The Conversion of Saul of Tarsus Acts 9:1-20

We all know the drill, don’t we? What you’re supposed to do is get a
good education, find a good job or start a business or get into a
profession, marry, have a couple of happy, healthy children, buy a
fine dog, build an estate, and take care of your parents when they
get older, prepare for a comfortable retirement. A lot of things have
changed in the last 2,000 years, but people still want pretty much the
same things for themselves and their children now that they wanted
then.

We don’t know a lot about his early years, but we know enough to
draw some possible inferences about him. He seems to have been
what might be called a “fair-haired boy,” although, being a middle-
eastern Semite he probably was anything but fair-haired. The point is
that he seems to have been one of those on whom God has smiled,
who have been given many gifts. Some speculate he may not have
been physically impressive, but we really don’t know about that, and
certainly everything else about him was in place. His family
possessed some means. He was bright, maybe even brilliant. He
was given the best education available to him. He went to Jerusalem
and sat at the feet of Gamaliel, the greatest teacher of his tradition in
his day. He was a Jew who lived in Tarsus, a coastal city in what is
now Turkey, but, unlike most Jews, he was also a citizen of the
Roman Empire, perhaps indicating his family’s wealth and standing.
He was named for Israel’s first king – Saul. Like another of his
contemporaries, another middle eastern Semite growing up a few
hundred miles away, no doubt he “grew in favor” in the eyes of all

1
who knew him. He had it all. Surely the future was bright. Surely
there was nothing impossible for Saul.

Saul’s community in Tarsus, the Jews, was defined not only

ethnically but also religiously. They had a very serious religion. They
were the people with a unique, special relationship with God. In fact,
God called them his “peculiar treasures.” This special relationship
with God involved a covenant, an agreement. The agreement began
with the message, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one God.”
It’s first expectation was, “You will have no other Gods before me.”
There was only one God, and nothing could be allowed to stand in
God’s place.

While Saul was becoming a young man, back in his community’s

homeland there was a young rabbi, Saul’s contemporary who had
also been growing in favor in the eyes of those who knew him. His
name was Yeshua – today we English speakers say Jesus – and he
developed a large and enthusiastic following. He was said to be a
miracle-worker. In fact, some were calling him the Messiah.
Whatever else he was, he was a troublemaker. He went so far as to
call into question the righteousness of people like Saul who, if
nothing else, were convinced of their own righteousness. After all,
they were absolutely committed to doing everything the covenant
with God demanded of them. Still. Yeshua called them “a generation
of vipers,” and “white washed tombs, beautiful on the outside, but full
of dead bones.” To make things even worse, Yeshua violated Israel’s
greatest No-No. He seemed to put himself in God’s place, saying

2
things like, if you can believe it, “If anyone has seen me they have
seen the Father.”

Well, generally speaking, the thing to do with crazy people is leave

them alone and eventually they’ll go just go away. But Yeshua had
gone too far. He was clearly guilty of blasphemy. And, people were
paying attention to him. It was a situation which required definite
action, action which would not only take care of him permanently but
at the same time convince his followers they needed to go away, too.
So, they killed him. That should have taken care of things, but it
didn’t. His movement continued to grow. They were even saying God
had raised the young crucified rabbi from the dead. They were even
putting him in the place reserved for God. It could not be allowed. It
had to be stopped.

So, Saul went back to his homeland to help stamp out this new
movement. The first time history makes any mention of him he is
holding the clothes of a man named Stephen as Stephen was stoned
to death for his allegiance to the young rabbi. Saul, we are told,
approved of Stephen’s death. I suppose so, if you’re participating in
his execution. Saul’s persecution of the followers of Yeshua
continued, and it led him to go to Damascus with orders to arrest the
followers of Yeshua there and bring them back to Jerusalem to stand
trial. But on the way to Damascus an amazing thing happened. A
blinding light knocked Saul to the ground. A voice asked, “Saul, why
are you persecuting me?” Saul answered, “Who are you?” And the

3
voice answered, “I am Yeshua, whom you are persecuting.” Pretty
remarkable, since Yeshua was known to be dead.

The encounter so changed Saul that he changed his name from Saul
to Paul. He was no longer the enemy, the persecutor, of the
followers of Yeshua. In fact, he became the young movement’s
greatest champion. He devoted his life completely to it, traveling
throughout the Roman Empire, preaching, teaching, establishing
new communities of the new faith, enduring incredible hardships. In
a letter he wrote to the new community of faith he established in the
city of Corinth Paul said,

Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.
Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three
times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open
sea. I have been constantly on the move. I have been in
danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my
own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city,
in danger at sea, in danger from false brothers. I have labored
and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known
hunger and thirst and have often gone without food. I have
been cold and naked. (2 Corinthians 11:24-27)

Well, so much for being the fair-haired boy with the bright, unlimited
future. This is how it all turned out? What happened to all the
promise, all the possibilities? So far from inheriting the family
business and living a comfortable life in Tarsus, so far from

4
becoming the respected leader and teacher in his community, an
example for the faithful of Israel, he instead became something little
better than a hunted animal – all that danger, hunger, nakedness –
and even worse, spreading heresy all the time. No doubt until word
came that his devotion to Yeshua had led to his beheading in Rome,
those who knew the young man of promise asked, over and over,
“What in the world’s the matter with Saul?”

Well, what had happened to Saul? Whatever it was, it doesn’t

happen to very many of us. Most of us are perfectly happy in path
laid out for us. A few of us, though, don’t seem to be and they rise
above the usual, the typical, the average, above that place where the
rest of us, the majority of us, live. They are the prodigies, the
geniuses, the artists, the elite athletes, the world-class musicians.
What makes them different? Malcolm Gladwell, in his book about
such people titled Outliers, says it is not really a matter of inbred
talent expressing itself. It is their willingness to work harder than the
rest of us are willing to work. Gladwell says there is a magic number.
It is 10,000. It takes, he says, 10,000 hours of work and practice to
develop an elite talent or skill. Remember that old joke, a guy asks a
New York cabbie, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” And the
answer – “Practice, man, practice!” It turns out that is the answer,
and it turns out it takes 10,000 hours. That’s 40 hours a week, 50
weeks a year for 5 years. It is no wonder we don’t all reach that level
of performance. And it’s not only about musical instruments or
batting practice. After Saul became Paul, before he went out and
changed the world, he went on retreat in Arabia for seven years, for

5
prayer and learning, getting ready for his missionary work. So, those
people who rise above the rest of us are willing to put in the work.
But what is it about them that causes them to put in those hours,
maybe to suffer through shipwrecks and stonings, and keep going?
They have a vision, a vision that drives them forward. Saul certainly
had an amazing vision on the road to Damascus, but there are other
visions. Basketball great Larry Bird in high school got there early
enough to go to the gym and shoot 500 baskets before class. He
said it wasn’t because he dreamed of the NBA. He said he never
even thought about playing professional basketball until he was
about to graduate from college. He did it because he loved to hear
the swish of the ball dropping through the net. That was his vision.
The vision is what makes the difference. So why don’t we all have a
vision like that? Actually, I think we do, or we did once. We have that
vision of what we want to do or what we want to accomplish or the
kind of person we want to be, and we turn our back on it, ignore it,
forget it, plan to get at it someday, or hope it goes away. The tragedy
of our lives is that it does. It does go away. But it doesn’t have to stay
gone. It’s always still down there somewhere. So, we need to dig
down there and find it. Wherever we are on the path of your life, we
need to reclaim our dream. We don’t need to be intimidated by the
10,000 hours. We just need to take one step. And then another.
Maybe when we find your dream what you will actually find is our
own true self.

“What in the world’s the matter with Saul?” Maybe what was the
matter with Saul was that when that light blinded him on the road to

6
Damascus it actually helped him to see clearly things that the rest of
us see only dimly, if at all. Perhaps it helped him to see that in fact
there is a truth which is eternal, a truth as true as God. Perhaps he
could see more clearly than we do that soul is more than a kind of
music - that there is something deep and eternal about us,
something which needs protecting and nurturing and saving.
Whatever it was that he saw was enough to convince him that the
comforts and possessions of this world were virtually nothing at all. It
was enough to turn him into a lover of truth and righteousness.

Saul had a vision. It was not only the vision of the Risen Christ on
the road to Damascus, although that certainly ought to have been
enough. He had a very special vision, called the beatific vision. It is
the ultimate, direct self-communication of God. It saw the work of
God in salvation and it encompassed the whole human experience of
joy and happiness that come from that direct experience of God. It
takes one far beyond simple faith. It replaced faith with sight. It made
those hardships Paul faced, including the execution that awaited
him, seem as nothing.

Just before he took his last journey, this time to Rome, that vision
enabled him to write,

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom of God! How unsearchable
his judgments and his paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the
mind of the Lord? Or who has been is counselor? Who has ever
given to God, that God should repay him?

7
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be
glory forever! Amen.
Romans 11:33-36

Would to God we all had a vision like that.