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Today we are presented with two familiar stories. The first story is about the appearance of the glorified Jesus to Saul of Tarsus, who is on route to Damascus to persecute Christians. The second story is the appearance of the resurrected Jesus to His disciples while they were fishing. While Saul is an unbeliever and the disciples are believers, Jesus does not show discrimination. He intervenes into the lives of those who believe and those who do not. This in it self gives hope for a world that rejects Jesus as the Christ.
There are those who believe that it is wrong for Christians to evangelize, because it implies that Christianity is the One True Way. Yet, here in the first story of our readings for today, we have Jesus doing just that. Jesus appears quite unexpectedly to a zealous young man, who is a Pharisee. In fact, he is not only a Pharisee, but the best in his class.
In Paul’s letter to the Philippians, he gives us his resume. He writes, “If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church as to righteousness under the law, blameless.”
In Paul’s own words we are given a description of who Paul was as the young radical Saul who met Jesus on the road to Damascus. In his heart of hearts, Saul believed that he was right. He believed with all his heart that what he was doing against the Christians was pleasing to God Almighty. In fact, Saul’s personal life was so disciplined that it was beyond reproach. In Saul’s eyes, he believed that he was doing the will of God.
For Saul, the people who were following the Way were troublemakers who were polluting the Jews with tales of blasphemy and heresy. In order to prevent God’s judgment of wrath from falling on all of Judea, Saul believed that the followers of Jesus of Nazareth must be stopped. In keeping with the high priest’s belief that it was better for one to die than a whole nation, Saul believed it was better to destroy this new Way before it infected all of Judaism. Even if it meant the deaths of these erroneous believers – so be it! For Saul, the ends justified the means.
In our lifetime, a similar war has been declared against Christians. These people, who are fighting to abolish Christianity from the face of the earth, truly believe that they are following the will of their god, Allah. Many of them live lives that are more disciplined than most Christians. In fact, when they look upon the loose morals and debauchery of so-called Christian nations, they are appalled that such behaviors are allowed to happen. For them this war is a holy war and that is why they call it a jihad.
When we study the actions of Saul against the Christians, we need to understand that Christians have been targeted from the beginning. And that Christianity continues to be targeted not only by radical Muslims, but also by secular humanists within our own culture. The politically correct movement has made strong inroads in persecuting the rights of Christians here in America. Just by making Christians feel guilty about sharing the good news of Christ with others, the message of the gospel has been put on hold in many ways. ‘Not wanting to be offensive for Christ’s sake’ has become the Church’s new motto. The simple greeting of Merry Christmas or Happy Easter by store clerks has become an act of courage for Christ’s sake.
Have we ever stopped to think about what the world would be like if Jesus had not stopped Saul on his way to rounding up Christians for slaughter? The church at that time was relatively a small religious sect that could have easily been wiped out, especially with someone as zealous as Saul in the lead. Christianity could have been just an obscure by-line in history. As for the New Testament, most of it which is St. Paul’s writings to the Church, would not exist – at least as we know it.
Jesus’ intervention into Saul’s life at that moment in time was more than just a personal conversion experience. It was to save the infant church from oblivion. In order to stop such a zealous minded young man, the Lord used extraordinary means to get his attention and to change his heart. It has been said that the Lord often times speaks to us in a soft quiet voice, while other times He throws a brick to deliver the message. For Saul and for the sake of the church, the Lord God used a brick to stop a young man in his tracks.
Thankfully, the personal confrontation with the risen glorified Christ transformed this young man into the Apostle to the Gentiles. Not only were Jews brought to the saving knowledge of Jesus being the Messiah, but also the known world. By using the roads and ports built by the Romans to advance their Empire, Christians advanced the Kingdom of God. Through the teachings of Saul who became known as Paul, Christianity spread rapidly throughout the Roman Empire. This should give us hope in that one person can make a difference for Christ.
In the second story for today, we have the disciples out fishing. Now they have seen the risen Jesus in the upper room, so one would hope that they would immediately go out and share this good news. Instead, John tells us that Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana, the sons of Zebedee and two other disciples went fishing.
I mean hello! These men have witnessed the impossible becoming reality. Their beloved Jesus, who was crucified, rose from the grave after being entombed for three days! He appears before them by walking through a closed door, then eating fish in front of them. Jesus tells them to meet up with Him in Galilee so they decide to go catch some fish? It is a miracle that the church ever even got started in the first place. These men have witnessed the proof the Jesus is the Messiah, yet, they choose to go back to the life they lived before they ever met Jesus. They go back to fishing for fish, when Jesus had told them from the beginning that they were called to fish for men. No wonder they did not catch anything. They were not doing what the Lord had taught them to do.
How many of us have seen miracles in our own lives? You know, when God intervenes into our lives in those moments of time that can only be described as God moments. Those divine interventions when the Lord reveals Himself to us and our lives our changed forever or so we say at the time. Then after all is said and done we go back to how we were living before the Lord’s intervention. So you see in many respects we are no better than the early disciples who went fishing after being visited by the risen Lord. Then we dare to complain that the church is not moving forward and growing!
It is by word of mouth that the early church grew! So too today, it is through personal witnessing to others that people are brought to know Jesus as the Christ. Oh yes, I forgot, that would not be politically correct.
Yet, each one of us who know the Lord Jesus as our personal Savior can share our testimonies with others. Granted we would be going against the grain, but what if we chose to please the Lord instead of humans? What if we chose to get excited by what the Lord has done in our own lives and share with others the good news!
It only took one person to light the fire that spread the gospel throughout the Roman Empire. How many of us are willing to let the Lord use us for His glory? Of course, we could just continue with our lives like nothing has happened and go fishing like the disciples. If we choose that recourse, then we need not be surprised when we too catch nothing.
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