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Blinded by the Light
Dr. Bradley K. Walker
First Presbyterian Church, Topeka, KS
August 12, 2012
Scripture: Acts 9
Saul is on his way to Damascus with papers to arrest followers of
the Way. He is filled with that kind of calculating rage that allows a
hateful person to carefully process the steps necessary to execute an
evil plan. He hates these new Jews who follow the Way, the Way of this
Jesus - the Christ; and so he has set out to arrest and eliminate them.
One his way he is knocked down, blinded by a light, hears a voice,
"Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"
"Who are you, Lord?"
"I am Jesus, who you are persecuting."
Willimon - From this point, Saul is no longer the enemy, the
persecutor. He immediately turns from what he has been to who he will
be becoming - a vessel for the message about Jesus. And notice, Saul has
done nothing - he hasn't been seeking, he hasn't asked Jesus into his
heart. So far he has been knocked down, made blind, and responded to
a voice. The only thing that process that Saul initiated is one to seek out
Christians in order to persecute them.
What does he get instead? Blinded by the light.
Now, many of you know my regular use of lyrics from rock songs
to accompany my sermon, and you might be thinking that Manfred
Mann's Earth Band's "Blinded by the Light" has these exact lyrics, but it
runs off in some strange directions, going on and on as it does, so we're
going to leave that one behind today.
Saul is blinded by a light. The light that accompanies the presence
of the risen Christ. Such brightness is not uncommon when stories are
told about people who encounter God.
Moses in the presence of God - his face shone
Remember meeting a guy years ago. I think his name was Maury.
He was working at a friend's house, and he told his story about
becoming a Christian. Maury was visiting with this fellow one evening
and they were talking about Jesus. Said there came a point when the
room just lit up, and he knew then that he was in the presence of Jesus.
Blinding, he didn't say, but he said it was like a warm light just shined,
and he knew then that he believed, and his life would never be the same.
"I am the light of the world," Jesus tells us, and thinking of that gives me
hope. The prologue to John's Gospel tells us that the light shines in the
darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
The book of Revelation paints a picture of the new heaven and the
new earth, where the only light necessary will be the presence of God.
The light of God is that bright.
Blinded by the Light
The Sun - can't look at it, can't look at it. Think of coming out of a
theater on a bright afternoon.
For his day, Plato's describes such an experience in his famous
allegory of the cave in The Republic where he describes such an
experience as encountering various levels of Truth.
Upon stepping into the light, we are blinded, and the brightness is
harsh and painful and so we flee back into the darkness.
It takes some doing to get used to the light, and there will be many
voices telling us that what we see in the darkness is real, when it is
nothing more than a manipulated image being projected before a
gullible audience.
But the brightness of the light is something that we can become
familiar with. We learn that to look at the light, and maybe the Light of
the world, is a blinding experience. No wonder we shy away from
actually seeking God. But when we see our world, our surrounding, our
landscape with the light of God shining on it, we can begin to see it as it
really is. It is the difference between getting a view of the scene in the
daylight and the darkness. So much more can be seen in the light.
(Go to YouTube and type: Malcolm in the Middle Fireworks. There is a
great three-minute clip from one of the episodes. It's hilarious and a
great illustration. It's better seen than told.)
Saul is blinded by the Light of the World.
Humiliated in the presence of Christ. Humbled really. To be in the
presence of this One, the Light of the World is blinding. That's what
happens to Saul, and for three days this man who would walk with the
independent air of power and authority must be led around by the hand
like a child dependent on a parent's care. He is weak and vulnerable,
and brought into the presence of a man that he would arrest, in order to
receive real healing and witness real courage in Ananias.
It's as if he comes out of cave and into the light. The reality of
Jesus Christ blinds him, changes him, challenges all of his other
worldviews and paradigms.
He will no longer see his society in terms of Pharisee and Sadduccee,
male or female, slave or free, or even Jew and Gentile eventually. The
Light of the World, Jesus Christ, will show him just how wide open the
kingdom of God is, and it is so wide open that the barriers, boundaries,
labels, and prejudices that we have placed on our world will be seen for
the pitiful fences that they are.
Blinded by the Light, Saul now sees more clearly.
This world for which Jesus died is very different than the one that
Saul was raised to defend. He will discover that over and over again as
he follows the call of the Holy Spirit around the Mediterranean world
telling about the Good News that Jesus is the Messiah. Emmanuel. God
with us.
Saul's experience is the standard for conversion experiences. In
our misinterpretation of this story we believe that that all Christians
will share such a radical, life-changing moment. Some will. That they
can tell you what day, what time, what location, and what was
happening when they encountered the risen Christ.
Many won't. There's a reason that Luke (the writer of Acts)
sandwiches this conversion story between one told about a Ethiopian
Eunuch and another told about a Gentile soldier.
Still, in a world where less and less people are familiar with
Church, and what it means to be raised in one, conversion experiences
will be more and more common for those who follow Jesus. They will
probably be unfamiliar to those of us who have spent a lifetime being
nurtured in the pews on Sunday. They may in turn lead to a more
dynamic story of the work of God in an individual's life.
But it is also the case, that Saul's story really is unique. Most of the
disciples in the Gospels and Acts heard the voice of Jesus call them to
"Follow me." And they did with much less fanfare than surrounds Saul's
story. Still, their encounter with the Light of the World, was no less
radical and just as life-altering as the encounter that Saul had.
This life changing experience for Saul comes with instructions.
The persecutor will not become the vessel who is persecuted. But not
without experiencing the power of God. Ananias will find you. He will
lay hands on you to receive your sight.
We don't know how Ananias became a follower of the Way, Jesus
Christ - I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, but I have always been in
awe of his faith and his courage.
Ananias too, is blinded by the Light that directs him to go
somewhere he never would imagine himself going, into a situation that
he would never seek out, to execute a task he would never believe
possible. But he does it because the Light of the World has shined
brightly on a path that he is to take. And it makes all the difference.
We are told that there are right and wrong ways to see the world.
Usually through the lenses of social norms, or economics or politics. But
what we are told, and what is real is not the same. There is a Light in
this world, that when we turn off our TV's, and our talk radios, and the
angry voices of our propaganda mills, and seek the Truth of God, we will
find it blinding - for a while. It really is too much to take. It is too harsh
and initially painful. But our vision will return, and when it does we will
know what it is like to see the Truth as it really is. To see Jesus as the
Way of Salvation, the Truth of God, and the Life of Love that he is.
We may or may not have a sensational story to tell. But when we see
God, when we have those "God Moments" in our days, we will then be
able to tell how those moments changed the way that we live.
God is here to take us by the hand, and lead us into the Light.
Don't be afraid, it might hurt, but only hurt for a moment. The Truth is a
harsh judge, but it is also abundantly gracious and merciful, and in time
it sets us free. We'll be glad that we worked through the pain to see the
darkness for what it is, and to see the Truth of God as it is lies before us.
So, how has the blinding Light of the World shined on you?