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Context No. 35 of 4322 · Acts

Context · Reflection

Acts 22:17-21: in context

17“When I had returned to Jerusalem and while I prayed in the temple, I fell into a trance 18and saw him saying to me, ‘Hurry and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not receive testimony concerning me from you.’ 19I said, ‘Lord, they themselves know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue those who believed in you. 20When the blood of Stephen, your witness, was shed, I also was standing by, consenting to his death, and guarding the cloaks of those who killed him.’ 21“He said to me, ‘Depart, for I will send you out far from here to the Gentiles.’ ”

Paul is under arrest in Jerusalem, standing on the steps of the Roman barracks and speaking to a crowd that has just tried to kill him. He tells them his story: how he had persecuted this movement, how he met Christ on the road to Damascus, and now this, a vision he had in the temple after he came back to Jerusalem.

In the vision Christ tells him to leave the city quickly, because they will not accept his testimony here. Paul argues. He points to his own record as the reason they should listen. They know what I used to be, he says, they know I jailed and flogged believers in every synagogue, and that I stood there approving when Stephen was stoned and held the coats of the men who did it. Who better to convince them than the man who used to lead the other side? The answer is a single sentence. Go, I will send you far away, to the Gentiles.

Paul's argument was reasonable and it was refused. The very history that he thought made him the ideal witness in Jerusalem is what made him unhearable there. What am I certain I am the right person for, because of the past I bring to it, when that same past may be exactly what disqualifies me here?

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