Saul the Persecutor Meets Jesus on the Road—Lectionary Reflection for Easter 3C (Acts 9)

Acts 9:1-9 (10-20) New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

9 Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest ² and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. ³ Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. ⁴ He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” ⁵ He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. ⁶ But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” ⁷ The men who were traveling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one. ⁸ Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. ⁹ For three days he was without sight and neither ate nor drank.

¹⁰ Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” He answered, “Here I am, Lord.” ¹¹ The Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. At this moment he is praying, ¹² and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” ¹³ But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem, ¹⁴ and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name.” ¹⁵ But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; ¹⁶ I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” ¹⁷ So Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” ¹⁸ And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored. Then he got up and was baptized, ¹⁹ and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

For several days he was with the disciples in Damascus, ²⁰ and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.”

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                As we continue our Eastertide Lectionary First Readings from the Book of Acts, we catch up with Saul of Tarsus as he heads to Damascus on important business on behalf of the Temple leaders in Jerusalem. We first encounter Saul in Acts 7, where he oversees the stoning of Stephen, a leader of the Hellenistic Jewish Christians. After Stephen’s death, Saul led the persecution of the church in Jerusalem, scatting the church throughout Judea and Samaria (Acts 7:54-8:3). The scattering of the church helped push the movement beyond Jerusalem, as Jesus had revealed in Acts 1:8. The central figure in this movement outward was one of Stephen’s colleagues, a man named Philip who preached in Samaria and then baptized the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:4-40).

                Saul reappears on the scene in Acts 9. This time, Saul, who is described as “still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, has a new assignment from the Temple authorities. They gave him letters to take to the synagogues in Damascus so he could seek out disciples of Jesus who had gone to that city. His instructions involved seeking out disciples, including women and children. He was to bring them back to Jerusalem so that they could be tried.  

                As he headed to Damascus, something happened that would change his life forever. Luke writes that as Saul and his entourage came near Damascus, a bright light from heaven flashed in front of him. As this light from heaven struck, he fell to the ground. Then, a voice from heaven spoke to him: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” You can tell that Saul is a bit confused—a blaze of light that knocks you to the ground will do that to you. So, Saul replies, “Who are you?” Luke includes the word Lord, which in this case could mean anything from “sir” to “master.” He obviously knows something rather dramatic has happened. First, the light from heaven, then the voice from heaven. What he didn’t know was the identity of the one speaking, though this word about persecution should have given him a hint. It must be Jesus, whose followers Saul was hunting down. Saul was zealous about his job. He was no mere functionary. He was completely committed to the task, even asking for this assignment. Yet, to borrow from a play/movie from yesteryear, “A funny thing happened on the way to Damascus.” Now, he hears the voice of the one whose followers he seeks to round up and imprison or even execute. The voice responded: “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”

                In persecuting Jesus’ followers, he is persecuting Jesus. But things are about to change. We might call this a resurrection appearance, but of a different kind. Unlike with Mary Magdalene or Thomas, this is not a bodily revelation. It is, however, a voice that stirs something in Saul. This encounter with the heavenly voice will prove transformative.  The voice continues by telling Saul that he needs to get up off the ground and head into Damascus, where he will receive further instructions. Luke tells us that Saul’s companions heard the voice but didn’t see anyone. Saul got up off the ground, and as he did so, he realized that this flash of light from heaven had blinded him. He couldn’t see anything, which meant he had to be led to Damascus. Following this encounter, Saul was blind and didn’t eat or drink anything.  Here ends the reading.

                Although one can end the reading with verse 9, such that one has in mind the call of Saul by Jesus, a call that is described by Paul himself in his Galatian letter. In that letter, he speaks of his calling, though his description is not as dramatic as the one in the Book of Acts. Rather, he simply writes that God set him apart so that he could proclaim the message of Jesus to the Gentiles. He also writes that he didn’t confer with anyone, but instead headed off to Arabia, and then returned to Damascus (Gal. 1:13-18).

                Luke’s version of the call of Saul takes us into Damascus, where he encounters a follower of Jesus named Ananias, who received a vision of his own, sending him to Saul. As you might expect, Ananias is a bit skittish about reaching out to the person commissioned to persecute the fledgling church in Damascus. Nevertheless, the Lord insisted that Saul had been chosen to “bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel.” Ananias did as he was instructed, and Saul is healed of his blindness, and finally Saul began to eat. Following this encounter with Ananias, Saul began to preach about Jesus in the synagogues, declaring that Jesus is the Son of God. The former persecutor of Jesus becomes an evangelist for Jesus.  

                With the call of Saul of Tarsus to be the evangelist to Gentiles, the final piece to the puzzle set up in Acts 1:8 is put in place.  While Peter will appear a few more times in the story of Acts, Saul, soon to be known as Paul, will take center stage as the gospel spreads across the Roman Empire. As Paul writes in Galatians, as word went out among the followers of Jesus, they shared, even though they hadn’t met Paul, that “the one who formerly was persecuting us is now proclaiming the faith he once tried to destroy” (Gal. 1:23).  

                So, what message might we hear in this reading? Cathy Caldwell Hoop offers this response to that question.

God redeemed Saul, gave him a new name, and placed him on a new path. This same mercy is accessible to each of us, and to our corporate communities. The Easter miracle proves that God loves and forgives friends, betrayers, doubters, skeptics...even God’s own enemies. The God, who is Love, has no need to be defended by violent means. Love grabs Saul’s fist in midpunch and unbalances him, saving him from a life of hatred and violence. What if we could do this for one another? May Easter miracles abound! [Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship: 2 (Kindle Location 7010-7013).]

Saul encountered God’s mercy, which transformed his life. Might we hear in this passage a reminder that to be in Christ is to be transformed in the same way? Our encounters with the risen Christ might not be as dramatic as the one described here in Acts 9, but our encounters can still be transformative, enabling us to be proclaimers of Jesus’ divine sonship. We don’t have to be persecutors of the church either, but to meet Jesus is to be changed.

Image Attribution: Koenig, Peter. Conversion of St Paul, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=58543 [retrieved April 24, 2025]. Original source: Peter Winfried (Canisius) Koenig, https://www.pwkoenig.co.uk/.