Just two weeks after Easter, this week we were reminded of the painful realities of death. We have been touched and deeply saddened by the shootings that took place on Monday at Virginia Tech. Our hearts go out the families of the victims; we cannot imagine their sorrow, and so we pray for God’s comfort on their behalf.
Yet in the midst of death, we keep on celebrating Easter. While acknowledging the sting of death, we also proclaim the victory of resurrection. As a matter of fact, it is only when we have done one that we can properly do the other.
The early Christians who proclaimed the resurrection of Christ never once denied the tragedy of death. My friend Marvin Lindsay who is the pastor of John Calvin Presbyterian Church in Salisbury observed that when they put Jesus body into the tomb, it was full of holes. And when Jesus rose triumphant on Easter morning, he still bore the nail prints in his hands, and the wounds were still visible in his side. The risen Christ still bears the marks of crucifixion. And those who weep this week at Virginia Tech are not far from the tomb of Christ. As Marvin also said, when we go to places like Virginia Tech, we find a God who has shed the tears we shed. We join Christ in his weeping for this violent, self-destructive world of ours.
The book of Acts also knows something about celebrating Easter faith in the midst of death. Not long after the apostles proclaimed the resurrection in the streets of Jerusalem, there was a Jewish leader who was determined to stamp out and violently oppose the early Christian movement. This man, named Saul (after the first Jewish king in the Old Testament) approved of the killing of Stephen, who was one of the earliest followers of Jesus. The book of Acts tells us that Stephen was the first deacon - one who was set aside by the apostles for the purpose of looking after the widows and orphans in the early church. Stephen gave testimony to Jesus and the power of his resurrection. The Jewish Sanhedrin had Stephen stoned because of his this testimony. And the book of Acts says that a young man named Saul approved of their killing of Stephen.
When Saul had overseen the killing of Stephen, it seems to have whet his appetite to kill even more Christians. He headed off to Damascus to find even more Christians, and carry them bound back to Jerusalem, where they would experience the same fate as Stephen. Here was a young man who was on a murderous rampage, determined to stop at nothing to fulfill his evil mission - he was so delusional that he even thought he was carrying out the will of God.
I don’t know what caused Saul to go on his murderous rampage. Just like I don’t know what caused Cho to go on his. There is something about young men that age, they sometimes store up so much anger that they don’t know how to deal with, and so they unleash it in a way that is so destructive. It is so very heart-breaking, heart-breaking for families of victims at Va Tech, heart-breaking for the family and friends of Stephen in the Book of Acts.
But Saul is on his way to Damascus to find more Christians, and do to them what was done to Stephen, when something dramatic happens: the glorious and risen Lord appears to Saul on the way, and knocks him to the ground. Saul doesn’t understand what’s going on, so he says, “Who are you Lord.” And the Lord says, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” Imagine what a shock that must have been to Saul’s system. He thinks he is doing God’s will by killing Christians, and it turns out that the very Lord he thinks he is serving is none other than Jesus himself.
But there’s another shocking element to this story. Jesus says, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute ME ? Now, Saul had been persecuting Christians. Yet here Jesus says, when you persecute my people, you persecute me. When my people suffer, I suffer. Jesus so completely identifies with his people that he is one with them. What happens to Jesus’ people happens to Jesus. Again, I think that that’s a powerful lesson for our friends at Virginia Tech. The risen Christ stands in solidarity with them, and says, I share your sufferings with you.
And can’t we all take comfort from that? Christ knows our pain, our shame, our disillusionment. Christ knows our disappointment, our brokenness, our loneliness, our sorrow. The risen Christ does not remain aloof from our sufferings. He has not forgotten the pain of his crucifixion, nor has he forgotten our grief and pain. No matter what problem in life you might be facing, the risen Christ knows about it and cares for you.
Saul is taken aback by all of this. It is almost too much for him to bear. It strikes him blind, and he has to be led back to Jerusalem, by the hand, like he is a little child. One day Saul is in control, big, powerful, carrying out what he thinks is God’s will. The next, he’s being led around by the hand like he’s in preschool. It must have been very humbling. Sort of like starting life all over again, sometimes we call it being ‘born again.’
Imagine Saul’s sense of shame and embarrassment when he finally came to his senses and realized what he had done. Here finally he had the desire to serve Christ, but nobody trusted him. Acts tells us that the disciples of Jesus were suspicious of Saul, and I don’t blame them. Jesus told Ananais to go see Saul, but Ananais resisted at first. Lord, I don’t want to go see that Saul, he’s a murderer!
So Saul is suffering not only blindness, but social alienation. No one wants to be around him.
I was saddened to hear this week that on some Korean radio stations here in the United States that they were encouraging Korean-Americans not to send their children to school, for fear of what they might be subjected to. Korean businesses were told not to open. They feared reprisals. People might take out the anger they feel towards Cho on other Korean Americans, so they are hunkering down, taking a defensive posture. You know what would be a nice gesture of the Christian community this week? If you know of any Korean Americans at work or at school or in the community, do something nice for them. Find a way to encourage them, and let them know they are still your friend; extend a hand of friendship to them.
That’s what Ananias eventually did for Saul. We talk about this story in terms of the conversion of Saul, and it certainly was, one of the greatest conversion stories ever told. But there was another conversion that happened. I’m talking about the conversion in attitude that happened in Ananias’ heart. He was understandably concerned for his own safety, not wanting to approach a known murderer like Saul. But Jesus worked a change in his heart too.
Jesus said to Ananais, go to Saul, I will show him how he will suffer for my name; he is my instrument to take my name before Israel, and the gentiles, and Kings. He said, in effect, you’re going to have to forgive him for his past sins, as heinous as they are. And so Ananias did have a change of heart and went to Saul and extended the right hand of fellowship and greeted him with the words, “Brother Saul....”
Brother Saul. no sweeter words could have been spoken to this poor miserable man. He was ashamed of what he had done, here the followers of Jesus did not trust him, did not want to have anything to do with him, and a Christian comes up to him and says, “you are my brother.” These are the words of reconciliation, forgiveness, and fellowship. They might be the most important words Ananais ever spoke, Brother Saul.
I was reading some about the childhood of Cho this week. I want to make absolutely clear that no one is responsible for this week’s terribly evil events except Cho himself. He alone carries the responsibility for what he did, and no one else. Let me say that again: he alone carries the responsibility for what he did, and no one else, period. But if you look at his early childhood and teenage years, you can see how the seeds of anger and resentment must have built up over time. As a Korean-American, he was picked on when he was little. He was made fun of. He didn’t speak English well, other children laughed and mocked him because he looked different and he was different. Let me repeat, this is no excuse for the evil things he did. But I wonder if there was even an Ananais who ever came to him with a hand of friendship and said, brother Saul, brother Cho.
Ananais came up to this known murderer (I think we sometimes forget the scandal of this) and said, brother Saul, the Lord Jesus has sent me to you. and if you want to have the kind of conversion this week that Ananais had, try that with someone you don’t like. Try that with someone you’ve had an argument with. Try that with someone who has harmed you, “brother Saul, the Lord Jesus has sent me here today for something good.” And you may never be able to measure how much good you might do.
It’s too late to do that now for Cho, but I hope someone is doing that now for his family. I hope someone goes to them, in all of their shame, and grief and embarrassment, in all of their unspeakable grief and says, “brother, sister….” You may remember that in Pennsylvania about six months ago, that’s what the Amish family did when a madman burst into their Amish schoolroom. The Amish, much like Ananias did in this story, went to the family of the perpetrator, and said, “we love you, we care about you, we know that you’re a victim in all of this too. We know that this tragedy leaves your children fatherless, we want to help care for them too.” Those Amish, in their incredible display of Christian love, were doing basically the same thing Ananias did, saying, “you’re my brother, you’re my sister; we’re part of the same family, God’s family.”
There’s no telling how much good Ananais did when he went to Saul that day. Saul went on to become the greatest missionary for the gospel of Jesus that the world has ever known. For two thousand years, Christians have receiving inspiration from the letters he wrote. He established churches in Asia Minor, in Greece, in Rome, in Palestine, in Antioch. He preached the gospel to Gentiles (like you and me) people previously thought unclean because we were not Jewish. He said, you know the gospel of Jesus is such good news, that it’s not just for Jewish people; it’s for us gentiles too. We will never be able to measure the good that came because Ananias had a conversion of heart, and went to someone who was a known murderer, and said, “You are my brother.”
Imagine what could have happened if Ananias had been disobedient to his heavenly vision. If he had persisted in his resistance to going to see Saul. If Ananias had not gone to see Saul, the other disciples might not have wanted to see Saul either.
Saul may have thought, well these Christians don’t want to have anything to do with me. I’ll just forget about them. If they don’t want to have anything to do with me; I won’t have anything to do with them either. I’ll just sit here in my blindness, and become bitter. That Damascus road thing must have just been my imagination anyway. I probably looked too long at the sun, and that’s why I became blind, and I don’t need this Jesus fellow anyway.
But thank God, that’s not the way the story ended. Saul and Ananias both got converted. And there is the need for both kinds of conversions in our world today. Some people are clearly going down the wrong path. They need to get knocked off their horses, struck blind, born again. And we need to stress that radical conversion. If you’re here today and you’re on the wrong path, the path that leads to death and destruction and hell, I plead with you, get converted today. Let God do a number on you. This message goes out to people like Saul, murders, criminals, thieves. Christ loves all criminals, and would love to enter your hearts and turn your world upside down. This message also goes out to more common people, those who are not common criminals, but who are sinners just the same. We all need a Damascus road St. Paul-like conversion. Come to Christ and be changed, saved, washed from the inside out. For some of us that happens suddenly and dramatically, for others more slowly and gradually over time, but it’s just as real. We all need that kind of conversion.
But then there’s another conversion that needs to happen to the rest of us. To the folks that are already Christians; we too need conversion, a change of heart. Are we willing to go to the Sauls of this world in the name of brotherhood? How about it? Do we risk going beyond our comfort zone to associate with THOSE kind of people. Do we just hang out with the people we already know, the people who are already in church, or do we take the good news of Christ to others? Do we take the good news of Christ with us to people we don’t particularly like, or to those who have harmed us? Do we dare to imagine a day when we might call someone who is radically different from us (someone we thought unclean, someone we thought an outsider) a brother or a sister? When we can really do that, we really have been, converted.
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