Scripture Daily

Context No. 3538 of 4322 · Acts

Context · Reflection

Acts 22:6-11: in context

6“As I made my journey and came close to Damascus, about noon suddenly a great light shone around me from the sky. 7I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ 8I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ He said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you persecute.’ 9“Those who were with me indeed saw the light and were afraid, but they didn’t understand the voice of him who spoke to me. 10I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ The Lord said to me, ‘Arise, and go into Damascus. There you will be told about all things which are appointed for you to do.’ 11When I couldn’t see for the glory of that light, being led by the hand of those who were with me, I came into Damascus.

Paul recounts the moment that turned his life around. On the road to Damascus, bent on persecuting Christians, a blinding light stops him, and a voice asks, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? His answer is a question that changes everything: who are you, Lord? And the reply undoes his whole world: I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.

Notice the astonishing thing Jesus says. In persecuting the church, Saul had been persecuting Jesus himself. Christ so identifies with his people that what is done to them is done to him. And Saul, the confident, self-assured persecutor, is left blind and helpless, led by the hand into the city, his old certainties shattered. Sometimes God has to blind us to our own way before we can see his. Saul's whole conversion began with being stopped, humbled, and made to ask the two questions that reorder a life: who are you, Lord?, and then, what shall I do?

Have I truly asked, "Who are you, Lord?" and "What shall I do?", letting Christ stop and redirect me, even when it means my old certainties are shattered?

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