Friday of the Third Week of Easter

Lectionary: 277

Saul, my brother, the Lord has sent me,

Jesus who appeared to you on the way by which you came,

that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit."

Saint Paul went to Damascus from Jerusalem on a particular road which was more than a Roman highway. It was the road described as "Breathing Murderous Threats Against The Disciples Of The Lord," It was "The Way Of Self-Righteous Indignation." He was neither the first nor the last person to come to the Lord on such an ugly, unhappy highway.

Saint Luke put that clumsy expression -- "on the way by which you came" -- in the mouth of Ananias to remind us the Lord can meet us on whatever road we travel. Because we cannot retrace our steps and begin again at the beginning, the Lord must find us where we are. 

Saint Paul came to the Lord by way of his Pharisaic tradition. As every Christian knows, there were problems with Pharisaic Judaism. But we need not take the attitude of the New Testament that Pharisaism was entirely wrong. it was a realistic adaptation to the world of its day.

Because the Jewish people suffered the invasion first of the Greeks, then the occupation of the Seleucids, and the oppression of the Romans they were strangers in their own land. Like the American experiment in democracy, the Roman empire subjected its captive nations to heavy taxation for the sake of security. The frontiers of the empire were assaulted by hostiles, and there was occasional revolution within -- with perhaps a little something for their top ten percent. 

If you're familiar with Shakespeare's Julius Caesar you remember that the empire was split between Mark Antony and "the noble Brutus" until the Battle of Philippi, not long before Jesus was born. Like all governments, the Romans had no patience with rebellion, and the Jewish state was often in rebellious ferment. 

The Pharisees were not wealthy or influential but they had some religious and social authority and they tried to persuade their fellow citizens to pay the taxes and go along to get along. So long as their Jewish religion did not foment rebellion, the Romans didn't care what God they worshiped or how they worshiped him. 

Pharisaism was a private religion for the home and synagogue. They could publicly demonstrate their faith if they didn't mind the mockery of bystanders, including Roman soldiers. (Catholicism dealt with the same issues in the 18th and 19th century Ireland.)

The Pharisees loved God's law, and many of the best people were Pharisees, especially Gamaliel and Nicodemus. Jesus had no quarrel with many of them and accepted invitations to at least one of their homes, that of Simon the Pharisee.  

They also gave us Paul of Tarsus, brilliant, clever, creative, witty, generous and hot tempered. He loved the Lord with all his heart, soul, mind and strength; and had no patience with those who didn't love the Law as much as he did. 

He was probably disturbed deeply by the slaughter of Stephen. Educated and sophisticated, he wasn't prepared for mob violence. If he "consented" to the incident as Saint Luke says, he surely was not glad about it. He had watched a man die for his belief in Jesus. He might have suffered what we call "trauma" in the weeks after the bizarre spectacle. How could such a young man die so courageously and gracefully, and pray for his enemies with his last breath? 

Even as he was breathing out threats toward the Christians he intended to harass in Damascus, he must have been thinking about Stephen. It was on that journey -- "the way by which you came -- that the Lord spoke to him. 

By the peculiar grace of his crucifixion, God can use the most heinous crimes -- even murder, rape and abortion -- to draw people to himself. "When I am lifted up I will draw everyone to myself." 

The Lord finds us in the middle of our lives, where we live, and loves us toward Salvation.