EPIPHANY 3, B – January 25, 2009, The Conversion of St. Paul

SCRIPTURES – Acts 9:1-22; Gal. 1:11-24; Matt. 19:27-30 

Last Wednesday I was in Washington, D.C., and spent a good part of the day walking through Arlington National Cemetery. I saw the graves of Presidents; of famous Generals and Admirals; of chaplains, which included a listing of those who were killed while serving; and of those who are known to but a few, such as Lt. Richard Rall, Byron Rall’s father, who was killed on December 7, 1941 when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Some of the headstones had brief epitaphs, but most simply listed the person’s name, rank, and branch of the military in which he or she served. 

Today we remember the Apostle Paul, in particular, his conversion. His remains now supposedly lie under the basilica of St. Paul in Rome, but where he was originally buried is unknown. He was given no headstone, no epitaph. I think the beginning of today’s Introit, however, would be a very fitting epitaph for St. Paul:

“I will speak of your testimonies before kings, O Lord, and shall not be put to shame. I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, forever; with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations.” (Ps. 119:46; 89:1) 

“I will speak of your testimonies before kings, O Lord, and shall not be put to shame.” How true this is of St. Paul! Before his conversion, when he was known as Saul, he would perhaps have risen to prominence in Israel. After all, he was a Pharisee, trained by Gamaliel, one of the most renowned Pharisees of the day. He was a very intelligent man whose knowledge of the Bible, as well as of other languages and cultures, was great. But, what was Israel in the 1^st century? It was a small and poor province in the mighty Roman Empire. Saul would probably have sunk into obscurity. But, when the Lord Jesus appeared to him and turned him from his sins to faith in Him, the Lord indeed made Paul great. He ended up testifying before kings: before Herod Agrippa, the ruler of provinces in northern Palestine, and even before mighty Caesar himself. Paul’s testimony, however, was while he was in chains, a prisoner because of his testimony about Jesus. Who listens to a prisoner? Paul’s witness was a testimony that most scoffed at and rejected. 

“I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, forever” says the psalmist. Again, how true this is of Paul! I would guess that, if you know much about him, you don’t think of him as a singer. After all, his writings are deep and sometimes difficult to understand. Peter in his second letter says of him, “There are some things in [his letters] that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.” (2 Peter 3:16) Even those who first received his letters considered them difficult! And, Paul was a man who suffered much:

q   Physically: he was beaten many times; stoned and left for dead; shipwrecked.

q   Mentally and emotionally: he grieved for his own people, the Jews, and wished that he could be condemned in order to save them from hell for rejecting Jesus; and, he certainly must have at times been troubled in heart and mind because of the things he had done to the first Christians as he arrested them and even had some of them killed.

q   Spiritually: he was tormented by demons, which he referred to in 2 Cor. 12 as a “thorn in the flesh.”

In the midst of his afflictions, however, he was a joy-filled man. “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice,” he wrote to the believers in Philippi. “The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” He and Silas even sang hymns after being whipped thrown into jail, with their feet put in stocks. Their hope and joy in Christ could not be restrained, and even their jailer ended up being converted to Jesus! 

“With my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations.” Again, how true this is of St. Paul, who became one of the first, and greatest, missionaries of the Christian faith. He traveled throughout Arabia and Israel and Turkey and Greece and Italy, and perhaps even to Spain, speaking of God’s salvation in Jesus. Churches sprang up everywhere he went, and he corresponded with them. His words were treasured as God’s holy words. They were copied and passed on, and make up half of the New Testament. Some of the best known passages of the Bible are words of Paul, such as:

Romans 8:28 – “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

Eph. 2:8-9 – “By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

Gal. 3:27-28 – “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

And many, many more passages could be named. How greatly Christ used His servant Paul after He appeared to him on the road to Damascus and knocked him off his horse! 

But, so what? What difference does this make for you? Pay attention to what Jesus said to Saul when He knocked him off his horse and spoke to him on the road to Damascus: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” Saul was searching for Jews who came to believe that Jesus was not only their Messiah but was God in the flesh and their Savior. He believed that they were not only mistaken, but were blaspheming God and twisting His Word. And so, Saul tried to put an end to Christianity. By attacking Christians, however, he was attacking Jesus Himself. 

In Paul’s life we see how closely Jesus joins Himself to us who believe in Him. He has put His name upon us in Baptism. He gives us His very body and blood to sustain us in faith. We are as close to Him and as important to Him as the skin on your body is to you. How important it is to remember this, for we have great enemies in this life. In this country most of us are not persecuted for our faith – although in other parts of the world the persecution of Christians is severe – but we do suffer.

q   Sometimes we suffer the afflictions of a guilty conscience. The memory of past sins will not leave us; will they cause God to leave us? Never, for Jesus has bound Himself to sinners! Take to heart the words of Paul: “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.” (1 Tim. 1:15-17)

q   Sometimes grief and loss threatens to overwhelm us. But, as Paul reminds us, “you are all one in Christ Jesus.” We are separated now from our loved ones who have died in Christ, but this will not last. He who is with us is with them. Jesus rose to the defense of His people when Saul was killing them and spoke of them as His own body. They live with Him, and He will join us again in His presence one day.

q   Sometimes we worry about what will happen to Christ’s Church. So few seem to care any more about hearing His Gospel! How great is the opposition of the world to His words, and how much that opposition is succeeding! Our Lord is with us, however, and His eyes are always upon us. He changed Saul the persecutor of Jesus into Paul the apostle of Jesus. 

As we remember Paul and his conversion we see that we need not fear in this life. Trust in the Lord, for He is working His will for our salvation! As St. Paul said: “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:37-39) May He be glorified in our lives forever!