a disciple of Christ in Damascus who was called by God to go to Paul and help him regain his sight. He did, grudgingly. But here in Paul’s telling, Ananias, the devout Jew, came to Paul to deliver the message about this new vocation the God of their ancestors was calling him to.

Then, Paul tells them, he returned to Jerusalem to go to the temple and pray. Here in this holy place, he received a vision. In this vision, Jesus warned him that the Jews in Jerusalem would not accept him in his new role. Even though his credentials were solid, they would be unwilling to go along with his new vocation, which would be … a ministry to the Gentiles.

I’m sure Paul knew this would be the knife edge for him. Anything could happen once he gets these words out. That is why he did everything he could to build up his credibility, to open their minds and hearts to new possibilities. He has shown them all the ways he is like them. He has shaped the story as one of a loyal Jew obediently following God’s direction. He has tried to lead them to the conclusion that, given the same circumstances, they would have done just what Paul did.

It was working. They were with him all the way, right up until he said, “…to the Gentiles.” But they couldn’t go with him that far. In an instant, they decided they would kill him. They began throwing off their cloaks, just as these, or others like them, did back in Chapter 7 as they prepared to stone Stephen to death.

The tension is high. Paul is right back where he was at the end of the last chapter, but again the tribune lends him a hand. The Roman authorities were not fans of interreligious scrimmages. Not to say that they were opposed to violence – certainly not! It’s just that they liked to dole out the violence. In an orderly way.

The tribune pulls Paul out of the melee and drags him to the barracks for a proper flogging, leaving him in the hands of a centurion to be tied up. The tribune goes off to get his whip, do the paperwork, or something. Then Paul looks at the centurion and calmly inquires: Is it legal to flog a Roman citizen who is uncondemned? Just asking.

The centurion runs to the tribune, the tribune returns to Paul to confirm this new news. Citizens had some rights. Not being flogged for no solid reason, for example. And so, once again, Paul lives to tell the story. The tribune will need to find another way to deal with the problem, and so he decides to hand it back to the Jewish authorities. And this is where we will pick up the story next time.

In this chapter, amidst the excitement and drama, there is a message about faithfulness. Paul is hoping to show his Jewish audience that he is a man of faith, as they believe themselves to be. His message has some subtleties that, while they don’t convince his audience, may have something important to teach us.

Paul introduces himself as a man who is zealous for God (v.3). He does not say he is zealous for the traditions or zealous for the law, but zealous for God. Important distinction. Were I to be asked if I am faithful to Presbyterianism, I would say no. Because if I am faithful to God, I must know that there may come a day when God will lead me away from Presbyterianism toward something new, something different. And if my allegiance to the Presbyterian tradition is greater than my love for God, then I would be unfaithful.

As Paul leads his listeners through the story of his calling, everything in his story is telling them that he has been faithful to the God of their ancestors, that he has been willing to follow God’s leading into new and strange and previously unforeseen territory. He is hoping that they, too, will be faithful and follow him – or at the very least, not kill him.

But the possibility of transformation is not inviting to everyone. For many it is threatening. So much so that some would even kill to remove the threat.

Questions for Reflection:

·        Have you ever tried to convince a person that something they previously thought was bad is actually good?

·        When has God tried to lead you into transformation?