Blinded by The Light
Acts 9:1-9
9 Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3 Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ 5 He asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ The reply came, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 6 But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.’ 7 The men who were travelling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one. 8 Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. 9 For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
Saul (later his name was changed to Paul) was on a mission to rid the world of followers of Jesus. He had done his best to persecute the church in Jerusalem and now he was on his way to Damascus to do the same. (Notice that the followers of Jesus are describe as people who “belonged to the Way” – the name “Christian” had not yet been invented.)
On the way to Damascus Saul was blinded by the Light (vs. 3). And from the light, Jesus spoke. The light here is hard, challenging, convicting. Here the light of Jesus comes and demands an accounting from Saul for what he has been doing. The light so overwhelms Saul’s previous pattern of life that the light leaves him blinded. If on Monday the light allowed people to be able to see in the dark, here the light makes it so that Saul cannot see.
It is as though Saul has been living in a place of darkness and shadows, everything is dim, nothing is clear. And we have had the experience of being in a place that was very dark and stepping into bright sunshine and we are suddenly unable to see. The light is too bright, too much for our eyes that have become used to the dark. The light of Jesus hits Saul that way. Saul had seen but dimly and now that the light of Jesus has confronted him, he has been blinded by the light. It is a cataclysmic event – Saul’s life is about to completely change. When the light of Jesus truly hits a person, they are changed by the powerful light of Jesus.
PRAYER:
Lord God, blind us with the bright light of Jesus, so that we might truly see. Bring us from the shadows and darkness into the transforming brilliance of your Son, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.