Seeing Jesus - Acts 9:1-9

Typical “Come to Jesus” moment?

This may be one of the most underrated stories in all of the Bible… if not the most underrated. The story is certainly spectacular. But for the most part, that’s all it is… a spectacular story that doesn’t really have much to do with me or us or 2025. But one can argue, and I think Dr. Luke is making this case, that no story, no person, outside of Christ’s death and resurrection, is more important to our history and our story than this one.

But I spent time this week asking that same question: what does this story have to do with me? The “so what?” question here comes in heavy. And I suppose for me, I ask that question because I grew up in church and I grew up in Sunday school, and every time this story was told, it was told from the perspective that this is what coming to Jesus looks like. This is what a good conversion story looks like. A bad person, a really bad person who is confronted in the middle of life by Jesus just experiences this radical change of life because they’ve been zapped by Jesus on the Damascus road.

I don’t think that’s a healthy way to look at it. One author has described this problem of seeing this as the typical conversion event as “faith inferiority.” Somehow, if our life with Jesus has been boring, we apologize for it… it’s not like Paul on the Damascus road. This is not your typical “Come to Jesus” moment. This is a one off. In fact, Dr. Luke is writing it in a way to show us that this is no ordinary “Come to Jesus” moment. But the irony is that it really is depicting our story… just not in the way we would expect.

And in fact, nothing is expected. Just think for a moment if you’re Saul waking up on that day. You expect it all to go one way and before it is over, your life has been so radically altered, it will never be the same again… so radical that by the time night falls, the guy is in absolute shock. Think of a life-altering event that left you in such shock, life becomes a dark tunnel and it feels like the darkness will never end. One minute you’re celebrating with family and friends, and the next moment, life is in shambles and it will never ever be the same again.

That’s this story. Here’s how the story starts off:

Acts 9:1–2 Now Saul was still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord...so that if he found any men or women who belonged to the Way, he might bring them as prisoners to Jerusalem.

Saul was a bad, bad guy. Breathing threats and murder. A one-man wrecking ball on the church. A tyrant so bad, people fear being found by him. He was famous. And while Luke places him in a negative light here, Saul was considered one of the best rabbis around. Judaism loved him. The religious leaders loved him. They hated Jesus. They hated the disciples and they have a guy who not only breathes fire, but brings the fire. He didn’t just talk hatred against Jesus, but he walked the walk by throwing people in jail and worse. This is how his day starts off. He’s headed to Damascus… the bounty hunter going to find himself some Christians. And arrest them.

Here’s how the day ends:

Acts 9:8–9 “Saul...could see nothing. So they took him by the hand and led him into Damascus.

This reminds me of the popular meme: how it started vs how it’s going. He’s headed to Damascus to arrest people. That’s how it started. How it’s going is.. Instead of arresting people, he is being taken himself.. by the hand… it’s the same idea as being arrested. The one who was headed to make arrests is himself arrested… the turn around in less than 12 hours is totally shocking. The most fearsome guy, the terrorist, has been reduced, and is in shock. How does that happen?

It happens because his life is interrupted by heaven itself.

Acts 9:3 “As he traveled and was nearing Damascus, a light from heaven suddenly flashed around him. Falling to the ground he heard a voice...”

You don’t have to be a biblical scholar to recognize all the signs of one of the glory stories of the Old Testament. The burning bush. Smoking Mount Sinai and the lighting and thunder. Ezekiel’s movable throne of fire. The glory cloud over the tabernacle and temple. Even Jesus’ baptism. The bright, blinding light and then a voice. And this isn’t simply a vision like a dream. Because his traveling companions also saw the light and heard the rumble… though they didn’t see or hear the specifics that Saul did.

“Who are you, Lord?”

The conversation is one for the ages. It’s short. To the point. Earth-shattering. Stunning.

Acts 9:4 Falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”

Saul knows his Old Testament enough to realize this isn’t normal. Here’s Saul’s response:

Acts 9:5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul said.

The entire story swings on this question. Saul knows enough to address the speaker as “Lord.” After all, Saul believed he was serving the Lord with his threats, arrests, and murders. He was the best of the Jews, the most God-fearing of the Pharisees. And his quest to stamp out the new religion involving the Jesus who was executed as a fraud, or so he thought, was all done out of a righteous zeal for the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. “Who are you, Lord?” indicates that Saul still thinks he’s been on the right track.

“I AM Jesus”

But that question is the only time Saul speaks. The answer is an all-timer:

Acts 9:5 “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting,” he replied.

We could stop the answer with the first three words… because I’m sure that Saul didn’t really hear the rest of the sentence. “I am Jesus.” This really is the burning bush moment. Moses asked the same thing and the response was “I AM” is speaking to you. Now that I AM statement has a human name. “I am Jesus.”

I can’t imagine the terror and the shock for Saul in that moment. He cannot see. He has lost his vision. He cannot speak. There are no words. I am Jesus. Jesus is not a fraud. And probably more importantly for Saul, Stephen, who died claiming that he was seeing Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father, was telling the truth. Stephen had given a defense of Jesus that day to religious leaders with his face shining like an angel, and Saul, like the rest of them, was seething with rage. The whole Jesus thing was an insulting slander to the entire religious system. People claiming Jesus was the Messiah promised in the Old Testament, claiming Jesus could provide forgiveness of sins. It couldn’t be. But now, in a split second, all of life has been turned upside down. “I am Jesus.”

“I am Jesus” is the answer to the question, “Who are you, Lord?” When Saul asked the question, he’s using Lord in a general sense for God. And, like the other questions that show up in the book of Acts, Saul isn’t the only one asking the question. Dr. Luke knows there are others in the church to whom he is writing asking the same question, especially in the Jewish audience: Who is the God that we have to deal with? The answer given to Saul is just as controversial today as it was then: “I am Jesus” means, for Saul and his Jewish religious system, that Judaism has found its end goal in Jesus. Jesus is the One through whom we know the God of the Bible… and in that moment, Saul realizes that Jesus really is the Promised Messiah of the Old Testament. And he’ll spend the rest of his life talking about it.

Jesus identifies with His people

Big, bad threatening Saul finds out that his zeal has been misplaced. He’s not just attacking Christians. He’s attacking God himself. The rest of Jesus’ answer is also noteworthy.

Acts 9:5 “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting,”

Jesus had said in the last few days before he was crucified that to deny water to the least of these is to deny water to himself. Jesus identifies with his people. So much so that persecuting the church is persecuting Jesus himself. Saul’s question may have been to God generally, but the answer is anything but general. “I am Jesus, the one who are persecuting” is personal. The hostility is personal. This confrontation is personal. “You are persecuting me.” How could Saul have been so wrong in his zeal to please God?

So there is terror, there is awe here. But there’s also guilt and shame and horror. The one who had set out to arrest Christians in Damascus in a show of force is now the one being led by the hand to Damascus in blindness and shame. Life has been turned upside down in the blink of an eye.

Christianity as we know it

I asked the question, what does this have to do with me? The first answer is probably the most basic. The entire event is a connection back to the Old Testament prophets who were called to proclaim salvation and judgment in grand visions and experiences of heaven itself in all of its divine glory. This explains Paul’s mission, especially to the Gentiles. And we are here as the result of that prophetic ministry. Outside of Dr. Luke, nobody has written more in our New Testaments than Paul. In fact, between Luke and Paul, we have the bulk of what we know about who Jesus is and what he has done for us. Paul’s mission to tell people about the Jesus he met that day lands right here in San Benito.

Before Jesus/After Jesus

But there’s also this. There is no missing the contrasts here between Saul’s life before this event and after. In fact, Saul uses his own experience

The movement of Saul’s story here does have everything to do with our own experience of Jesus. No, not in the spectacular sense. But this story has a Before Christ and After Christ rhythm to it. All of life is two stages: One minute, we have no Jesus. The next minute, Jesus is everything for us. And it’s not of our own doing. One minute we’re minding our own business in our own mess and the next minute Jesus has invaded our space and turned our world upside down. We’ve all had this “Before Jesus/After Jesus” moment with Jesus meeting us where we are, with Jesus giving us his grace, mercy, and forgiveness.

Darkness to light; blindness to sight

But this rhythm here in this passage speaks to something else that is part of the Before Jesus/After Jesus reality… and that’s darkness to light and blindness to sight. There’s a lot to say here about the connections between the bright light here that radiates from Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus and that the resurrection of Jesus is what is turning Saul’s world upside down. A new day has dawned for Saul. The old has gone, the new has come. For all the darkness in Saul’s life, the light has come FOR him.

But the darkness has a very real connection point here with Saul. There is no missing this story’s emphasis on sight and seeing. Words for eyes, sight and seeing occur a dozen times here. That’s not an accident. And it’s certainly not just part of the details. The bright light and great voice that interrupts his travel has left him blind. We didn’t read it, but in short order Saul is going to meet someone in Damascus by the name of Ananias, and through Ananias, Saul regains his sight.

This is the point of this entire episode. The threats, the murder, the evil being perpetrated by Saul.. it’s all part of the darkness.. it’s all part of Saul’s blindness. The “Before Jesus” time in Saul’s life is utter blindness. Blindness to who Jesus really is. This blindness shows up in the big question in the story, “Who are you, Lord?” Saul thought he saw clearly. He could clearly see that Jesus was a big fraud and clearly see that his followers have continued with the myth and the hoax. It’s just so plain to see that anyone who is talking so much about forgiveness of sin and grace surely not operating in the real world… because the real world is every man for himself, the real world is making sure you win, making sure that those who violate God’s law and even violate my own sense of right and wrong get what’s coming to them. What a fraud, what a “Marroon”. It’s so easy to see.

And there’s Jesus. No. That’s blindness. That’s darkness. “Saul, why are you persecuting me?” Saul is all about doing the right thing, making sure that righteousness prevails.. but he’s missed Jesus. He’s blind.

Seeing Jesus

And now? Seeing Jesus changes everything.

After he regains his sight, this is what Dr. Luke tells us:

Acts 9:20 Immediately Saul began proclaiming Jesus in the synagogues: “He is the Son of God.”

The light has dawned for Saul. He now see the world through the Jesus lens. He has seen Jesus and he wants the whole world to see what He sees: Jesus as the Promised One of the Old Testament who forgives and gives life. I see Jesus. I want you to see Jesus. Jesus intervenes into Saul’s blindness and give him sight to see what is real. And what is real is Jesus grace for His enemies. Saul. You. And Me.

That’s our proclamation week in and week out. For us. For our community. It’s the message we take with us into where we live, learn, work, and play. We’re all blind. We live our days filled with blindness. We don’t see our sin. We don’t see our neighbor. We don’t see Jesus in the lives of others. We don’t see our need for Jesus. And then Jesus intervenes again in his grace, mercy, and love and gives us His sight. We see Jesus. But more importantly, Jesus sees us. And we’re reminded that there’s never a moment that He doesn’t see us.

Let’s Pray.

The Table

Want to see Jesus? Jesus sees us at this Table and we see him. This Table is where Jesus makes friends of his enemies. His enemies get grace. This Table is the Damascus Road every week where Jesus intervenes our lives and puts a stop to our blindness.

Benediction